Letter to the Editor: It’s Your Body and Your Future. Maybe Not.

Imagine yourself in college in the early 1970s. Birth control was illegal unless you were married. I know. I remember watching my boyfriend slip the T&C clerk an extra $10 bill (about $75 today) for a pack of condoms. For women wanting to obtain birth control, word around campus: Go to the one progressive female doctor in the area. Lie. Tell her you’re getting married. Only then could you obtain birth control. Oh and abortions were illegal.

Unimaginable? Think again. Today, your rights for personal and bodily autonomy are under fire. 

College students today take for granted the ability to have an intimate relationship without worrying about an unplanned pregnancy interrupting their college and career plans. 

Today, tightening restrictions about when and where a pregnancy can be terminated could impact the lives of every traditional couple, women and men. 

To all college-age men and women: imagine how becoming a parent nine months from now would impact your life. Are you ready to put aside your college and career plans to take on the time commitment and financial responsibility of becoming responsible for another human being at this point in your life?

If this possibility makes you uncomfortable, if you don’t want the government controlling your body and your future, go vote on November 8 and vote straight up and down the Democratic ballot. Elected officials at all levels of government will determine your future rights.

Vote straight Dem to preserve the rights you grew up assuming you would always have. 

From Beth Olshansky, Durham resident