INTRODUCTION
Since contraception has been available for women, the percentage of unwanted pregnancies have decreased, the percentage of abortions have decreased and teenage pregnancies have also decreased. Reproductive rights give power to women, because we as women get to decide when we want to have kids and we decide when we are ready for kids… whenever the timing is right. Practicing abstinence can be a way to go, but it is not going to necessarily be the case for everyone, and it should not have to be if that is not my choice.
This is a photo of women protesting the 1973 Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade
where women were fighting to make abortion legal, safe and accessible. |
It is not to be ignored that women have been suppressed in this country for many years in the making, but women have fought long and hard for justice. It is a burden to say that women are still having to fend for their rights for sexual equality, equal pay, protection from sexual violence and the one that resides with me greatly; reproductive rights. We are currently living in a country where the Trump-Pence administration is aiming to make the access of contraception for women more difficult. Title X is a program that assists in family planning and it is dedicated to making sure that anyone “has access to basic, preventive reproductive health care, such as birth control, cancer screening, STI testing and treatment well-woman exams”. With the extracting of effective birth control methods, the administration is pushing Abstinence-only programs and it is opening the door to anti-abortion counseling programs. Instead of progressing in this subject it almost seems like we’re taking 100 steps back, as women and our fight for human rights. So, if humans are going to be going off of abstinence, what happens if they have a natural urge to engage in sexual intercourse and end up having an unwanted pregnancy? Since the administration if advocating for anti-abortion programs, do women then have to go through with this unwanted pregnancy? And what happens if a woman is sexually assaulted or raped and the outcome is pregnancy, does the women then have to keep the baby if she doesn’t want it? What happens if abortion is officially illegal? The privacy law has failed to protect women and their rights to terminate pregnancy. I found some research about the privacy law and the protection of women which states that “Reliance on ‘privacy’, a doctrine vague both in origin and scope, has meant that a woman's right to decide is balanced against the state's right to interfere with her decision infurtherance of its own policies.” Which leads me to this; if it’s my body, shouldn’t it be my choice to do what I want? Shouldn’t I do what is best for me?
PERSONAL
This is an issue that no only affects the community that I live in, but it also affects people in the entire country, since it is an issue with the administration. And lastly, this affects any and all women. Women who have been fighting to have simple human rights, women who are seeking to live their lives with the freedom of choice, women who are waiting to start a family because they are waiting to build their own empire first, and that woman is me. Coming from a cultural background where women are expected to WANT to be get married and be mothers at a young age. I come from a catholic background, and if you know anything about Catholicism you know that the catholic church does not encourage contraception and it says that abortion is a sin. My family comes from a place where women are the house keepers and men are the breadwinners, I am a woman fortunate enough to be able to DECIDE my future and not just settle for what is thought to be right for me. Although I do see myself being a mother at some point in my life, I have chosen to wait until I am financially ready so that I can provide my children with more than I could have ever asked for. So, what happens if I live in a country that will make it difficult for me to use contraception? That is not a world I want to live in, it’s not a world an women, or any human should have to live it.
VOICES FROM MY COMMUNITY
"As a woman, I feel like we should all feel affected by this issue. I am pro-choice and I believe that it should be a natural human right to make my own choices about my own body. No one else will be affected by the choices I make in my life".
Abigail Mendez
"So basically it’s OUR bodies. Choosing to have a child or not should be our choice. Whether it’s taking birth control , being abstinence, or having an abortion that is our choice. If we are informed of all the risks and decide to go through with it that is that. Taking away those right will lead to over population (which we are already over populated) and even death. Many argue what it’s inhumane to have an abortion but it’s actually humane. There is millions of children who are still waiting to be adopted and end up in the foster system which messes them up more. Or children who are born drug addicts bc their moms had no other choice but to give birth to them. Even if that was not the case and every child was adopted and all children were born healthy , being a mother should be a CHOICE and how you go about being one or not being one is your right".
Melissa Suncin
"I think its important for woman to understand that being able to chose what you get to do with your body is having power and freedom. How is a woman free if she can not decide what she can or can not do with her body. My body is not a battleground and neither is any other woman's! The fact that this is still even an issue, is crazy. Trump really is the WORSE thing that could've happened to this country, we've made progress as women just to be set back again".
Sources:
Hyde, Alan. Bodies of law. Princeton University Press, 1997
Affairs, Office of Population. “Title X Family Planning.” HHS.gov, US Department of Health and Human Services, 7 Sept. 2018, www.hhs.gov/opa/title-x-family-planning/index.html.
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