Why This Latina Fights for Reproductive Freedom

By Oriella Mejia, Prince William County Community Organizer

Reproductive freedom goes beyond just healthcare. It restores dignity and allows someone to be at the forefront of deciding what their life can look like. 

My journey to reproductive freedom as a Latina starts in my father’s home nation of El Salvador, where abortion is banned, and birth control and even condoms are extremely hard to come by. People have been jailed for having a miscarriage, and abortions are still banned.

My father‘s mother was 14 years old when she was raped, resulting in a pregnancy that marked her life forever. People who knew her at the time knew she did not want to be pregnant, but she didn’t have a choice. She left my father in a cardboard box shortly after he was born.

Not having reproductive healthcare affected a 14-year-old child and then affected my father. It didn’t stop there. The pain of not having access to abortion care left us, as a family, to have to heal the wounds a rape causes. It can impact generations.

Living in a country where you lack the freedom to make decisions about my own body is not a reality I want to live in, so that is why this November 3 Virginians must vote to ensure we enshrine our right to reproductive freedom in the Virginia constitution.

The possibility of an Administration with a sudden desire to restrict or even ban birth control left me personally thinking about my reproductive health, and whether consensual or non-consensual actions could change my life forever. Not knowing what my rights could look like in the future made me decide to choose birth control that would ensure that I would not become pregnant until we have a new president. I had to scramble to make this decision because I didn’t know how soon my rights could be taken away. This happened right as we had a Republican governor in Virginia and a Republican president.

I spoke to my mother about my worries and she shared them too. The reality is she felt she had more rights than I currently do when it comes to reproductive health. She also shared her dream that her health would be prioritized above all so she could be there for us. She shared about the difficulties with having my brother and how alone she felt when my parents could not afford to even consider fertility treatments.

Now she’s happy to see some families have support through IVF, and she wants women to be able to make their own healthcare decisions and feel supported when they do chose to have a baby or expand their families. Through all of this my family remains a Christian family that believes that doctors and staff should be respected and trusted, and that God has given us free will to decide our own futures. My families story started with a complete lack of reproductive freedom, and we now have the opportunity to defend reproductive freedom right here in Virginia. 

I want Virginians to have access to reproductive healthcare for generations to come, and to continue to expand access to healthcare so people can receive the care they need.

As a Latina, a Christian, and an advocate, I care about defending people’s freedoms and I will be voting Yes on Question 1 this November 3.