At my age getting pregnant is not really an issue that concerns me directly so my anger is not for myself but for the many women that will not have the right to make a choice over their bodies, women like my daughter who are now being subjected to a decision that shouldn't be happening this time in age. People in the past have already fought this social right and won it, and now it is being taken away from us again while the Supreme Court gives other citizens in our country other rights.
The question of when life begins is an eternal one, debated by philosophers and theologians for centuries, and likely destined to forever elude consensus. However, on the separate but closely related question of when a woman is considered pregnant, the medical community has long been clear: Pregnancy is established when a fertilized egg has been implanted in the wall of a woman's uterus. The definition is critical to distinguishing between a contraceptive that prevents pregnancy and an abortifacient that terminates it. And on this point, federal policy has long been both consistent and in accord with the scientists: Drugs and devices that act before implantation prevent, rather than terminate, pregnancy. At the state level, however, definitions of pregnancy—generally, as part of larger measures enacted to regulate abortion—vary widely and now with this ruling some states will be able to regulate abortion in a way that could be a detrimental to a woman's health and even risk their own life.
