A story of three generations of Ky women who had bodily autonomy, then lost it

This is the story of a Kentucky woman and her family whom I know well. The woman was born in 1953 to a mother who had no option for birth control as it wasn’t yet available or sanctioned by the religious org to which she belonged.

In early 1971 at the age of 17, the woman found herself at her family doctor alone for the first time telling him that she had missed at least one maybe two menstrual periods and confessing she had been sexually active with her boyfriend. Her family doctor gave the young woman a “good talking to” about unprotected sex but then the doctor gave her some medicine in pill form. The kind family doctor told the teenager if after three days she hadn’t started bleeding there was nothing else that could be done, she was pregnant. Fortunately, on the third day, the young woman began what she believed was a very heavy menstrual period, but which later in life she came to believe was a medicinally-induced abortion.

The young woman went on to marry the boyfriend when she turned 18, but it was not a good union and divorce soon followed. Her life progressed well and some years later she again married for a long period and gave birth at nearly age 30 to a daughter she very much wanted and loved.

A couple of decades later, that woman’s daughter was raped after a party and during that era, the daughter found herself pregnant as a 20-year old. Fortunately, the daughter had legal options for terminating the unwanted pregnancy and she did so with no trouble or fear of retribution. Fast forward another 10 years and the woman’s daughter gave birth at about age 30 to her own daughter, who was also very much wanted and loved.

Now we find ourselves in 2022, when due to religious extremists finagled onto our Supreme Court, none of these women may now have control over their own bodies. Not the woman (now a grandmother who had the legal right for autonomy of her own body for 50 years), nor the daughter (who was born with the right and lived for 40 years with rights to her own body), nor the granddaughter born ten years ago (who was also born with these rights but is now stripped of autonomy to her own body).

This saga is a true story experienced by three generations of Kentucky women in the same family. The adult women in this family vote every election, but their individual votes and rights have been trampled by GOP PACs and Federalist Societies and organizations and Republican officials who feel it is their God-given right to play God with women’s bodies.

I believe that having tissue removed from the body of a woman is the sole decision between that woman and her doctor, and those discussions and procedures must be protected by rights of privacy. Removing any tissue from a woman’s body should not depend on whether the tissue is a tumor or a cyst or a fat cell or a cluster of cells. If there is reason for the tissue to be removed — whether personal reasons or medical reasons — it is up to the woman whose body —and tissue — it is.

Ceci Mitchell is a lifelong Kentuckian who lives in Franklin County and is a “yellow-dog” Democrat who donates a substantial portion of her retirement income to causes that advocate for women, animals and to better protect the environment.