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Fil-Am shares abortion experience after US SC overturns Roe v. Wade

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Lenn Almadin Thornhill | TFC News USA

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9CiPF0y8vvk?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>Protests continue in various parts of the US after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that secured women&#x27;s rights to abortion for nearly five decades.The national organization, AF3IRM, is among those demanding for lawmakers to protect women’s rights.&quot;People want to make abortion a moral issue when actually it is a healthcare issue. And allowing mothers and parents to choose whether or not to terminate a pregnancy for whatever reasons they might have has saved a lot of lives in the last few decades,&quot; AF3IRM member Jollene Levid argued.Levid is one of those who had to make the impossibly hard choice. Life-threatening medical complications eight years ago forced her to terminate a pregnancy at six months.&quot;What was in front of me was [that] my baby was no longer alive in my womb. And I had a choice. I could go through the birthing but it also put my life at risk. So this choice which might seem like a non-choice is something that women have and had and I&#x27;m not sure if that is the case anymore.&quot;Levid asserted that like millions of Americans, she was shocked when the high court’s ruling was announced two weeks ago.&quot;As a Filipino American mother and woman, I am actually devastated and enraged... I don’t think people should legislate our bodies. I know that this will disproportionately impact working class women, poor women, immigrant women, women of color including Filipinos and Filipino Americans.&quot;According to a 2016 report from reproductive health research group, Guttmacher Institute, over 60% of abortion patients in the US were women of color. About 75% were from poor or low income households.But pro-life activists like Beatrice Shakal stress that there are options and help for pregnant women other than choosing to have an abortion.&quot;There&#x27;s many pregnancy resource centers. There&#x27;s many adoption agencies. There&#x27;s many groups that help women through that,&quot; Shakal, who is Director of Alliances at Frontline Policy Council, said.Shakal was among those who lobbied to change abortion law in Georgia. For now, abortion is banned after 22 weeks of pregnancy in Georgia. A state law banning abortions after six weeks is currently pending in appeals court.&quot;It’s not necessarily the entire country banned abortion. But it gives the power back to the states. So some states like mine, I live in Georgia, have a similar &#x27;heartbeat&#x27; bill that bans abortion once a heartbeat is detected,&quot; Shakal noted.For the past two weeks, abortion laws have been changing almost daily in several states as legal challenges make their way to courts.

A Fil-Am rallying for women’s rights shared her own abortion experience after the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.