Every year, an anniversary of Roe v. Wade happens. And every year, Pro-Lifers descend on DC to march against abortion.
Last year I wrote a long post about the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, its effect on the nation, and what I believe the law is really about — specifically, about the right for women to be the ones making choices about their bodies.
This year, a mere 48 hours after Obama took office, the march started anew. And many have noted the distinct difference in feel. No longer is there a Pro-Life president in the White House. No longer is there an ultra-conservative regime.
Yet our rights remain threatened. I do not understand the people who so actively fight for the illegality of abortion. Certainly, I understand the moral and human arguments. I understand how, as a human, you could be incredibly uncomfortable taking a life that is growing inside of you. I don’t claim to know where the point of conception is, and I’m not a doctor so I don’t care to speculate. But what I do know is that, as an adult and as a woman, I am more than capable of knowing what is right for me, and under the law I should have the same rights as any man in this country — that is, the right to be the only mind in control of my body. The argument against abortion contains, inherently, the implication that women are not worthy of having complete control of their physical person, like a man is. It contains, implicitly, the notion that we are inferior, that the government must think on our behalf. That it must tell us what to do when we become pregnant. And that is wrong. Just as the decision to remove a tumor is up to the patient in which it is growing, the decision to end a pregnancy should always be up to the woman carrying the fetus.
I had a conversation with my close college friend’s father the night before the inauguration about abortion. It came at the end of a rather lovely dinner. My friend and her dad were arguing about who among them was more liberal than the other (she works for a Democratic congressman and was part of Joe Biden’s campaign; it was the most adorable argument I’ve ever seen), when she said she was to the left of him on abortion rights. As they are a, clearly, staunchly liberal pair, I inquired as to his beliefs. The answer he gave me surprised me: he said that he believes that men should have reproductive rights. It’s a loaded statement, because it could mean a number of things (some of which I can’t help but bristle at). He explained that he believes that men should have some kind of say, or some way to legally express their opinion, about whether their girlfriend/wife/partner should have an abortion because, assuming they do not stay together and she has the baby, he will be obligated to pay child support for that child. And he believes that men should be able to use whether or not they wanted the baby to mitigate said child support.
I can’t help but see his point. I don’t think men who, from the start, are aggressively (read: passionate, not violent) against the birth of a child they conceived should have to pay as much child support as men who had children willingly, but whose spousal/partner relationships didn’t work out. But I cautioned her father that giving men a real say in abortion is wrong and threatening; that this is a women’s rights issue. And he argued back that it was a medical technology issue — that one day, when technology is advanced enough, we’ll essentially have reverse abortion; women will be sterile until they choose the time at which they would like to have a child, at which point their normal fertility will be restored (think of it as a super-strengh IUD).
And, again, I cautioned him: that is not the answer, and that is not the issue. As I’ve said on this blog before, I do not know if I will ever be able to have an abortion. I know I do not want to be pregnant, and as a woman I take steps to avoid that situation: I take birth control pills, and I use condoms. But should it happen, I need to know that, as a human and as a woman, I have the right to have a safe and sterile medical procedure that will eliminate a pregnancy I do not want. I will not — I will not — raise a child I am not ready for or capable of taking care of, and it is my right as a woman and as an American to be the one in charge of that decision. The government should not have a say. Strangers and religious zealots should not have a say. It is not their body, it is my body. And it is, and should always be my choice.
I agree that we must work together to educate children about sex, protection, and pregnancy. With the right amount of education we could drastically reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies each year. A reduction in conception is a reduction in abortion, always. But while we work to make sex safer and pregnancy more controllable, we must always protect the right of women to control their bodies. It’s my body, it’s my life, and it’s my choice.
