‘I will hold my son in one arm, and fight with all my might with the other’, Halsey writes in an open letter on Roe v Wade being overturned.
On June 24 2022, the Supreme Court in the US overturned Roe v. Wade, taking away pregnant people’s rights to abortion.
Halsey pens letter on Roe v Wade
Halsey, who has been extremely vocal over the years about her struggles with miscarriage and endometriosis, took to Vogue to pen an open essay about her fertility issues and how her abortion saved her life.
In the essay, the singer revealed that they had miscarried three times before they had turned 24. ‘It seemed a cruel irony that I could get pregnant with ease but struggled to maintain a pregnancy’, she wrote.
‘One of my miscarriages required “aftercare,” a gentle way of saying that I would need an abortion because my body could not terminate the pregnancy completely on its own and I would risk going into sepsis without medical intervention. During this procedure, I cried. I was afraid for myself and I was helpless. I was desperate to end the pregnancy that was threatening my life’.
Halsey rewrote her will while pregnant
Halsey gave birth to her first son Ender Ridley Aydin in July 2021 and revealed in their essay that she rewrote her will going into her third trimester.
‘After my past experiences, I was prepared for the worst. I gave detailed instructions regarding the donation of my organs should I die or be declared brain-dead, meaning if my heart beat on but my brain wasn’t functioning, the state would have permission to cut into my warm and still flush flesh and take my organs to save other lives’.
The singer revealed they experienced a ‘beautiful labour’ in which she ‘laughed my way through delivering him’. Halsey also described the moment as hysterical euphoria.
Halsey revealed she thought back to the abortion that saved her life as she gave birth to her son. In her essay, the singer writes that the hospital room brought back many memories, the white bed sheets, the smell and the commotion. But when Halsey gave birth, she said her world went ‘silent’.
‘My body, which I had loathed for years for routinely “failing,” had done everything right. I shed a single tear in the exhaustion of post-labor. A tear of happiness that my body knew exactly what to do. My life’s long chapter of miscarriages and abortions was reduced to a page in that moment. It was simply divided into “before” this moment and all things that would come after it. Years of blood and pain and misery from near-perilous and unwanted pregnancies, then the euphoria of chosen motherhood’.
The singer closed her essay with her powerful stance on pro-choice, along with her feelings on the Roe V. Wade verdict.
‘This is what some people who wish to see the end of abortion rights believe is right. Many people have asked me if, since carrying a child to term after years of struggling to do so, I have reconsidered my stance on abortion. The answer is firmly no. In fact, I have never felt more strongly about it. My abortion saved my life and gave way for my son to have his. Every person deserves the right to choose when, if, and how they have this dangerous and life-altering experience’.
‘I will hold my son in one arm, and fight with all my might with the other’.