05/11/2022
13 Years ago when we first got married, My husband and I were both finishing up our degrees, living in a tiny one room shack. Our income came from lawn mowing and cooking in restaurants. I made a very conscious decision to wait until we're ready to start a family. Though I'm gratetful that we never had to go through the heartbreaking decision to have to determine an unwanted pregnancy, but knowing there is an option helped me move forward to finish school and start my career. We now have a beautiful, healthy and happy 4 year old now. She gets to go to a wonderful school which I'm so greatful that we can afford and a secured home environment. Most importantly, we both get to spend a lot of quality time with her everyday.
Anyone who has ever worked low wage jobs would know that you don't get to choose your own hours, you don't get to take days off when you need to, you never have the holidays off to spend with your family, and not to mention you definitely can't afford to feed a family with the income you earn. And as a result, we end up sacrificing our family live. Watching our child grow in the past 4 years made me see how important security and stability it is for our children's mental development at a young age. To undermine the ramifications of forcing people become parents and take care of another human being when they are not physically, mentally or financially ready is undermining a persons (and children's) basic human rights.
Happy and secured environment raises a happy and secured child, which leads a healthier and better community and society.
Unless the government is ready to provide proper paid parental leave, affordable housing, safety net for low income families or single parents, taking away contraception and making abortion illegal is utterly irresponsible. And ultimately creating a vicious cycle in low income communities which are predominately people of color.
Abortion is healthcare, abortion is a women's right, abortion saves lives.
