It’s time for another dip into the white-hot battle for our collective conscience—the abortion debate.

When I was nine, my eldest daughter’s age, my understanding of sex was less than some, but still, surprisingly, more than others. I attended Oregon public schools where they taught the reproductive system right after the circulatory and digestive systems. I remember showing my mother a diagram of the male parts. She had never learned the details because when she was in school, the students were separated by sex for life science. It should be noted that a lot of legislators are from her era, so there is a baseline of ignorance for a portion of lawmakers.

Is forth grade too soon to teach about sex? Absolutely not, as some girls are beginning to get their periods and male humans exist in the world. I had a friend from girl scouts get pregnant by a high school boy. Her body in the fifth grade was not developed enough to go through with the pregnancy and a medical professional administered an abortion. Some girls survive extremely early pregnancies, but safe abortions are one of the reasons for longer lifespans in women.

I acknowledge that is an extreme sounding case, but I have known women with ectopic pregnancies, still-births and rape survivors who have also required medical intervention that falls under the category of procedures that are been outlawed in several states and now pending at the federal level.

Let’s not pretend that nature is forgiving when it comes to human reproduction. I have had two miscarriages, also known as spontaneous abortions, myself. Their causes where medically unknown. Perhaps the fetuses weren’t developing, perhaps my uterus was inhospitable, perhaps the smoke from the summer wildfires communicated some sort of dangerous environment and my body said, “not now.” There was no morality in those situations even though as a woman desiring children I had personal concern over it. The fetuses didn’t have consciousness, and my body simply reset itself for another try at a later date. Why are lawmakers making it illegal for girls and women to do the same? Bringing a child into the world requires a massive amount of time, money and emotional resources. I love being a mom, but getting to stay home with my kids in a well-stocked house is a privilege, and by no means a right guaranteed to any of us.