History has been known to silence the voices of women. Voices that women have fought so long for and so hard. Still, Women across countries are considered unequal to men. Every year that tops a passing century, we seem to be moving forward, to be making progress. Roe V Wade and Planned Parenthood V Casey helped in making the voices of women more audible.
These two cases gave precedence to the rights of women to obtain safe and legal abortions in America. Roe V Wade is about to be overturned according to the leaked Supreme Court draft published by Politico a few weeks ago. In addition to different Women’s Movements, these cases told us that we have a voice and we were encouraged to use it. Voices that have been suppressed by history in different corners of the world.
Now, the United States Supreme Court wants to suppress our voices, again. The court has chosen to tell women that they do not have the power over their bodies. The Abortion law, ready to be passed federally is to deny a woman the right to decide on her own body. In passing this law, every woman who waits consciously or unconsciously till the sixth week of pregnancy relinquishes the right to decide whether or not she is ready to be a mother. This is because, at that time, the choice would have been made for her by the Courts.
This is funny in a way that’s not a joke. Some women have claimed to know exactly when they were getting pregnant. Some have had to wait weeks, even months to find out that they are pregnant. How do you expect a woman to choose when logically, there is no time for the pregnancy to be realized?
Scenario: Jane is pregnant but didn’t realize that until the fifth week of her pregnancy. By law, at six weeks, she may be committing a crime by having the pregnancy aborted. She is currently 24 years old and her career is just starting to take off. She believes she’s in no way ready for a baby. Her boyfriend has also recently lost his job and is feeling quite unstable and insecure due to the weight of the uncertainty of their future. She is realizing fast that she doesn’t have much time and has been given a week by Federal law to decide on her’s and her boyfriend’s future. Question; How exactly is Jane’s situation fair?
One thing we learn every day in this kind brutal world is that no two persons are the same. No two women are the same. We all have hopes and dreams, goals and ambitions, or maybe even lack thereof but all of that contributes to our definite and unique selves. This means that this proposed law could NEVER be ONE SIZE FITS ALL. NEVER.
This law may favor some people and put others at a disadvantage, but it should never be the law that seems to take the right to choose away from a woman. A human being. This fight is ironic because The United States of America seems to pride itself on being a free country.
Where is freedom when a woman’s right to choose has been taken away? Where is the freedom when women cannot go to clinics and hospitals because they can never get what they want there? legally. Where is the freedom when a woman takes decisions into her own hands to do in private and more dangerously what she could have done in a safer place like a hospital because her voice is no longer audible?
We all may think that this is all well and good. You may assume that the law does not affect you because you are not a woman. You may believe it doesn’t touch you in any way. That’s untrue because it does. It affects us all because the fight now is for the future. The fight now is for the next generation. The fight now is for the security guaranteed by freedom and the right to choose.
In our Opinion, Roe Vs Wade is the law. It seemed set in stone and not deemed to change. Obviously not. Which calls into question the changes that will be made to the law governing us as a civilized nation. The laws that will be deliberated on whether to be changed and overturned in the coming years. Which rights will be trampled upon and withdrawn from the people. The rights to marriage equality as regards the Gay Marriage Bill? Which other laws will be struck down next? The Civil Rights Act?
The voices we have now as Women were made audible by the fight and struggles from centuries ago. The freedom and the right to choose that we enjoy now as women and human beings were guaranteed in the struggles of the Women’s Suffrage Movement and other Movements that fought on the side of Humanity. This is what we have to do for the future. This is not a fight that’s strictly for Women and their future. It is a fight for Generations to come.
