The supreme court’s republican majority declared, by a five to four vote, to allow Texas’ extreme abortion laws to be passed. This law bans most abortions once medical professionals can detect ‘cardiac activity’, which usually occurs at six weeks. Six weeks. This is before most women even know they’re pregnant, preventing 85% of Texas women from accessing safe abortion care.
Historically speaking, this new law distinctly disregards the 1973 ruling by the court legalise abortions in the US, formally known as Roe v Wade. This step to criminalise the act of having an abortion, something that is a fundamental human right for women, is a step backwards. No, it’s a leap backwards into the middle ages where the old and often dangerous hanger trick was a ‘popular’ alternative. It’s a leap backwards to before women were granted any autonomy over their own bodies or lives. It’s a slap in the face for feminists and women all across America who have been fighting for basic human rights, the same that men receive.
Aside from the gender pay gap, blatant increases in sexual assault of women, taxing on female menstrual products and the fact that women have to pay for every pregnancy's procedure possible… the banning of abortions is probably the most damaging for women in this US state. It criminalises women and it’s building a future where patriarchy and misogyny are as common as pregnancy itself.
Now you can probably guess my stance on abortion, despite going to an all girls catholic high school and being forced to sit through assemblies instructing me to believe that abortions are wrong and immoral. But isn’t it more immoral to strip women of autonomy of their body and access to necessary and safe healthcare. Isn’t it more immoral to assume every woman can look after and raise a child, regardless of their situations. Isn’t it immoral to leave vulnerable women no choice but to seek out either illegal abortions, which are highly dangerous, or other options like adoption which can be extremely emotionally trau
matic. Isn't it more immoral to practically force women to go through pregnancy and the pain of labour. Isn’t it more immoral to put a financial strain on women by making them pay medical bills for a child they don’t even want. You get my point.
However views on abortion haven’t changed for the most part in the twisted history of the ‘greatest country in the world’. Republicans are generally (albeit stereotypically) religious, male, white and extremely regressive. Their views on the gender/sex divide, female health, gun laws, access to education, racism and the LGTBQ+ community all span around age-old traditionalist views. If you’re not a white cis male then you can’t make the laws. If you’re not a white cis male you have no right to change the laws either. But, what I find most frustrating about all of this is men won’t be affected by the abortion laws. They’re not the ones expected to carry a child for 9 months and endure labour. They’re not the ones expected to leave their career to become a mother. They’re not the ones who will be judged and scrutinized for their child-rearing practices. It’s once again women that this burden falls on. But it’s women whose mouths are taped and hands are tied in situations where their rights are up for debate.
The Youtuber Kai Foster (if you haven’t watched her before, I highly recommend her content) spoke about her views on motherhood a few months back and mentioned something so striking it stuck with me until now. Many pro-lifers argue that having an abortion shows you’re a ‘bad mother’, but isn’t choosing to terminate a pregnancy an act of motherhood; a maternal act that puts the welfare of a baby over yourself. If you know, for whatever reason, that you can’t give another human the life it deserves, a life that is nourishing and a life that is plentiful, why bring another human into a world which will only cause it suffering. It might sound fatalistic, but the real world is sometimes. Not every woman has the desire to be a mother so surely the choice to be one is just that; a choice!
It does sadden me, I must add, when women agree with these archaic attitudes and in turn push women further down the hierarchy of human rights (but the ‘trend’ of women bashing other women is a topic for another piece).
The pro-life brigade don’t just love to give women stick for their choices on motherhood, they want to incriminate women as well. The state of Texas is offering a $10,000 ‘prize’ for those who report on anyone they know who is planning to terminate her/their pregnancy. I hope you’re as shocked and horrified as I am. The feeling that we’re living in a dystopian novel, like I woke up in the Handmaid's Tale, is one that I’m sure is haunting women all across America, not just Texas. The Guardian has reported that ‘this concern will spur abortion bounty hunters’. Instead of changing laws to increase the safety of women, who are already massively discriminated against and victimized, men are changing laws to criminalise women, making women perpetrators for making choices that affect them and them only.
Now let me make myself clear, a woman’s autonomy is not something you can trade up for a cash prize. A woman’s autonomy is not a commodity which can be given away to the highest bidder. Freedom of choice isn’t up for sale and the question of whether women should have a choice over their bodies mustn’t be up for debate.
This is, albeit, separate to this issue of abortion laws but I’m tired of hearing the narrative that a woman’s safety and wellbeing is up for debate. Recently after the horrendous murder of Sabina Nessa, only months after Sarah Everad was brutally raped and murdered, we have once again been thrown into the limelight. What are we allowed to do? Can we walk the streets at 8pm? Can we put headphones in? And, once again, can we choose to go through with a full pregnancy?
It’s infuriating that as time goes on, we’re becoming more and more restricted. Our freedom is being infringed upon because men are making rules, rules that suit them and them only.
'My body my choice' speaks for more than just abortion laws. It speaks for what women can do, what women can say and how women can act. It speaks for a generation of women who will no longer take men's shit. It speaks for women like me who will conduct themselves based on their morals. It speaks for freedom and freedom only.
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