I have always tried to keep my thoughts on “controversial” or divisive topics to myself, but the overturning of Roe v Wade was my tipping point. This isn’t about politics. It isn’t about religion or morality. It is about our basic rights as women.
When the government retains control over our bodies and our reproductive rights, we are seen as nothing more than baby-making machines. We are forced to populate the world at whatever cost.
The government is endowing unborn babies with more rights than the women bringing them into existence. The impregnators can just walk away. They have none of the same restrictions on how they spend the next 9 months of their lives. They’re not being held responsible or accountable for anything.
Think of all the babies that will be born into poverty or into broken homes. The infants that will be abandoned, neglected, unwanted, resented, or unloved. Babies who will be born into a country divided. A country with a formula shortage, no universal healthcare, and racism on the rise. A country that insisted the baby be here, but is unwilling to provide for it.
Think of the women that cannot afford proper healthcare. The women who will give birth in unclean or unsafe conditions. The women who risk bleeding out. Who will have to risk their own health and safety to deliver an unwanted baby.
Think of the women whose birth control failed them. The pills didn’t work. The condom broke. The women and teens who were being careful and are now being punished. Who now have to put their futures on hold. Whose lives will never be the same. How many dreams will they be forced to give up on?
Think of the women who have wanted so desperately to be mothers, only to find out their fetus is unviable. They will have to carry it to term. They will have to be constantly reminded of how close they were to what they’d always wanted. They will have to delay moving on. Grieving.
Think of the women who are told their pregnancy is destroying them and they may not survive. They cannot terminate the pregnancy to save their own life.
Think of the doctors and nurses who have to watch their patients suffer, who are forced to choose between saving their patients’ lives or saving their career.
Think of all the women who will be the victims of rape, incest, stealthing (removing the condom without consent), etc. They’ve already been victimized. And now the government is telling them they have to spend the next nine months being revictimized as they carry around their perpetrator’s child.
And the states that so graciously allow exceptions for rape — I’d love to know how that works. What is the process for requesting an exemption under these conditions? What burden of proof is required? If a conviction is required for the clause to take effect, it won’t even be relevant. The wheels of justice are too slow. You shouldn’t have to win a case against your attacker to abort the baby he put in you.
Beyond that, what if the father then has rights to the child you were forced to carry? He will forever be a presence in his victim’s life. This ruling turns men into weapons and women into passive victims.
Why do fetuses have rights and the women carrying them are treated merely as “vessels”? We are not here to populate your world at the cost of our own sanity, financial stability, health, or life.
Talking Through Trauma 