Op-ed: Trump Has Always Wanted to Ban Abortion

When I was a senior in high school, Donald Trump’s Supreme Court voted to overturn the decades-long precedent of Roe v. Wade. I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, and how I felt.

I was in shock when I read the decision – a fundamental right I had been guaranteed my entire life was about to be stripped from me just as I reached adulthood. I was about to graduate from high school, and as scared as I was then, I did not – and could not – fully comprehend the devastating attacks that would come to abortion access nationwide, including in my new home of New Hampshire.

That was two years ago this month. Now I’m a student at Dartmouth, and since then, MAGA Republicans nationwide have proposed and passed extreme abortion bans that are putting thousands of women’s lives at risk, offering a stark reminder of what’s at stake in this year’s elections.

Voters from my generation know there is one person responsible for this chaos: Donald Trump. He ran for office promising to overturn Roe and that’s exactly what happened. Now, Trump is giving states free reign to pass extreme abortion bans, monitor women’s pregnancies, and prosecute women for exercising their right to bodily autonomy. Just last month, Donald Trump again left the door open to signing a national abortion ban. This is a terrifying attack on women’s equality. It’s disgusting.

Here in New Hampshire, I feel especially vulnerable to Trump’s attacks on reproductive freedom because I live in the only state in New England that doesn’t protect the right to abortion in state law. Emboldened by Donald Trump, New Hampshire Republicans tried to pass a law earlier this year that was so extreme that it banned abortion before most women even know they are pregnant – showing just how little Republicans know about women’s health care.

Four years ago, tens of thousands of Granite Staters and millions of voters nationwide of my generation couldn’t vote to protect our fundamental rights, but this November, the choice is clear. Donald Trump won’t stop at a national abortion ban – if he’s reelected, he’ll try to restrict birth control and roll back even more of our freedoms.

That’s why I’m voting for President Biden – the only candidate who has promised to restore Roe and defend women’s fundamental freedoms. The power is yours, and there’s too much at stake for our generation to sit on the sidelines. I know I won’t be.