Those were the days. When I married, in 1960, I was the wage earner while my husband was in graduate school. I never had to consider an abortion because Planned Parenthood in Michigan gave me a diaphragm and instructions for its use.

Little did I know that in Connecticut, where Yale is located, it was illegal to use birth control. Luckily the cream needed was available in the drugstore and no one else was in our bedroom, so we were OK.

Five years later I was back in Michigan, teaching in a high school. The second year, I became pregnant – by choice. In January, I told the superintendent of my school that I would not be returning the next fall (the baby was due in June).

He said, “You have to quit now.”

“Why?”

“Because soon you’ll be showing and then they’ll know what you have been doing!” Duh.

That was 1967. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which would have prevented such a dismissal, was not passed until 1978.

That law was challenged recently in the Supreme Court by UPS, when a pregnant truck driver’s doctor told her not to lift over 20 pounds. She won. Who is on the Supreme Court matters!

Judge Brett Kavanaugh does not bode well for the rights of women, if his past statements and judgments are any indication. He sided with employers who denied women insurance coverage for contraceptives because of the employer’s religious beliefs. The rights of women are at stake.

We must not go backward; Sen. Susan Collins is the one who can prevent this.

Sen. Collins: Do your research and insist on reading those 100,000 pages before the Senate votes. Over half of the people in Maine are women, and you need to stand up for us and vote against this nominee.

Delene Perley

Portland

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