A US army medic has publicly slammed the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade, which affirmed the right to abortion care for the past 50 years, in a viral video.
The medic’s lament, posted just hours after the court’s judgement on 24 June, has only now gone viral after it was shared by alt-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec on Twitter.
In the three-minute-long video, captioned “raw and unfiltered. I am heartbroken. I am enraged. I am terrified” and uploaded first on TikTok, the medic highlighted the consequences of the judgement on women serving in the military who she said already have “limited access to birth control”.
The user, identified only as Sgt Rahasenfratz, had uploaded the video on 24 June. On TikTok, the video has collected nearly 30,000 likes and more than 1,000 comments.
In the video, the medic said she extended her contract to serve the country a week earlier, but questioned how was she supposed to “swear to support and defend the constitution and a country” which treats women “like second class citizens”.
“How am I supposed to do that? How am I supposed to do that with pride? How am I supposed to do that with love and honour?” she said in the video.
“How am I supposed to wake up every day and put on a frickin’ uniform that says US army, when the US doesn’t even give a rat’s a** about me?” she asked.
“It gives more of a rat’s a** about the guns they’re allowed to buy that kill the children that I’m forced to give birth to,” she added.
“Think about that.”
Millions of women have taken to the streets and social media to protest the reversal of the 1973 ruling, which would make abortion nearly impossible for pregnant people in the 25 states with partial or full bans on the procedure.
“This effect on female service women is an unintended consequence which means that lawmakers and Supreme Court justices probably weren’t thinking,” the medic said.
“It affects the very people those lawmakers hold to a higher standard... because they support the troops, do you really though?”
“You really support the troops, even though this is going to greatly lessen the retention of women in the ranks of this military? I am a medic and I know how this works. I have an extremely limited access to birth control.
“Women in the military are more likely to experience unplanned pregnancies. Women in the military are more likely to experience sexual assault. Where I am right now, you can’t even get an ultrasound without traveling off the base,” she continued.
“It is not an attack on reproductive rights, it is an attack on women in this country.”
Mr Posobiec criticised the medic, writing: “Breaking: Woke female army soldier questions loyalty to the United States after Roe v Wade decision.”
Meanwhile, president Joe Biden has said he is considering declaring a public health emergency over abortion access while urging Americans to “keep protesting”.
He revealed that he was looking into the option of making an emergency declaration, which would unlock more government funding and resources for abortion care.
“That’s something I’m asking the medical people in the administration to look at, whether I have the authority to do that and what impact that would have,” he said.
