Amendment 2 is meant to control women and their healthcare. Why this vote is personal.

Many years ago, I lost a much-wanted pregnancy, my first one.

I’m one of hundreds and thousands of women who suffer miscarriages every year, and in my case, I was lucky enough to go on to have three healthy babies.

But I cannot imagine the pain, trauma and sadness of that situation being compounded by doctors worried that if they took care of me properly, they’d face legal charges.

I keep thinking about that time in ways I haven’t for a long time because of the onslaught against our reproductive rights that we’re facing right now in Kentucky and the nation.

There are so many lies, so many distortions, as though if you favor reproductive rights, you think abortion is a good thing. No one thinks it is good. We think it is sometimes necessary. Rare, safe and legal as someone smart once said long ago. Like in the case of a 10-year-old raped by an older man. Or the case of woman who will die if she carries a baby to term. Or the case of a woman who needs explicit healthcare after a miscarriage.

Then we get to the vague Amendment 2, which would specifically deny women the right to an abortion in the state Constitution. Reporter Alex Acquisto wrote about women who are worried that they won’t get the healthcare they need if something goes wrong with a pregnancy because doctors are too scared of prosecution. More recently, she also did an excellent job breaking down the lack of truth in advertising by the people who support Amendment 2.

In the latest ad from Yes for Life, a narrator says “This November, you can stop them by voting Yes on Amendment 2, which stops taxpayer-funded, late-term abortions.” As Acquisto pointed out, there are no taxpayer-funded abortions, thanks to the federal Hyde amendment and Kentucky law, and there are hardly any abortions given after 21 weeks of pregnancy.

“In Kentucky last year, 26 of the 4,441 total abortions provided — or about .6% — were at 21 weeks of pregnancy, according to the state Office of Vital Statistics,” Acquisto writes. “There were no other abortions reported at a later stage of pregnancy in 2021. Of the 18,614 total abortions reported in Kentucky since 2017, 13 were at or beyond 22 weeks of pregnancy.”

Here are some other things to remember about Amendment 2. Even if it fails, abortion will be basically outlawed in Kentucky, thanks to a raft of laws passed in the past two years. But, if it fails, the Legislature might realize the sentiments of a majority of voters and add in exceptions to current law that recognize the tragedy of rape, incest, and conditions that threaten the life of the mother.

That this is the least we can expect from our current legislature is terrible, that women are secondary, considered only breeding stock to a patriarchy that appears poised to soon attack other aspects of female agency like birth control or IVF. That’s when we’ll have the proof in hand that this whole radical anti-abortion movement was really about what we always suspected — keeping women as second class citizens without control over their bodies or lives.

There is a good argument to be made — and we hope that’s being done by Protect Kentucky Access — that no one wants politicians in charge of our medical decisions. We’ve already heard stories of hospitals being unsure of what to do in the case of miscarriages or fetal abnormalities. This vague language has put caregivers in a terrible position.

Voting no on Amendment 2 won’t stop the GOP-dominated General Assembly from moving forward on their anti-women agenda. But it might, just might give a sliver of hope to those of us who understand that rare, safe and legal abortions are part of the healthcare due one half of our population.