If my best friend, who is the same age as me, born just two weeks apart, the same major, the same values, and even the same shade of blonde if you want to get specific, goes to school at Auburn in Alabama and needs healthcare, and I need that same healthcare here in Virginia, why do I have access and she doesn’t just because of the states that we live in?
This question has stuck with me when my friends and I would all go home for college breaks and be talking casually about birth control pills, IUDs, etc., and some of them said if they needed that healthcare at school, it would not be easy. My friends and I all grew up in Virginia, but now in college and looking forward to post grad, we are all over the world, and as young women, healthcare policies in each state is a huge factor in moving.
The question of why do I have access to healthcare when I am in my home state but if I wanted to move somewhere else post grad that access might completely disappear.
When looking at abortion laws specifically in the United States, before 2022, truthfully, abortion laws and protection were one of those things that people did not have to think too hard about; it was just kind of there. And for me, I feel as though I took that for granted, but when you think even deeper into that… healthcare access being easily accessible should not be something that you have to be overwhelmingly grateful for; it should be a given, but in today’s world, it unfortunately is not. But back in 2022, abortion was federally protected under Roe v Wade, which, in a nutshell, meant that no state could completely ban it, and abortion felt like something generally available no matter what state you were in.
Flash forward to later in 2022, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in a case called dobbs v jackson, and everything changed. Now, with Roe v Wade overturned, instead of there being one consistent rule across the country, each state now has the power to make their own rules. A lot of this shift did not happen overnight; it was shaped by years of political decisions, which include the appointment of Supreme Court justices during Donald Trump’s presidency, which ultimately made this overturning of Roe v Wade possible.
What that means now is that abortion is no longer something that is handled the same way nationwide, but instead depends entirely on where you live, and that is where things start to feel unfair, confusing, and complicated.
It’s important to look at this from a feminist perspective because this shift is and has never been just about laws and policies; it’s about power and control over women’s bodies, and, quite frankly feels like a slap in the face to women around the world that even though it’s your BODY, it still somehow doesn’t belong to you.
Feminism at its core is about equality and the ability for women to make decisions about their own lives, and when access to abortion changes based on state laws, that control is no longer equal.
Some states, like Texas and Alabama, now have near total abortion bans (mind you I and I am sure a lot of others have young girl friends who attend college in these states and plan to move their post grad based on job opportunities). In these states, abortion is either illegal or only allowed in very limited situations. Comparatively, in Virginia, abortion is still legal but still has restrictions based on how far along a woman is.
At first, it might still seem like access exists overall just in different places, but when you think about what access means, it’s just not that simple. Just because something is legal doesn’t mean that the majority of people can realistically get it.
For someone who might be living in a stricter state, getting an abortion might mean traveling hours away, taking time off from school or work, figuring out how they are going to get there, followed by how they’re going to pay for it. That’s a lot, especially for a college student, and it’s a shame because it really doesn’t have to be. Most people don’t have the time, money, or support system to make that happen easily.
This is where, once again, it’s so important to look at these policies from the feminist perspective. These limits or barriers do not hit everyone the same way. If someone has money, a car, and a flexible schedule, they might be able to figure it out and get the care they need. But for a lot of people, especially low-income women, younger women, and college students, those options are way more limited. So it stops being just about gender and starts becoming about who has resources and who doesn’t. At that point, access to reproductive care is not equal at all; it’s shaped by class and privilege just as much as anything else.
At the same time, someone in a place like Virginia could have a totally different experience. They might be able to go to a nearby clinic and handle everything without nearly as many obstacles at every twist and turn. When you put those two situations side by side, it’s hard to ignore how different they are.
And it’s not just about convenience. It really comes down to who actually has control over their own body and who doesn’t, which is where the inequality becomes pretty clear.
As a college student, this hits closer to home than I expected. It’s strange to think that someone my age, in the same stage of life, one of my best friends, could have completely different options than me just because they go to school in a different state. That is not something I necessarily thought deeply about before, but now it’s hard to ignore and something that is important to think about.
At the end of the day, this is not just about laws; it’s a feminist issue.
Right now, access to abortion depends on where you live, and that creates a clear gap in who actually has options and who does not. When something this important varies so much by state, it’s hard to argue that access is truly equal, because it becomes less about whether the right exists and more about who can realistically use it. That’s what stands out the most, especially when, for example, my childhood best friend and I, who are in the same stage of life, want the same things, can have completely different healthcare experiences just because of where we go to school.