'I went to bed hungry': being denied an abortion can lead to financial turmoil

Article originally appeared in The Guardian on June 20th, 2020.

Kayla Moye was beginning a 90-day sentence in a Cleveland jail when she learned she was pregnant. She was 19, and she wanted an abortion.

She visited a nurse inside the facility to ask about her options. “Her exact words were ‘that wouldn’t be an option’ for me,” Moye said. “I later found out that [saying] that was totally illegal.” By the time she was released, she was in her second trimester, and decided to carry her pregnancy to term. Her son was born prematurely two months later.

Before her incarceration, Moye was working full-time at a casino and pursuing an undergraduate degree in business. “My life was pretty decent,” she said. “I was making decent money for my age, and I just wanted to finish school, figure out my life and my passion and not have to worry about the responsibility of another human being.”