Allie Phillips: The future of reproductive care would be bleak under a second Trump presidency
By Allie Phillips
Take it from me: The future of reproductive care looks very, very grim under a second Trump presidency – here’s what could happen if we don’t show up and let our voices be heard.
My name is Allie Phillips, and I recently turned 29 years old. I’m a wife, a mom, a sister, and a daughter. I’ve spent my entire life in Middle Tennessee, watching it change and grow as many developing communities do. But not all change is good change, and that is something we in TN have had to experience firsthand. From the GOP supermajority taking over our House in 2011 to Donald Trump winning the Presidency in 2016, here is what the future of our country could look like from a Tennessean’s point of view.
Growing up my family was never super involved in politics outside of just going out and voting. My family is from upstate New York and moving to the South was a vast difference from what they were used to. Nonetheless, in 1995, it seemed like a good place to raise a family and find reliable work. I’m not a political expert or a historian who has countless stories and interesting facts to tell. I simply have the real-life experience of what a Trump world looks like and I’m doing my best to make sure it does not become a reality.
Tennessee, when compared to other states, is becoming quite concerning. We are failing in the education department, and we are failing in the healthcare department. We rank highly in maternal and infant mortality, and we rank highly for teen pregnancy. Yet, at the same time, we also lack any type of universal childcare or preschool, paid maternity leave, or well-funded programs that would help new moms and babies. The Tennessee GOP claims to be the party of the people, but they do everything they can to make the lives of people worse. A couple of years ago, the US Supreme Court, under Trump’s presidency, overturned Roe V. Wade and gave states the power to decide the fate of their citizens. Tennessee was one of the first states to implement its ‘Trigger Ban’ making abortion illegal in the state with no exceptions outside to preserve the life of the mother.
I was pissed, as many of us were, but I became very vocal online about how this was going to hurt women and girls across the country. Then, in November of 2022, I found out my husband and I were expecting. This was something we planned for and wanted so we were elated to see the little 2 pink lines. I have a 6-year-old daughter who was beyond excited to become a big sister. Things progressed normally through the first trimester, and it wasn’t until my 19-week anatomy scan that everything went south. After that appointment, I was referred to a maternal-fetal specialist and it was there we found out the worst news any expecting parent could hear.
Our daughter, Miley Rose, was not compatible with life. Nearly every major organ in her body did not develop and was not functioning. There were many anomalies and some of them were deemed fatal. Because of this, she was not going to live and possibly not going to make it to her birth. My doctor informed me that the longer I stayed pregnant, the worse Miley would get and the higher risk my health would become. But, if I chose to terminate my pregnancy, I could not do it in Tennessee because of the recent ban on abortion access. I would have to look out-of-state for that healthcare and my doctor could not actually offer me any resources. This was a devastating diagnosis that was made much more traumatic by the laws that Tennessee had put into place after Roe. I didn’t want to risk leaving my 6-year-old daughter without a mom, so the decision to terminate was made.
After spending countless hours calling clinics in different states trying to find somewhere that accepted a 20-week abortion, I ended up at a clinic in New York City on March 7, 2023. After a few hours in the clinic, I went back for another ultrasound only to find out that Miley Rose’s heart had already stopped beating and now I needed to undergo an emergency abortion to limit the risk of going septic. I was alone in that clinic, in a foreign city, far away from my family and doctors.
Donald Trump is the reason that my family and I had to experience this horrible trauma. He gloats about overturning Roe and claims he will place a national ban if he were to win again. A national ban would take away all our safe-haven states. Make no mistake: women will die.
The GOP is attacking the abortion pill, birth control, Plan B pills, and now IVF. This country is already hard enough to live in due to the rising costs of living and the lack of pay and healthcare that we receive. Now, they want to force us into motherhood by taking away all outlets to prevent pregnancy or unwanted births. Personally, I think Trump and the GOP took a look at The Handmaid’s Tale as a “How-to” guide and will continue to use religion as their base for all the evil they have done and will continue to do.
So, what can we do? Well, I’m running for office, and you should too. If you can’t run, then make sure you and all your neighbors are registered to vote and show up to the ballot box. The only way we can put an end to this chaos is by voting them out.
Allie Phillips is a Tennessee native raised in Ashland City. After being forced to seek a life-saving abortion out-of-state due to Tennessee’s abortion ban, she decided to run for the Tennessee House of Representatives in 2024 to ensure the right to basic healthcare across her state and make sure all Tennesseans are supported.
