Mother fears bodily autonomy of teen daughter with disabilities is at risk post-Dobbs

Patty Mevis’ daughter Kira, 18, suffers from Rett syndrome, a genetic neurological disorder that affects brain development. Kira lost the ability to walk, talk, and use her hands before her second birthday. 

Mevis, who works as the director of Head Start in the Green Bay Public Schools, told the Wisconsin Independent that her daughter is completely dependent on a wheelchair, has seizures, and receives nourishment through a feeding tube. Both Mevis and her husband Matt Mevis work outside of the home and have struggled to find competent and safe caregivers for Kira. 

Mevis described Kira as an adventurer who uses her all-terrain wheelchair to roll on the beach and get into the ocean. She has navigated the South Dakota Badlands and Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. She’s a member of the Bay Port High School marching band, loves theater, and participates in 5K runs with My Team Triumph, a national nonprofit that encourages athletes with disabilities to compete in races.

Mevis said she and her husband have struggled to find qualified caregivers for Kira, worried about the possibility of someone abusing her. The rates of sexual assault against women and girls with disabilities are high. According to a paper published in Disabled World in 2012 and updated in 2023, 83% of women with a disability will be sexually assaulted in their lives, and most incidents are never reported. 

When the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Mevis said, Kira had not started her period yet, and they felt “a little naively protected by that.” Now they have been researching appropriate methods of contraception for their daughter. 

“It’s been a discussion over the course of the years with no great definitive decision because we’re stuck with, what are our choices?” Mevis said. “Do we risk blood clots? Do we risk weight gain? Do we risk these mood changes? Do we risk changing her seizure patterns, when right now we have seizures pretty well controlled? Do we risk all of those things to prevent a pregnancy, not knowing where we would land with Roe v. Wade, what’s going to be our options? Frightening as hell.”

Mevis worries about what would happen to Kira if she became pregnant against her will. Even in states that have abortion ban exceptions in cases of rape or incest, who would be making that decision on Kira’s behalf, and would that person make the correct decision?

“I can’t fathom with exceptions, and I say that in air quotes, who’s going to decide that, and how much advocating would we have to do to convince people it wasn’t consensual or this is justified? I think it has to be a personal decision. We as parents don’t take it lightly. Kira wouldn’t take it lightly,” Mevis said.