Mental health emerges as a dividing line in abortion rights initiatives planned for state ballots
Abortion rights advocates are trying to get initiatives to protect reproductive health on the ballot in several states this year
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO
Published - Feb 13, 2024, 10:41 AM ET
Last Updated - Feb 13, 2024, 10:41 AM EST
CHICAGO (AP) — The weeks after Kaniya Harris found out she was pregnant were among the hardest in her life.
Final exams were fast approaching for the college junior. Her doctors told her she had an ovarian cyst, and the risk of ectopic pregnancy was high. The wait times for abortion clinics near her city of Bethesda, Maryland, seemed impossibly long. And she couldn’t visit her family in Kentucky because of the state’s abortion ban.
Harris was having regular panic attacks. It all felt like too much, she said.
"My mental health was at the lowest point it’s ever been in my life," said Harris, who had an abortion last May.
