Dear Members,

I am old enough to remember in the pre-Roe vs Wade days when girls collected lunch money from their schoolmated  for illegal abortions (in 8th grade.)  I'm sure that these jr high school girls were so desparate, they were not interested in laws or restrictions.  Maybe they thought their parents would kill them, or maybe their parents would kill them, or maybe they were victims of incest.   Anyway, it was good to see that minors eventually had some access to contraceptive services that include abortion.  

What a relief it was when Roe vs Wade opened the doors for young people and low income women to have an abortion somewhere safe and close.  I never had to see some of my classmates "collecting lunch money" after 1973.  I never heard of people going to motels or "West Virginia" after 1973.   

Today, I feel so frightened for these at-risk populations in our state, knowing that they will seek dangerous situations or have to travel to a different state (somehow) because our state is run by men who can't control what affluent women do, so they try to symbolically persecute less affluent women.  This type of harassment and restrictions will do nothing to prevent a middle class person from having a safe private abortion in a nearby state.   I'm not sure what they (VA legislators) think they are accomplishing, but these initiatives against contraception and abortion services around our state are cruel and especially cruel to those without the means to travel into nearby states who protect women's health.  

I hope that Virginia lawmakers will reconsider their disgraceful attack against low-income women and instead consider  the practical cost and burden of making women continue unwanted pregancies.

P.  Means