It stuns me whenever I read articles indicating that one politician or another has taken the stance that Roe vs. Wade should be overturned. Please do not think this indicates that I'm necessarily pro-abortion. I'm not. What is irksome is that in most cases the person taking this stance is male. Frankly, I do not feel that any man has the right to make any legal decisions concerning the use of my body...period. Weather it be for medical testing or for incubation of a fetus, this decision should be left in it's entity to the female. No person, male or female should have politicians, government or other people legislating the use of their bodies.
Worse is when the male population of politicians takes the stance that females should not be permitted to terminate a pregnancy. We can argue the validity of fetus and at what point that fetus is considered a life and the whole murder thing at another juncture. What I am opposed to is that male politicians feel that they somehow have a right to legislate a pregnancy and the treatment of it. I'd be far more compassionate to their cause if they were legislating the welfare of children already born into combative households with inadequate parents, or the welfare of unborn children whose crackhead mothers are prostitutes doing drugs and passing on addiction and disease to their children. The fact that politicians do nothing about helping the children being born into these insane conditions, leads me to believe the reality is that they don't want to "save lives" as one might believe. What they really want is to stir up controversy and get votes for the conservative Christian contingency.
Roe vs. Wade will make people stand up and notice. Women's rights groups will rally. Christian groups will shout with glee. Catholics will carry signs.
Lots of people won't pay attention and won't care. But, women should care. Regardless of your opinions regarding abortion specifically, women should care a great deal. See Roe vs. Wade protects us not just from continuing an unwanted pregnancy against our will, but it protects us from husbands, boyfriends, politicians, and legislatures who think they have the right to control us through our reproductive abilities. Men can't have babies. This law does not affect them in the least, yet they are the ones who constantly debate it's legitimacy. They use smoke and mirrors to disguise the action's true intent. They claim it's about saving unborn lives, but the realities are quite different. If we allow men to legislate our bodies even if only for the utilization of our uterus for incubation of a fetus to term, we take from ourselves so much more.
I am an advocate of adoption rather than abortion in cases where a women doesn't want to have a child. I'm also an advocate for birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancy. But, beware if they overturn Roe vs. Wade, taking away our right to choose to prevent pregnancy won't be far behind. Women are an important and intricate part of society. We are strong and important and we can do everything a man can do. Men cannot have babies. Controlling our ability to have babies, forcing our hand allows men to control us. They can control our decisions through legislature and this is wrong.
I think that is they can find a way to terminate a pregnancy while saving the fetus' viability so that it can be carried to term by a surrogate and then be put up for adoption to the thousands of families waiting to adopt is a far more reasonable solution to the abortion issue. Pregnancy isn't just about having a baby. It is a medical condition that changes a women's entire body. It changes her hormonally. It cannot be hidden or denied for long. It isn't invisible. It is emotional, frightening, and often difficult. It is a nine month commitment of time and energy. No one else should be able to force someone into nine months of commitment to something they don't want to do. It is tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment and we won't even do that to hardened criminals.
I also recommend to the anti-abortion activists to take the time to sit in an abortion waiting room sometime and listen to the stories. Very few women get abortions because they want to. Very few women go into the experience with no feeling of sadness and remorse. Very few women leave there feeling jubilant and relieved. It is a very difficult and tenuous decision under the best and most legal of circumstances. There are 13 year old girls whose mother's are "making them" because they want to give their child half a chance to grow up themselves. There are secretaries whose affair with the boss created a big problem that will result in her joblessness if it were to continue. There are women with husband's who are terminally ill and six children already who are sneaking out behind their ill husband's back because he would never allow it, and she cannot imagine how she will feed the six they already have with him sick and not working and dying very soon. There is the young executive who was raped in a parking lot and didn't report it out of humiliation only to pop up preggers a few weeks later. There is women who has MS and who knows this pregnancy might put her in a wheelchair or worse. There is the girl who was so excited to be pregnant until she found out her boyfriend had married someone else he already knocked up too.
So, if you are pro-life remember it is your life too. The legislation of Roe vs. Wade isn't just about saving a fetus, it is about controlling the choices in "your" life about "your" body. It is great to be pro-life and it is great to encourage women to choose adoption over abortion, but to pass laws that allow the government to force you to do anything with your body against your will is wrong. It is a double edged sword, but it is real and women really need to make their voices heard so that we are always protected and that our bodies are our own. Men should no more legislate my right to carry a child than women should be able to legislate a man's right a vasectomy. And even that comparison isn't fair, since women die from pregnancy complications.