Marc

I used to make my living documenting stories with a camera on my shoulder. A lot of those stories have blended together over time, but there’s one girl and one story I’ll never forget.

I’ll call her Ellie. She was a poor child living in Peru who had been raped and became pregnant with her attacker’s child. His threats to keep quiet and a complete lack of reproductive choice left Ellie hopeless, driving her to attempt suicide by jumping off a nearby roof. But Ellie didn’t die. Instead, she broke her back.

“People say this sort of thing can’t happen in the US, but every day some state government tries to take away safe access to abortion.”

Ellie was taken to the hospital, where surgery may have restored full movement and almost certainly would have saved the use of her arms. Instead, because she was pregnant, doctors refused to operate on her spine. Her family applied for an abortion, which is technically legal in Peru when health is threatened, but it was unfairly denied. No operation was given until months later, when she miscarried anyway. Today, Ellie is quadriplegic, confined to a chair and requiring constant care.

Ellie felt hopeless in part because she had no options when she discovered her pregnancy. She’s paralyzed because the stigma of abortion is so strong in Peru that doctors refuse to perform it even when legally allowed. People say this sort of thing can’t happen in the US, but every day some state government or other tries to take away safe access to abortion. Every day, anti-choice lobbyists try to make reproductive health care shameful and stigmatized.

Ellie took her fight to her government and the courts, and eventually, she won. Despite everything that had happened to her, she had the last word. When it comes to our care in our country, we should, too.