Rita Ray: My name is Rita Ray. I'm retired after a long career in public broadcasting. I've lived in West Virginia for more than 60 years, but my story took place in Louisville, Kentucky in 1959. I don't like telling this awful story, but I will in hopes it serves to fuel the outrage at the poor state of health care for women today. I realized I was pregnant when I was in high school in 1959 when abortion was illegal in Kentucky, as in many other states. I had no one to talk to about this crisis. My father, ironically a doctor, had left the family. And my mother was basically incapable and unable to cope with just about anything. In addition, I knew very little about my body, except I did know enough to know I was in trouble when I missed several periods. The guy who got me pregnant was in college. He put me in touch with a woman who agreed to do the procedure for $200. I entered her apartment late at night in a back alley. I was alone. She instructed me to lie down on a bed. I had no idea what was going to happen. I do remember very, very clearly that there was a crucifix on the wall in the bedroom. After the procedure, she told me to go to a motel room where I spent most of the night and morning in agony until expelling the fetus in the bathtub. Fortunately, the women's instruments were sterile because I did not get an infection, and I survived, unlike many, many women from that era. I missed a day of school and was called to the office. The front of my shirt was wet with cholestrum, leaking, so I had to dash out of the room. I didn't know what was going on, what this was about. I bled profusely for several days. I never told anyone about this nightmare until about 4 years ago. I'm now 84. I've never regretted the decision to terminate this pregnancy. The back alley conditions, the absence of supportive, safe abortion care and counseling created a wound of shame that never really healed. Today, in West Virginia, women and girls have to go out of state for abortion care, but many are unable to do that, so they are left with few options. And if our current state legislature succeeds in its war against women and families and imposes additional restrictions, we may be forced back to another dark age of illegal and dangerous methods. That's my story.
