Whitney Sides
Blazer News Reporter
[email protected]
Months ago, the Alabama legislature and Governor Kay Ivey (R)signed a bill into law a near-total abortion ban, offering no exemptions in cases of rape or incest.
But many Alabamians have found the bill too restrictive and fear for finding care in the future.
Tasha Coryell is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Composition at the Univeristy of Alabama. / Photo courtesy of Tasha Coryell.
Tasha Coryell, a Ph.D. student who lives in Tuscaloosa, who is married and has been trying to get pregnant, has found the process of finding care in Alabama daunting.
“I needed to go to a fertility clinic but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. I am so distrustful of how healthcare is handled in Alabama” Coryell said. “There aren’t enough doctors anyway. People can’t get care. And now the legislature is making it harder for women who are pregnant to get the care they need. I don’t understand what they expect people to do.”
Coryell said she worries that if she does become pregnant in Alabama, her ability to decide what happens to her and the baby are dwindling by the day.
“What happens if I get pregnant and the baby has some genetic anomaly and doesn’t make it?,” Coryell said.“Am I supposed to carry to term? That is terrifying.”
Coryell said that there are enough things to worry about while pregnant and the new law isn’t making her life any easier.
“Pregnancy is so unpredictable and it’s so infuriating that the people legislating on this have no idea what they’re doing” Coryell said.
Although Coryell has found her home in Alabama, regrets spending her time trying to put a good spin on our state’s bad news cycle.
“How do you simultaneously defend where you live while also admitting that people keep voting for horrible things?” Coryell said.“No one outside of the South thinks of Alabama as being by the beach or having all this beautiful nature. They just think of us as being really racist and backwards. And the Alabama legislature is doing itself no favors.”
Others, have now focused their energy on aiming to end the stigma around abortion and educating them about the truth around abortion.
Kuchina Kudroff currently serves as the Clinic Manager at the 1917 Clinic at UAB. / Photo courtesy of Kuchina Kudroff
KuchinaKudroff, local sexual health educator and clinic manager at UAB’s 1917 Clinic said that those seeking abortion services might not be what you’d expect.
“If you look at the numbers, most people seeking abortions here have already had a child and are not teenagers” Kudroff said.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, 60% of abortion patients performed last year were women in in their 20s. Another 25% were in their 30s and fewer than 4% were under 18.
“You can’t legislate your way out of a problem like that unless it’s bringing something to the table, not taking it away” Kudroff said. “Alabama is at the bottom of the rankings in nearly every measure of maternal and pediatric care.”
For others, long terms effects of this ban is incentive enough to question continue living in the state.
Sunna Savani, senior in neuroscience, will be attending the UAB School of Medicine in Fall 2020. / Photo courtesy of Sunna Savani.
Sunna Savani, a senior in neuroscience who will be attending UAB School of Medicine, and is now questioning her future in this state.
“I just remember laying down and being like ‘how could this have happened?’” Savani said. “I was in shock and denial. Alabama’s law specifically has the 99-year prison sentence facing doctors. As a student on the Pre-Med track and a future physician, having that over my head makes me think that I don’t ever want to practice in this state.”
Savani said that despite the law’s punitive and restrictive aspects, she does see glimmers of hope.
“I don’t want to give up on Alabama when things get tough,” Savani said. “I usually just see people go into their bubbles and stay on their extreme sides. But with this issue, I see women who disagree on other things come together and say ‘this is too much.’”
