As we approach Independence Day, I wonder at the concepts of “freedom” and “equality.” At the ways our governing bodies have historically made laws that only represent a portion of our population, writes Mae Stier in our Fourth of July weekend edition of the Glen Arbor Sun. From the inception of our country, wealthy white men have been protected by the laws they created for themselves, but people of color, women, children, and impoverished people have not received the same protections. As a woman born in the late 1980s, it feels difficult to see Roe v. Wade overturned. Women now have less autonomy than they did when I was born, and I fear what comes next. I now see abortion access as a necessary step toward equity, especially in a society that does little for parents and their children once they have left the womb.