What My Ancestors Might Think of This Moment in U.S. History
(a lengthy, very interesting read)
What My Ancestors Might Think of This Moment in U.S. History
5/27/2022 by Aletha Y. Akers
Abortion rights activists during a Bans Off Our Bodies rally and march to the Supreme Court on May 14, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
As a teen, I developed an interest in genealogy. I interviewed any relative who could help me understand the people whose lives had made mine possible. Three decades and hundreds of ancestors later, I have a clear picture of the people who make up my family tree. I am the descendant of African slaves and their captors in America. As such, I read the draft decision by the Supreme Court in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and wondered what my ancestors would think of us—the U.S.—at this moment.
I knew immediately what one might think. Her name is Lillie and her story motivates my work as an obstetrician-gynecologist and as an advocate for sexual and reproductive rights globally. She would say that history is repeating itself after learning little from its past.
1892
This is the year Lillie delivered her first child. She was 17 and her child did not live to see his 20th birthday. Lillie experienced at least 18 pregnancies during her lifetime.
. . .
Lillie was one of my paternal grandfather’s sisters. Like him, she was born shortly after slavery ended. Yet, their family suffered indignities more commonly associated with slave life. Rape. Like Lillie, I did not always have a choice about which men touched my body. As a poor Black girl in America, those assaults were a daily reality.
. . . .
Men’s reproductive liberty clearly remains protected. You can replace the shoe store creep or the hotel employee who tried to assault me with one of the Supreme Court justices aiming to remove a woman’s right to bodily autonomy. Intent here is irrelevant; harm is imminent. For Black women, this decision looks and feels like white men and women making reproductive choices for us again, without our consent, and while doing little to ensure that our children’s needs are met beyond ensuring their birth. That is what my grandfather’s sister would think of this moment.
I agree with her.
. . .
https://msmagazine.com/2022/05/27/black-women-history-abortion-rape-childbirth-reproductive-freedom/
