by Tiffany D.

They told us Roe v. Wade was “settled law.”

Then they overturned it anyway.

And women across America woke up to discover that rights our mothers fought for, rights many of us spent our entire lives believing were protected, were suddenly negotiable again.

Not because science changed.
Not because women changed.
Not because pregnancy became safer.

But because politicians decided our bodies were once again up for debate.

And let’s stop pretending this happened in some vacuum. For decades, extremist politicians and activist judges openly worked toward this exact outcome while reassuring the public that Roe was safe. They campaigned on “freedom” while quietly building a legal machine designed to strip millions of women of bodily autonomy the moment they had enough power to do it. They lied straight to the American people’s faces, and now women are paying the price.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022, states across the country have rushed to pass abortion bans and restrictions. Some states now ban abortion before many women even know they’re pregnant. Others have created legal chaos so severe that doctors hesitate during medical emergencies out of fear of prosecution.

Women have been denied care during miscarriages. Hospitals have delayed treatment until patients become dangerously sick because lawyers and politicians inserted themselves into medical decisions they have absolutely no qualifications to make. Doctors now practice medicine while looking over their shoulders, terrified that doing their jobs could cost them their licenses or land them in court.

And before somebody jumps into the comments screaming “states’ rights,” let’s be honest about what that really means.

Your healthcare should not depend on your ZIP code.

A woman in North Carolina should not have fewer rights than a woman in another state simply because politicians found reproductive healthcare politically useful during election season.

And the hypocrisy is staggering. The same politicians who scream about “small government” somehow believe the government should monitor pregnancies, investigate miscarriages, threaten doctors, and force women to carry pregnancies against their will. Apparently “freedom” only matters when it applies to things they personally approve of.

Here in North Carolina, we’ve already watched lawmakers chip away at reproductive rights through new restrictions and shortened timelines. The reality is this: many activists and elected officials are openly pushing for stricter bans nationwide. That is not fearmongering. That is documented political strategy.

Some lawmakers have openly discussed national abortion bans. Others support restrictions on contraception access and reproductive healthcare funding. This is not paranoia. These are public statements, proposed legislation, and court cases happening in real time while too many people still assume “it can’t happen here.”

And the people most affected are rarely wealthy politicians’ daughters.

Because wealthy people will always find a way to travel for healthcare.
They will always find private doctors.
They will always have options.

The women trapped by these laws are the people without money, without transportation, without paid leave, without childcare, and without political connections.

It’s working moms.
Teenagers.
Victims of abuse.
Women facing heartbreaking medical complications.
Families already struggling to survive.

And let’s be brutally honest about another ugly reality: these bans disproportionately hurt poor women and women of color. The same communities already facing higher maternal mortality rates, worse healthcare access, and systemic inequality are now being forced to navigate even more dangerous barriers to care.

Because despite what political ads want people to believe, abortion is not always some careless decision made by irresponsible women.

That stereotype has always been cruel, ignorant nonsense designed to shame women into silence.

Sometimes it is grief.
Sometimes it is survival.
Sometimes it is a medically necessary decision made between a woman, her family, and her doctor during the worst moment of her life.

Sometimes a wanted pregnancy goes catastrophically wrong.
Sometimes a woman learns the fetus cannot survive.
Sometimes continuing the pregnancy threatens her ability to have children again—or threatens her life entirely.

And frankly, the government has no business inserting itself into those exam rooms.

Politicians are not doctors.
Judges are not obstetricians.
Religious activists should not control medical decisions for millions of strangers.

You do not have to personally choose abortion to understand why bodily autonomy matters.

I don’t have to want a tattoo sleeve to support someone else’s right to get one.
I don’t have to own a gun to understand why some people defend gun rights.
And I certainly don’t need politicians deciding which medical procedures women are “allowed” to access based on shifting political winds.

That’s the dangerous part of all this.

Once government gains the power to remove established rights from one group of people, history shows they rarely stop there.

And history absolutely matters here. Rights are rarely lost all at once. They erode piece by piece while people insist everyone is overreacting. We’ve seen this pattern before in countless countries and countless eras: first the restrictions, then the normalization, then the punishment for dissent.

The overturning of Roe was never just about abortion.
It was about precedent.
Privacy.
Power.
Control.
And whether women are trusted to make decisions about their own lives.

At its core, this fight is about whether women are full human beings entitled to autonomy or whether our freedoms exist only until politicians decide otherwise.

North Carolina voters need to pay attention right now.

Municipal races matter.
Judicial races matter.
State legislature races matter.

Because the people elected locally today are the people shaping healthcare access tomorrow.

And too many Americans ignore local elections until the consequences slam directly into their lives. School boards matter. State courts matter. Governors matter. Attorneys general matter. The people making these decisions are often elected by razor-thin margins while millions stay home believing their vote “doesn’t matter.”

It does matter.
It always mattered.

And whether you’re conservative, progressive, independent, religious, or politically exhausted, one truth should concern all of us:

Freedom means very little if it only applies when politicians approve of your choices.