Abortion is healthcare. For me, and for so many women like me–women who have been bogged down by the current state of the world and could not in good conscience bring life into it–that is all it is.
It is a safety net for accidents or an assurance that we will not have to be tied down, our bodies invaded, by something we simply do not want.
For other women, abortion is life saving. Pregnancies can go wrong, especially here in the U.S., which has the highest rate of deaths due to pregnancies in all of the developed world.
Abortions in cases of rape and incest are lifesaving efforts as well. Not just for the physical health of the woman affected, but also for her mental health.
Abortions are healthcare.
The Supreme Court’s decision to reverse the ruling in Roe vs. Wade has led to this form of healthcare becoming heavily restricted in many states and outright banned in others. This ruling sent a clear message to everyone who can carry a fetus: your body is not yours. It belongs to us.
This thought is terrifying.
Forcing birth onto a ten year old child in Ohio causing her to flee the state in order to access health care in 2022 is not “pro-life,” it is forced birth. In a country with over 400,000 children in foster care, do we really think this is the solution to the problem? More children overflowing an already broken system that is not equipped to adequately handle caring for them? (Queue the sarcasm) Seems like a great idea to me.
How about we start charging people who receive or give abortions with jail time or even the death penalty? Brilliant! We could further restrict access to birth control pills and other contraceptives to make it even more likely they’ll have children? Why didn’t I think of that?!
This is how our elected officials are talking. These are the decisions they are making. We didn’t even have a choice in the people who make up the Supreme Court, and we have to listen to these takes for life? That doesn’t seem wrong to any of you?
The Democrats aren’t any better than the Republicans and extreme conservatives. They’ve been using the issue of abortion for decades to get themselves re-elected, but when it comes right down to it, won’t even codify it (yes Barack, I’m looking at you). Abortion is not and should not be a pawn for political gain, nor should it be equated to infanticide, because it simply is not either of those things.
Abortion is healthcare. Abortion is a choice. The only person making the choice on whether or not to have the procedure should be the one carrying the fetus.
As the language used by those opposed to abortion has stayed limited and one dimensional in its understanding of who can carry a pregnancy, I want to shed some light onto the other identities without speaking for them, just so those who are unfamiliar with the rhetoric can better understand.
For context, I am a lesbian and have been out for close to two years now, but I have always surrounded myself in queer spaces and read queer literature. While cis-gender women are the demographic most commonly associated with abortion, (these are women who are born female, have female sex characteristics, and live their lives according to the sex they were assigned at birth, she/her pronouns) assigned female at birth non-binary people (people born female who choose to live outside the traditional gender binary and typically use they/them pronouns instead of she/her) and transgender men (people born female who decide to transition from women into men, sometimes undergoing hormone replacement therapy or surgery, use he/him pronouns) are also able to carry fetuses. Abortion is not just a women’s issue, it’s a human issue.
Stop voting for people who only promise and never actually do anything. Stop letting elected officials walk all over you. You put them there. Make them do their jobs. If someone fails on a campaign promise that you voted for, vote for someone else willing to do a better job the next time. Or do it yourself. Do not let these people win. Do not let them take away your freedom.
Oh, and one more thing. Abolish the Supreme Court. #AbortTheCourt
Willow McIlvaine-Newsad is a Macomb resident and a student at Denison University.
The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of Western Illinois University or Tri States Public Radio.
Diverse opinions are welcomed an encouraged.