'We can't go back'—one woman's story of crossing state lines to get an abortion before Roe v. Wade

In 2008, I was flying across the country and found myself seated next to a kind woman who struck up a conversation. Barack Obama was vying for the White House and the stranger next to me was a supporter; She had been volunteering for the campaign because there were so many things on the line, most importantly, the future of the Supreme Court. We bonded over our support of Barack Obama and our tales of phone-banking and door-knocking. We were hopeful.

I thought about her when Barack Obama won, how happy she must've been. Unfortunately, today I find myself thinking of her even more. You see, she asked me where I was from and I replied, "Kansas City." She paused for a few seconds and then said, "I've been to Kansas City once." She lowered her voice and followed up, "I went there for an abortion." She described having to spend every penny of her savings to take a bus from Illinois to an apartment in Kansas City. There she sat on the floor of the living room, with no furniture, along with other women waiting their turn to meet with the stranger in the back bedroom. This was pre-Roe v. Wade America.

She cried as she recalled this time and said no woman should ever have to go through what she went through. She'd never been back to Kansas City and I don't blame her. We can never go back to those times either. That's why she was volunteering to secure a Supreme Court that would protect women.

Eleven years later, with the aid of a stolen Supreme Court seat (courtesy of Mitch McConnell) and another critical seat on the court granted by a man who lost the national popular vote by three million and turned it over to a man accused of sexual assault, our lives, our rights, our bodies are again on the line. It's unthinkable, but it happened. And now is more important than ever that we fight back, stand up for women, take back our courts and the Senate. 

Today, Planned Parenthood announced the Missouri Health Department is flat-out refusing to renew their annual state license permitting abortions for the single clinic still open in the state. By the end of this week, Missouri, the very place where that kind stranger traveled to, could be without a safe abortion provider. 

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