After nearly two years of being in the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve seen many signs from anti-vaxxers, both in the United States and in Canada, claiming “My Body, My Choice.” Yet Republicans overwhelmingly represent both antivaxxers and anti-abortion advocates (Durkee; “Public Opinon on Abortion”). Ironically, they claim that when a woman makes a health decision regarding her pregnancy, it is not her body. Her body, in their mind, belongs to the state and to regulation. Although abortion arguments and opposition are present within Canada, the United States faces a potentially disastrous situation for women attempting to access abortion, creating a major turning moment for abortion rights.
On Wednesday, December 1, the Supreme Court justices heard arguments regarding overturning a controversial Mississipi abortion law that bans abortion after 15 weeks (The Associated Press). This law could potentially overturn Roe V. Wade, the seminal 1973 case that ruled abortion legal and gave women a reason to hope for an alternative future (The Associated Press). In the 1992 case that affirmed Roe, abortion was considered a right as long as the fetus was not viable outside of the womb, which is considered 24 weeks (The Associated Press). Since the Mississippi law challenges that precedent, by only allowing abortions up to 15 weeks, Roe V. Wade could be disastrously impacted (The Associated Press).
Mississippi’s lawyers and the state have argued that since there is increased contraceptive access, access to health care, and increased female enrollment in law and medicine schools, women do not have the same ‘need’ for abortion that they did in the past, when contraceptives and public opinion of birth control was more restricted (Editorial Board). This position fundamentally fails to recognize the issues inherent in many of the cited examples, including that contraceptives fail and there are varied levels of access to healthcare. Contraceptives are available today, but it doesn’t diminish the fact that sex education in schools is often inadequate and most of the time, not beneficial. Further, contraceptives aren’t 100% effective. Is it fair to blame the woman who got pregnant because the condom broke? Is it fair to take away anyone’s right to choose just because they had ‘access’ to contraception? Assuming that women have increased access to birth control and open access to healthcare fails to acknowledge the circumstantial factors that might inhibit women’s reproductive choices, such as poverty or homelessness, and ignores the ongoing societal prejudice that still exists around birth control and women who have sex. This black-and-white view of whether women intrinsically deserve abortions is blind to the multi-faceted prongs of the issue.
Further, abortion is something that should be considered as a way to prevent the unnecessary deaths and harm that comes when women lose the right to get a safe abortion, performed by a medical professional. When women lose the right to define their own lives and choices, the rate of self-performed abortions increases, often causing death or serious injury to the women involved (Pierson). In the World Health Organization 2004 report, it was estimated that 68 000 women die due to complications caused by self-performed or back-room abortions (Pierson). Abortion laws don’t stop abortions — they only lead women into dangerous and harmful circumstances that above all, highlight how society and the government believe the embryo is more important than women’s safety. Abortion is not only a right, but protection from the same death and illness rates that existed before abortion was legal. Abortion is healthcare.
If Roe is overturned, then poor and marginalized women will be impacted the most. Rich women can afford to travel out of state to get abortions or to buy abortion pills, whereas poor women will be restricted to the state they live in and be forced to raise the child, even though they often don’t have adequate income, housing or stability for a child (Editorial Board). The choice to raise a child is inherently based on multiple factors. People need to know that they have enough money, that they have adequate emotional stability and most importantly, that they want to have children at all. If a woman doesn’t want a child, she shouldn’t have to carry it to term. There is no further explanation in my mind. If women are capable enough to raise a child, then they are capable enough to decide what’s best for them and their potential child.
Abortion is not only the right to choose; it’s the right to allow women to make decisions about their reproductive bodies themselves, without exerting the influence of religious and patriarchal views on sex, marriage, and family. Women should be considered as people first and mothers second. Above all, their choices and decisions should be respected, rather than encroached upon by the arguments and opinions of some who have never had to consider an abortion. If Roe V. Wade is overturned, women face a regressive portrait of the past where their rights are considered below the rights of the embryo. Most importantly, however, this political moment signifies that, more than ever, women need to support each other and bind together as a group of influential, angry and empowered women who will carve out the permanence of this right for future daughters and children.
Works Cited
Durkee, Alison. “Here Are the Republicans Most Likely to Refuse the COVID-19 Vaccine, Poll Finds.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 28 July 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/07/28/here-are-the-republicans-most-likely-to-refuse-the-covid-19-vaccine-poll-finds/?sh=26b08a23735f.
Editorial Board. “Opinion | the Court Cannot Fool Itself: Eviscerating ‘Roe’ Would Upend Lives.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 30 November 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/30/court-cannot-fool-itself-eviscerating-roe-would-upend-lives/.
Pierson, Carli. “My Great-Grandmother Died from an Illegal Abortion. Her Story Could Be One You Know Soon.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 1 Nov 2021, https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2021/11/01/supreme-court-texas-abortion-endanger-women/6235379001/.
“Public Opinion on Abortion.” Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project, 6 May 2021, https://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/.
The Associated Press. “Supreme Court Hears Mississippi Abortion Case with Major Implications for Roe v. Wade | CBC News.” CBC news, CBC/Radio Canada, 1 Dec 2021, https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-supreme-court-abortion-rights-hearing-1.6255063.