My mother died this year and her passing brought to the foreground my thoughts about how different my life has been from hers and so many other women of her generation. Both my mother and my grandmother lived in ways that put family and their husbands' careers over their own dreams and ambitions. They are representative of women born in the early half of the 20th century who did not have the opportunities that women of my generation and those younger than me enjoy today. These women gave my generation, and those who came later, a chance to live our dreams and not have to choose between career and family. This is a luxury that middle class men have enjoyed for centuries -- to not be tied down in youth, to have time to explore the world, and to decide what their place in that world would be.
My mother, born in 1920, was never bound for college. That honor went to my uncle because my grandparents could only afford to send one child to college. Instead, my mother went to secretarial school, got a job in a textile company in Manhattan, married the boss' son and quickly found herself in the suburbs with three children, living the American dream. But it wasn't her dream.
My father's mother, on the other hand, graduated from Barnard College and attended one year of law school at NYU, dropping out to marry my grandfather. She too ended up in the suburbs with four children. She wrote children's books and played the oboe but she never did become a lawyer.
I have to wonder, if my mother and grandmother had the opportunity to achieve higher education and follow their dreams, what would their lives have been like?
Two major legal events gave women, like myself, the ability to be active in the workforce like never before - the 1964 passage of civil rights laws prohibiting discrimination against women and the 1973 Supreme Court decision recognizing the right to abortion. I can speak personally about how access to a safe and legal abortion allowed me to live the life I dreamed of.
In 1973, the same year the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, I became pregnant at age 21. My relationship with my boyfriend at the time was unstable and I was just starting to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do. I could not have imagined becoming a parent at that point in my life. Thankfully, with the support of my parents, I was able to visit my trusted gynecologist and have an abortion. I knew this decision was the right choice for me. It gave me the same opportunity that middle class men have enjoyed for centuries -- to not be tied down in youth, to have time to explore the world, and to decide what my place in that world would be.
The truth is, since then, I haven't given my abortion much thought. I went on with my life; I finished college, went on to graduate law school and became a successful lawyer. When I was emotionally and financially ready, I started a family and adopted two children. I have no regrets about the child I didn't have and find myself happy and satisfied with my life. I had advantages that women generations before me didn't have -- education, economic independence and, most importantly, I was able to exercise a right that until then wasn't available to women.
Unfortunately, women across the country are being denied access to safe and legal abortion over 40 years later. In Texas, an anti-choice law put in place barriers that force women to travel great distances to access care. The Supreme Court is reviewing the law in a case called Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt and the decision will impact the women of future generations to make their own decisions about their futures and families.
Forty-three years after my abortion, I happily joined more than 100 women lawyers who had abortions to sign on to a brief filed with the Supreme Court in support of preserving access to abortion care. I do not want the freedoms which allowed me to have the education and economic security I have enjoyed, and were fought for by strong women from generations before me, to become history.
Amy Oppenheimer is a lawyer with the Law Offices of Amy Oppenheimer and a retired administrative law judge for the State of California.