Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has taken away the right to an abortion, the state constitutions and courts matter more than ever. State constitutions, which are more detailed than the U.S. Constitution, Include new and expanded rights that are not mentioned anywhere else. For example, states are free to guarantee greater protection for reproductive autonomy.
For decades, the Center for Reproductive rights has brought cases strengthening abortion protections at the state level, independent of federal law. The Center outlines how high courts have recognized that their state constitution protects abortion rights and access independently from the U.S. Constitution or have struck down restrictions that were upheld by the Supreme Court. The ruling in Roe v. Wade was devastating for many, but the fight is not over yet.
Abortion is a component of healthcare and reproductive autonomy. Bodily autonomy is the right to govern over one’s own body, people should be free to make all decisions regarding themselves. Bodily autonomy is consistently challenged by people, governments, and entire systems.
Laws enforced by patriarchal ideologies continue to suppress and control others. For women, but especially for women of color, non-binary, and trans people, external forces continue to stake a claim on how our bodies exist in the world. Like all medical matters, abortion decisions should be made by patients in consultation with their health care providers and professionals.
People have a right to do so without undue interference from outside parties. Personal decision-making by people and their doctors should not be replaced by political ideology. People obtaining abortions are just as entitled to privacy, dignity, respect, and support as anyone else.
Although the reason for getting an abortion should not be anyone else's concern, there are several reasons someone may feel the need to do so. It goes so much more in-depth than someone who just does not want a baby and is looking for an “easy way out.”
Getting an abortion is not an easy decision. In fact, for most people, it is very traumatic and sensitive. It is something that they will have to carry for the rest of their lives, and it is not something done carelessly. There are so many factors that influence or necessitate a person's decision to have an abortion.
There are contraceptive failures, barriers to contraceptive use and access, rape, incest, intimate partner violence, illness during pregnancy, and exposure to teratogenic medications. Pregnancy complications may be so severe that the only measure to save someone's life or preserve their health is through abortion.
Some people claim that abortion should be acceptable, but only under some circumstances. Other people should not get to determine whether one's reason is good enough or not.
Getting an abortion is not something a person should be forced to tell everyone about, the reason is one's own and it’s a right to keep it that way. Even if a person is forced to carry a baby to term, then what.
Adoption may seem like a better solution. A lot of people think that kids will end up in a good home and have a better chance at life. Except for the fact that there are over 400,000 children who do not get adopted and half of the kids that do, will end up in foster care in unstable homes with money-hungry individuals. Lots of agencies are overpopulated and unable to give a child the individual care they need.
Thinking of adoption as a stand-in for abortion also ignores the very real dangers people face when they carry a pregnancy to term. Following delivery of a baby, there are multiple medical complications that could occur. There’s preterm labor, placental abruption, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, hair and teeth loss, and in some cases death.
Adoption is not a replacement for abortion, people assume putting a child up for adoption allows someone to step aside all the challenges and effort associated with being a parent.
People who choose adoption are still parents, they just do not raise their children. That can cause people to experience significant loss and grief, for which they struggle to get support within a culture that views adoption through rose-colored glasses.
Becoming a parent is one of the hardest challenges someone will face, and it can be even harder when people are constantly bombarded with everyone else's opinions. Knowing that one is unable to provide a child with a good life in a stable environment, and then taking action on that is a very selfless decision.
Pro life people protest that if one does not want children, do not have sex. This statement seems so easy and simple and that’s part of the dilemma, things do not work like that. There are a lot of places where people do not have access to sexual health and education. The school's basic sex ed class does not teach someone everything they would need to know about safe sex.
For the simple claim of just staying celibate, one would also have to look past the fairytale bubble. We must acknowledge the people who have experienced coercion, assault, or rape. These people have already had to endure so much that they didn’t have control over it. Abstinence seems so simple, but it’s not. These people didn’t choose to conceive a child, so they shouldn’t alone have to deal with the outcome.
That’s not a “blessing in disguise,” it’s traumatic and it's not something that one should have to be reminded of every day. Situations like that can already make someone feel so vulnerable and like their body is not their own. To make someone carry that baby to term further pushes this belief that their body does not belong to them.
Birth control and condoms are another good way to prevent pregnancy, and yet they are another thing that can be so hard to access. To prevent fewer abortions or kids who end up in adoption agencies, make protection more accessible. And no matter how much protection you use, it is still not 100% guaranteed to work.
So often, people do not see all the decision-making and tears that go into these decisions, whether it is adoption or abortion, everything is stigmatized. It’s easy to say when a person is not in the same situation and does not have to make that decision. This is all part of the problem, we can not scold and pressure people to do something they aren’t ready for.
The U.S. Constitution was built on the promise of justice and freedom for all, and yet this has never been more inaccurate. The most important aspect is the facts.
Where abortion is illegal or highly restricted, people will resort to unsafe means to end unwanted pregnancies. Including self-inflicted bodily trauma, ingestion of dangerous chemicals, self-medication with a variety of drugs, or a reliance on unqualified healthcare and abortion providers.
Today, approximately 21 million women around the world obtain unsafe abortions each year, and complications from these procedures account for 13% of all maternal deaths.
Sound health policy is so crucial and is best based on scientific facts and evidence-based medicine. The best health care is provided free of political interference in the patient-physician relationship.
Our biggest concern should be the fact that the right to one’s own body can be stripped away if given the right amount of votes. The recent ruling has terrified and hurt so many people.
So many say they just want to protect the children and that’s their number one priority. If people are concerned with protecting children, they should focus their attention on preventing the 394 mass shootings that have happened. Or the 1,016 kids and teens that have died just in 2022 so far, because of gun violence.
With everything that’s happened just in these past few years, we are constantly on edge. I’m tired of waiting for things to happen. I am tired of wondering which one of my rights I have to worry about getting taken away next.
That’s why as a community we need to step up and do more. There are several things one could do to take a stand and help protect our bodies and our rights.
A person’s voice is the most important defense someone has. So many people do not have the same options and abilities that we do now. So if someone has a voice, use it. Show up at protests, educate oneself and others about laws that harm bodies around the world, sign petitions, donate to abortion funds that aren’t recognized, VOTE, call and text local senators advocating for change, call state lawmakers, and know fundamental rights.
We can fight not only the oppression surrounding us but also the ideologies ingrained within us. For so long, many of us have internalized messages about our bodies and felt subsequent shame.
We can practice bodily autonomy by caring for and loving the bodies we are in. By dismantling any oppressive narratives and silencing the voices that say were only relevant in our physical selves to serve and please others.
For those of us who have privilege, we can use our voices to affirm and empower not only ourselves but others that are at a greater risk of experiencing violence when standing up for themselves.
People will also argue about the rights of the baby, and that life begins at conception which makes abortion murder. This could not be more untrue.
From a biological standpoint, being alive means you can sustain life by yourself. You are in a state in which your organs perform their functions on their own. If you are inside someone with a uterus, you are not alive because you have to be in there to stay intact.
Although religion has no place in politics or in dictating how someone else lives their life, we can debunk this idea in so many ways.
In Christianity, the bible says that life begins at first breath and a clump of cells cannot breathe air in the womb. Genesis 2:7, He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”.
Christianity is the most practiced religion in the U.S. which is why it was used as an example, but religion is not something we should base our laws on. The ideas and teachings can be interpreted in so many different ways, who’s to say what's right or wrong? The most crucial factor is the facts.