Disabled people are consistently overlooked in America, but maybe nowhere so much as in the discussion of reproductive rights. As a disabled woman, I am writing to ask your readers to please consider some of the following thoughts, and then vote “yes” on Proposal 3 in the Nov. 8 election.

People with disabilities still do normal things: we fall in love, many of us marry, some of us dream of families. But our bodies aren’t always on board with that last plan. Many disabled people want very much to have children, but know that doing so themselves would destroy what health they do still have, if not kill them altogether. That doesn’t mean that we don’t sometimes get pregnant, though! Even with the most conscientious use, contraception does have a failure rate. Some medications, in fact, increase that risk of it failing. We need to have access to safe, legal abortion when that happens if we determine that the risks are significant enough that we would want to make that choice.

Because our bodies often limit our ability to work, disability often means a precarious financial position. Add to that the fact that our medications, treatments and accessibility aids often pile on costs far beyond what we could afford even if we are able to work full time and many of us know we could not afford to carry, birth, and raise a child. While this isn’t a consideration for some people? We should have the right to assess our own personal financial circumstances to decide if parenthood is right for us, and if it’s not, we should be able to not go through the process of pregnancy and birth.

Some disability conditions are hereditary and we may not want to pass on what we have suffered to a child. Some medications for chronic health problems that we can’t stop taking can be dangerous to a fetus. We should not be forced to give birth to a child who will repeat our lives if we don’t want to. We as a society should also support people who DO choose to give birth to disabled children, but particularly with regard to health care in America, that isn’t what happens. And please don’t point to adoption as the universal solution, because disabled children are often incredibly hard to place with adoptive families. We should be allowed to consider all factors involved and make the decisions that are right for us as individuals and families.

All of this applies to mental as well as physical disability. No one should have their sanity or even basic mental functionality threatened by the state’s decision to force them through a pregnancy and birth, but that is what would happen without the protection of Proposal 3.

Disability and chronic illness are as unique and different as each individual who lives with them. There can’t be a one-size-fits-all decision-making process for all of us. We each deserve the right to determine the course of our own reproductive health. Disability takes away so many of our life’s choices and opportunities, but this should never be one of them. Proposal 3 guarantees every Michigan citizen, disabled or not, the right to be the one who chooses what reproductive journey is right for them and their situation.

Please join me in voting “yes” on Proposal 3 on Nov. 8!