Abortion: I want NC lawmakers to think about devastating cases like mine | Opinion

Welcome to NC Voices, where leaders, readers and experts from across North Carolina can speak on issues affecting our communities. Send submissions of 350 words or fewer to opinion@charlotteobserver.com.

Why abortion access matters

Forty-two years ago I gave birth to my first child, a daughter we named Rachel. This was a planned, much desired pregnancy and for two years the world was ours.

Then, at age 2, Rachel was diagnosed with a genetic illness that my husband and I had never heard of. He is an Irish Catholic and I am of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Rachel inherited a defective gene from both of us that gave her a rare variant of the disease.

Over the next four years we watched as our daughter lost her ability to walk, crawl, and sit up. Over the last year of her life she developed seizures, often uncontrollable. She died at age 6.

When I got pregnant again, Rachel’s doctors told me that if the fetus carried the affected genes from my husband and I, the child I gave birth to would experience the same devastating illness Rachel had. I was about 18 weeks pregnant when amniocentesis results showed that our second child was free from the disease.

Had the amniocentesis shown otherwise, I was prepared to have an abortion. I had a choice. I was lucky enough to live in New York City at the time, and my physician was willing to do the procedure if necessary.

I want all of the members of the North Carolina legislature to think about taking that choice away from others. Think about your votes and think about who they affect. Unless you’ve lived through the pain of watching your child suffer for four years and then die, I’m not sure anyone can understand why the choice to have a second-term abortion is so important.

No child should have to live through what my daughter did.

Debra Teplin, Durham

Don’t expand NC school vouchers

The writer is a Masters of Public Policy student at Duke University focused on education policy.

Rich students should receive a discount to attend private schools — at least that’s what Republicans in the N.C. General Assembly believe.

Senate Bill 406 would universalize the current means-tested voucher program, the Opportunity Scholarship Program, removing the income requirement and the stipulation that students previously attend public schools to obtain a voucher. With a veto-proof supermajority, N.C. Republicans are poised to expand vouchers and include funding for the bill in the 2023-24 budget.

A recent poll found that N.C. parents are frustrated by the quality of public schools and want the freedom to choose the best option for their children. However, a national school choice movement has sewn misconceptions that public schools are failing and private schools are the remedy. In fact, private schools, on average, have not improved outcomes for low-income students and public schools often under-perform because they are historically underfunded.

Under this bill, universal vouchers won’t be equitably distributed. The average cost of private school tuition ($9,648) outpaces the value of the means-tested voucher ($6,492). As high-income and currently enrolled private school students become eligible, demand for vouchers is expected to increase while the number of seats available at private schools remains relatively the same. This will drive up the cost of tuition causing it to further exceed the value of the voucher. Working-class families will struggle to pay the difference, while affluent families take advantage of the discount.

Leandro rulings confirm that N.C. public schools have been underfunded for decades. From Bladen to Wake, rural and urban N.C. public schools are struggling to recruit and retain quality educators. Overcrowded classrooms and dated textbooks are the norm. School infrastructure is in disarray. For N.C. students, the foundation is crumbling, figuratively and literally.

Universalizing vouchers would result in further inequities. Yet, members of the NCGA would rather quadruple voucher funding to subsidize private school for wealthy students instead of adequately supporting public education for all students.

Reallocating money to benefit the wealthy at the detriment of the working class is not an efficient use of taxpayer dollars. If N.C. parents want comprehensive education for their children, for all children, they must demand the NCGA adequately fund public education and reject universal vouchers.

Kevin O’Neil, Durham