openDemocracy asked me, as a Pole and the author of a book about abortion, to describe what it's like to live in a country with restricted reproductive rights.
In short: it’s lonely, humiliating, dangerous to life and health, and it undermines the rule of law. And it’s expensive.
I fear that Texans, Mississippians and – if the US Supreme Court overthrows Roe v Wade – Americans in all Republican-controlled states are in for a similar ordeal. Banning abortion has never made it disappear. Instead, it invariably leads to unwanted pregnancies being outsourced elsewhere, discrimination against people on low incomes, and unnecessary suffering.
