HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/5/2022 Item 5g, Dowell
Delgado, Adriana
From:Thomas Dowell <dowellt@me.com>
Sent:Saturday, July 2,
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Meeting 5 July 2022, Item 5G
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Good afternoon,
I am a longtime resident of this community, having lived and worked on the Central Coast for many years. I attended
Cuesta College, and graduated from Cal Poly and the San Luis Obispo College of Law. After having reviewed the current
agenda for the 5 July 2022 City Council meeting, I am writing to express my support for item 5G - the resolution to affirm
the right to reproductive freedom. I support this resolution for the following reasons:
1. Abortion access is a fundamental human right. Women have the right to autonomy and should be able to
determine what happens to their bodies free from government or religious imposition.
2. Abortion is healthcare. Pregnancy complications, including placental abruption, bleeding from placenta
previa, preeclampsia or eclampsia, and cardiac or renal conditions, may be so severe that abortion is the only
measure to preserve a woman’s health or save her life.
3. Prohibitions on abortion result in a return to unsafe and illicit abortion practices.Where abortion is
illegal or highly restricted, women resort to unsafe means to end unwanted pregnancies, including self-inflicted
abdominal and bodily trauma, ingestion of dangerous chemicals, self-medication with a variety of drugs, and
reliance on unqualified abortion providers.
4. Prohibitions on abortion impact BIPOC and the LGBTQ+ community to an outsized
proportion. Carrying a pregnancy to term can endanger the pregnant person’s life, disrupt educational plans,
and change someone’s career trajectory, compounding disadvantages for already marginalized groups.
Reproductive rights and autonomy are tied to financial and economic security and justice.
5. Enforcing prohibitions requires the destruction of privacy rights. The websites and apps that people use
every day leave a digital footprint that’s nearly impossible to hide. Digital surveillance, in Google searches,
location information, period-tracking apps and other personal digital data will inevitably be collected and used
as evidence of a crime if one seeks to terminate a pregnancy, or helps someone do so, in states where it’s illegal.
The overturning of Roe puts the protections of our privacy rights in jeopardy.
For these reasons, I support the adoption of the resolution. Thank you for your consideration.
Tom Dowell
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