Until the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the last clinic performing abortions in Missouri was around the corner from the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis. Growing up in the Archdiocese, I was told this highlighted how pervasive evil is. How dare they save women's lives at the Holy Church's doorstep?
As another Donald Trump inauguration looms, living with a uterus in America increasingly feels like divine punishment. My mind cannot help but wander to that conclusion, even if I'm now an ex-Catholic.
The uterus has the most inconvenient function in our lives. In Missouri, the seventh-worst state for women's healthcare, access to abortion by recent passage of Amendment 3 cannot be our only savior.
In recent months, I have reflected on the tension between blue St. Louis and Catholic St. Louis, which would leave those most in need of reproductive health care in crisis.
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American health care cannot even offer effective contraception. Our "affordable" option comes in the pill, 50-year-old technology that places the burden of failure on the user. The price of an IUD is hardly more appealing. Navigating this in the face of the Church's anti-contraception teaching can feel like being smited with the curse of a uterus.
With victories like Amendment 3, however, the next step in the path to salvation is making birth control and sex education more accessible. Then those of us with the uterus might stand a chance against the shameful feeling of having one.
Abigail Jensen
Creve Coeur
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