In light of last week’s Supreme Court ruling, women across the United States have been sharing stories to emphasize just how dire the consequences will be for overturning Roe v. Wade. Actress Hilarie Burton, the wife of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, is now among those voices, and the Walking Dead actor has harsh words for anyone who has a problem with that.
Aside from taking away the autonomy of our own bodies, the ruling will also have a grave impact on those who have struggled to conceive, those with unviable pregnancies, and instances where continuing with a pregnancy puts a mother and/or child’s life at risk.
“I got OPINIONS,” the 56-year-old tweeted on Thursday morning, along with a selfie in which he wore a “PRO ROE 1973” T-shirt. “You don’t like em? Piss off. Go follow someone else. I’m in a block [and] delete kinda mood today.”
“Before you clap back with some bullshit … read my wife’s last instagram post … and tell me I have no skin in the game,” Morgan added.
Burton’s Instagram post shares just one of those aforementioned stories, as she explained in heartbreaking detail how the abortion of a miscarried fetus allowed her uterus to heal so she could conceive her four-year-old daughter with Morgan.
“This is my child. My beloved. My daughter,” Burton captioned a photo of the couple’s child. “It is no secret I struggled with infertility. Losing multiple pregnancies before her was traumatic. But female bodies are all different and unpredictable. Having an abortion after my fetus died allowed for my uterus to heal in a way that made it healthy enough to carry future pregnancies. It doesn’t matter if you use the term [dilation and curettage]. The official word on the hospital paperwork is abortion. That’s what it was.”
“You know what would have made that painful day even worse?” she asked. “If abortion had been illegal, and law enforcement inspected my body to make sure I hadn’t caused my own miscarriage. Cause that’s what’s coming. It’s already happened. It was commonplace before Roe v. Wade.”
The 39-year-old explained that the landmark 1973 abortion ruling protected her rights as a woman to have miscarriages without scrutiny.
“Now I know a lot of you have miscarried. You’ve written me to tell me about it,” she continued. ‘Think about every loss and then compound it by knowing that the Supreme Court just said it’s okay for states to look at you as a murder suspect in that situation.
“Your miscarriage will make you a murder suspect,” Burton stated unequivocally. “I can’t say this clearly enough or shout it loud enough. I only have my daughter because of my abortion.”
“So fuck you very much to the Supreme Court. And fuck you to the ignorant right wing extremists who want my daughter to have fewer rights than what I was born with,” she added.
Burton’s story is just one of millions, as reproductive health isn’t just about terminating unwanted pregnancies. We’re about to head into some dark times in this country, and sadly things are likely going to get a lot worse before they get better.