This North Carolina woman's struggle for abortion access has been fuelled by three abortions
She
only wanted one abortion. Her life was saved by yet another abortion. A third —
not hers — was a family secret that still irritates her.
Now
that those services are in jeopardy, she can't help but reflect on how each of
those abortions impacted her life, and how much work she'll have to do to keep
them legal in North Carolina.
Shealy
described it as both weird and predictable. Her adolescent self assumed that
abortion was commonplace. However, she is dubious that her daughter will have
the same abortion rights as she and her mother did after a decade of political
turmoil.
She
observed as the United States Supreme Court added more and more conservative
justices decades after those abortions and after moving to North Carolina. She
decided to join Planned Parenthood as a philanthropy director in 2013 after
seeing future generations of women face greater barriers to abortion access.
Charlotte
was able to open a new clinic in 2019 because of Shealy's work with Planned
Parenthood South Atlantic (PPSA), a multi-million dollar structure funded
largely via her own fundraising. For the first time in years, her colleagues
were able to perform abortions in Queen City thanks to the new clinic in the
Cherry neighbourhood.
She
retired soon after the new clinic opened, but she insists that her work isn't
finished.
NO
HESITATION
Shealy
had her first abortion when she was 19 years old. In 1977, she was a freshly
single college sophomore in upstate New York who had no qualms about
terminating an unwanted pregnancy.
Shealy
stated, "There was no hesitancy."
She
knew she'd have an abortion as soon as she found out she was pregnant, never
hesitating to make the decision. When her partner found out about the
pregnancy, he broke up with her; she was desperate to continue her design
lessons, but couldn't see how she could do so while pregnant. Roe v. Wade had
been in effect for four years at that point. Her mother and older sister had marched
for abortion rights in downtown Buffalo, New York, in the years preceding up to
the landmark Supreme Court decision. Shealy said she was too young to join them
at 15, but as a high school student, she went to Planned Parenthood to learn
about birth control alternatives.
The
most difficult part of seeking an abortion, according to Shealy, was paying for
the appointment and driving two hours to the nearest clinic, which was just
across the Vermont border. Her classmates banded together to provide the funds,
and a friend skipped class to chauffeur her. She was back in class the next
day.
The
procedure went off without a hitch. She finished her studies, received her
degree, and a decade later, she was a successful textile designer in Manhattan,
carving out a life for herself and dating a gorgeous coworker.
IT
DID CHANGE OUR LIVES
She
took that coworker as her date to a friend's wedding on Martha's Vineyard over
Memorial Day weekend in the late 1980s. Shealy began bleeding on the way back.
She insisted on going to work the next morning, despite the fact that she had
no idea she was pregnant in the first place before the haemorrhaging prompted
her to run to the doctor and then the hospital.
Shealy
claims she doesn't recall anything from that day, but her now-husband does. She
was aware and recuperating hours later after an emergency dilatation and
curettage treatment that had saved her life. They discovered she'd had an
ectopic pregnancy, which had burst and nearly bled her dry.
Doctors
are still unable to save such cases in which the embryo implants in the
fallopian tube rather than the uterus. They usually kill the parent if left
untreated. Because the foetus is not viable and it is required to save the
parent's life, activists question whether the practise should be called an
abortion. Shealy refers to her treatment as an abortion.
Marcie
and Torrence had no idea what she was expecting. She thinks she was about two
months pregnant in retrospect.
Shealy
spent a week in the hospital, where she was nursed back to health by her
soon-to-be-serious boyfriend.
"I
believe that's when we went from casually dating to in love, or at least that's
when I was," Torrence Shealy said. "We said this could've — and it
did — revolutionised our life, so it took it from being a terrific relationship
to something different."
COMING
TO CHARLOTTE
The
couple married and moved to Charlotte within a few years. Shealy became
pregnant with twins a few years later, eager to become a mother, and gave birth
to Grace and Trevor in 1996.
She
was a tireless advocate for reproductive health, particularly when it came to
her children.
Moments
that embarrassed them as children, such as Shealy showering their peers with
condom assortments as graduation party gifts, are now proof of her love for
them, according to Shealy.
Shealy,
on the other hand, dislikes taking chances. It's why she had her first
abortion, and why, rather than risking cancer spreading, she had a double
mastectomy in 2010.
That's
why, when President Obama made health-care reform a centrepiece of his
campaign, she left her job as a designer to help.
JOINING
PLANNED PARENTHOOD
Shealy
has always been political, but it was health care access that prompted her to
take action, she said.
The
problem has been crucial to Shealy’s family, in which several women had been
diagnosed with the breast cancer that killed her big sister in the 1980s, she
added.
Shealy
realised she'd need a new outlet for her new fundraising experience as Obama
won a second term in 2012. The twins were approaching maturity, and the
Affordable Care Act had been in operation for more than two years.
Shealy
assumed she was unqualified when friends suggested she apply for PPSA's
philanthropy director post, but she decided to give it a shot. She began working
in January 2013 and would not quit until 2020.
Shealy
described the uncomplicated manner in which she had obtained her abortions as a
privilege in and of itself. North Carolina has established rules requiring
mandated ultrasounds and waiting periods three decades after her first
abortion. Abortions were more difficult to obtain in North Carolina after Roe
v. Wade was decided.
Shealy
stated, "(Abortion) is a medical treatment." "It's health
care," says the narrator.
MOM’S ABORTION
Joyce
Siegel expressed her pride when Shealy informed her mother that she had taken
the position at PPSA. She then revealed a secret to her.
Shealy
was born decades after her older sister and two brothers in the Siegel family.
On the revenues from her father's family business and her mother's teaching
pay, they lived well but not extravagantly.
But,
according to Shealy, the Siegels couldn't afford a fifth kid.
Joyce
Siegel, desperate for an abortion in the 1950s, saw only one safe option:
having doctors deem her mentally incompetent so that an abortion could be
performed.
Shealy
described it as a humiliating experience that her mother never spoke in public
for fear of embarrassing her husband. Shealy wants people to know what abortion
access was like before both members of the marriage died – Joyce died in
September 2020, and her husband, Marvin, died a year later.
"That
one, my mother's, gave me everything," Shealy explained. "Then I had
two abortions, one of which transformed my life and the other of which saved my
life."
WHAT’S
TO COME
While
Shealy has left PPSA, its new leaders say the building she helped to fund will
be a lifeline as they prepare for life beyond Roe v. Wade. They expect the new
building, which is near the border of states with harsher abortion laws and a
short drive from a busy airport, to be a destination for local and out-of-state
patients seeking abortions.
Planned
Parenthood claims it hasn't kept track of how many abortions have been
conducted in the new clinic, but Black claims Shealy is responsible for each of
the 13,510 patients who have visited the centre for reproductive appointments
since it opened in 2019.
The
Charlotte team couldn't conduct abortions until three years ago because the old
clinic building didn't match North Carolina's regulations for providing
abortions, such as elevators that couldn't support stretchers.
"With
her energy and passion, she was like a hummingbird — and always in heels,
looking great," PPSA President Jenny Black remarked. To court benefactors,
Shealy zipped up her Mini Cooper. According to PPSA philanthropy director Nikki
Harris, the majority of her financing comes from local donors, which is unusual
for clinics.
Shealy
hasn't been to the clinic since he retired. She wants to provide space for the
new team to plan, which, according to Black, has included a focus on efficient
visits and expanded scheduling above any building alterations.
Shealy's
normal morning routine of calling senators to weigh in on potential legislation
was disrupted by a recent trip to see family in New York. However, an email
concerning a medical care bill this week jolted her back into action.
She
said she'll keep marching and fundraising, but will concentrate on voting
problems. For the time being, it means continuing to attend pro-abortion
marches and demonstrations, as well as advocating for judges and politicians
who she believes will oppose future abortion restrictions in North Carolina.
"I
have no idea what we're going to do," Shealy admitted. "However, we
are going to do it."