My Body, My Choice: Where’s the Choice?
- No Silence Just Action
- May 3, 2022
- 6 min read
This is a common saying when talking about women’s choice in what they choose to do with their bodies. But where’s the choice? Today, due to leaked information from the Supreme Court, Roe vs Wade may be overturned. What does that mean? It means women will no longer have access to get an abortion should the necessity arise. And why was this overturned, because there are plenty of people who claim to be “pro-life”, and believe that getting an abortion done is not ok? But if you’re pro-life, then what about the life of the women who have to give birth, irrespective of what circumstances they became pregnant in?
Don’t get me wrong, I personally don’t think abortion is a great idea, but I also understand some of the situations that cause women to take the abortion route. For all we know, a woman may have been raped and impregnated. Should we take her choice to get an abortion done away? Yes, the child is innocent, and should deserve a chance to live. But what about the mother who went through that trauma that brought the child into this world? She didn’t have a choice when she was assaulted and violated, so shouldn’t she deserve a choice in whether she wants to bring the result of that trauma into this world? And even if she chooses to bring the child into this world, who's to say that she won’t release the anger, the hatred, the trauma onto that child as it grows? That child would serve as a reminder of what the mother went through throughout both of their lives. Would that be fair to either of them? That’s how child abuse comes into play, because of the trauma that the mother went through, and because she didn’t have a choice in whether to bring the child into this world because Roe vs Wade was overturned.
What about pregnancy complications? It’s easy for men to claim that they are pro-life because they do not understand what 9 months of pregnancy is like for women. 9 months raising a child inside of your body before bringing them into the world. Plenty of women can suffer complications during those pregnancies that could cause the mother to die either before or right after the child is born. Preeclampsia, high blood pressure, preterm labor, early labor, and 22, 1973miscarriages, are all ways that both mother and child could be harmed during pregnancy. And these can occur at any time during the pregnancy. Should we still not give women access to abortion to protect their own lives as well as prevent themselves from ever being mothers again? Or are we to leave them to fight and figure it out for themselves because we do not want to give them access to abortion because we claim to be “pro-life”?
What about women who are not ready to become mothers? Do they not deserve to have the choice? Becoming a parent is a major lifelong responsibility, and not every woman is ready to take it on until they are ready for it. But do they not deserve the choice to choose when they are ready for it? Yes, there is birth control, and people do use safe sex methods, but they only work for so long. Accidents can happen, people can forget to take birth control pills, they may slip up and not follow safe sex rules, they may be drunk and forget, what should they do then if they have no access to proper pregnancy control measures? We don’t live in the 18th century anymore, we live in an era where both men and women can be career-oriented. Not every single woman wants to be a housewife, and not every woman wants to focus on their career. They get that choice, so why are we taking this one away? If a woman is not ready for motherhood, and they become pregnant, but they have no choice but to give birth, would that be fair to that mother and child? Because not being ready, and being forced to give birth, will cause the mother to become resentful towards their own child. Abuse isn’t just hitting and torturing a child, abuse can also be neglecting and ignoring that child; that’s exactly what will happen in this scenario. All because a mother wasn’t given the choice to decide whether they want to become a mother.
We live in a society where we claim to be “modern” and promote gender equality. But can we honestly say that is the truth? No man can understand the toll, both mental and physical, that a pregnancy can have on a woman, and yet we are giving them the choice to decide what we do with our own bodies. That’s not gender equality, thats caving in to the patriarchy.
Roe vs Wade, which released its decision on January 22,1973, gave women the right and access to have an abortion without excessive government intrusion. So why is the government changing its decision now? According to Wikipedia, “ The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides a fundamental "right to privacy" that protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose whether to have an abortion. This right is not absolute and must be balanced against the government's interests in protecting women's health and protecting prenatal life. The Texas law making it a crime to procure an abortion violated this right.“ So why is it that we are right back where we started, where abortion is banned?
It’s time we start asking questions, especially women since this choice affects women entirely. Men won’t have to worry about this because they aren’t the ones who go through the 9 months of pregnancy. People yell at the top of their voices “My body, My choice”, and yet when the time comes, we take the choice away from the millions of women who are affected. The United States claims to be a “developed society”, but can we truly say we are developed when we have men deciding what women should do with their bodies and their lives? What a woman does with her body is entirely the women’s choice, no man, no government, no police, no law should stop a woman from deciding what she should do with her body. That’s what ”My body, My choice” should really be about. Giving women the entire right to decide. Half the population made so much mess when COVID mask mandates were in place, saying it's their right to decide whether to wear a mask and yet those same people won’t give women the right or access to get proper and safe abortions? I’ll admit, I am not a fan of abortion myself, but I’m not an even bigger fan of taking the choice away from women. If we truly wish to claim that we are a modern society, that we are trying to move towards gender equality, then we need to stop making choices for women and turning them into laws. With the reversal of Roe vs Wade, we are not making a step forward into the future, rather we are going back in time to when women were treated like objects, not as human beings. A woman has the right to choose whether she brings a child into this world or not; Not her partner, not her spouse, not her family, not her neighbors, not the government. A woman. Because a woman goes through the 9 months of pregnancy, the 9 months of body and hormonal changes, the 9 months of mental and physical changes; no one else goes through that and no one else except a woman can possibly understand what that is like. And no child deserves the abuse that comes with not giving women the choice to choose whether to bring a child into this world. Because yes, all life does matter, but life does not just mean breathing, it also means the love and emotions that come with life. And a child should only be brought into this world because its parents want it to come into this world, not out of necessity, not out of compulsion, but out of love; love for each other, and love for its child.
Who are we to decide for the woman who gives birth? Who are we to decide that the mother’s life is worth less than a child’s? Who are we to take a women’s right away to decide for herself and her child because we have our own beliefs and our own perspectives? Who are we to say that a woman cannot choose whether to become a mother? Think about all this, before you say that it’s good that Roe vs Wade was overturned.
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