OPINION: In support of amending Vermont’s constitution to protect ‘personal reproductive liberty’
Oct. 8, 2021 | By Maroni Minter Editor’s note: These remarks were delivered at the Oct. 2 Rally for Reproductive Freedom in Montpelier. Vermont lawmakers in January take up legislation named Proposition 5 which would amend the Vermont Constitution to protect abortion rights. It still needs to pass the House and Senate and go to a statewide vote in November 2022.
Liberty is central to our freedom and dignity, and everyone should have the right to determine their own life course. We aren’t truly free unless we can make our own decisions and define our own paths. When it comes to the most important decisions in life, such as whether to become a parent, every person should have the right to determine their own life course regardless of their race, gender, religion, income, or zip code.
While abortion has been legal for nearly five decades, many communities have never experienced true access to abortion care because of policies rooted in systemic racism.
Black, Indigenous, and people of color or BIPOC, do not have equal access to health care, from abortion to prenatal care to preventive care, because of systemic racism and structural inequality. Our concerns are often ignored or not taken seriously. We have worse outcomes for COVID-related health issues, higher rates of maternal and infant death, and we are more likely to be investigated, prosecuted, and punished for pregnancy outcomes.
I’m speaking not just as an advocate, but as a Black man and a brother of six sisters. This issue is personal to me.
As some of you may know I am from Gabon where it is extremely difficult to get safe abortion care. One of my cousins died during abortion, on her own. I almost lost two of my sisters because they didn’t have access to abortion care. The most recent was when I was visiting in 2019. One of my sisters, 21 years old, was pregnant. Afraid of my mother and how the family would react, she decided to have an abortion. With no clinic or a safe place under medical professionals, she bought pills on the street and almost lost her life. It was luck that I happened to be there and had some money to take my sister to the hospital and saved her life.
I want to warn you that the worst part of this story contains sexual violence.
Just last year my sister finally told me how she got pregnant and why she didn’t want to have the baby. She was raped by a family member who passed away last year.
If my sisters had access to abortion care, they would not have put their own lives at risk. If my cousin had access to abortion care, she would still be alive today. I don’t want any of my sisters or anyone, any family in that situation. No one should lose their lives or their loved one, because of lack of access to abortion care.
I want to thank all legislators and leaders here today. Because while some states like Texas are passing laws that make it hard to access abortion care, Vermont has an opportunity to protect abortion rights, and become the first state to preserve abortion and reproductive liberty in our constitution.
If passed by the Legislature and the voters, the Reproductive Liberty Amendment would guarantee Vermonters the right to:
become pregnant and carry a pregnancy to term; to choose or refuse sterilization; to choose abortion, and to choose or refuse contraception. A constitutional amendment allows Vermonters an opportunity to preserve these liberties.
That’s why I am asking you to contact your state representatives and tell them to pass the Reproductive Liberty Amendment when they return to the State House in January. We need you to act and encourage others to do the same. Thank you.
Waterbury resident Maroni Minter is the campaign director with the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont, which is dedicated to advancing the civil rights and civil liberties of Vermonters.