So, if you have been following the news as of late and totally do not live under a rock – although if you do that’s cool, too – you know that Roe v. Wade has been overturned in the United States of America. Meaning, the Federal protection in regards to abortion is no more. This also means that it is up to the states to either protect the medical service or to deny the medical service.
Now I know not everyone thinks the same, that everyone has their own feelings and thoughts. Some people, like me, were both shocked and not shocked at the same time. I mean if you have been paying any attention, you knew this was coming. Yeah, it sucks, but these people played the long game, and they won their battle. Yet the war is not over and yes, I recognize I am speaking in military terms - because this is a serious issue.
I don’t plan to ever get an abortion. However, it isn’t just about abortions. This is about how much right does the government have in regards to your own body.
Who are you to tell me what I can and cannot do with my own body?
Plus, the more I learn about being pregnant the more I end up side-eyeing the whole entire process. Like what do you mean the fetus or, my bad, the placenta sends out the molecule phosphocholine to distract the immune system so that it can put out its tendrils/feelers into my bloodstream and siphon off my body's nutrients? Yes, I know it's for the child to grow but like seriously. The correlation to parasitism is disturbing! (Check out, Pregnancy and immune stimulation: re-imagining the fetus as parasite to understand age-related immune system changes in US women and The placenta really does act like a parasite, Reading research suggests – University of Reading)
Anyway… I read a lot. I watch a fair amount of YouTube. I majored in freaking history. Without much digging, one can find real and modern-day examples of what happens to females and males (because don’t think for a second, guys, that this only impacts women. This impacts you, too. I will explain later as to how) when abortions are outlawed.
The banning of abortions will cause women to die if they have not already started doing so. Abortion isn’t just for a woman who doesn’t want the fetus but also for women who have a wanted pregnancy that has gone awry. Examples being the fetus having died in the womb, the fetus has a health defect that will result in death not long after birth, and/or the child will be born with a medical situation which means a life full of pain before, eventually, succumbing to death. It will also bring up questions for those seeking infertility treatments such as what to do with the embryos since some laws consider the moment of conception to be the development of a human being.
What about the young girls and women who are raped? The most recent publicized case being a child as young as 10. The child became pregnant as a result. Will we now require children to have children? To go through a process that causes grown women to have PTSD? We all like to pretend it doesn’t happen, even me, but as my work will tell you I can’t ignore it because it’s in the news all the freaking time! An example being this article, What Pregnancy and Childbirth Do to the Bodies of Young Girls.
That's sad and all, but I’m a male so why should I care?
Well, let me tell you. A Woman having that child will need help, and who is the state going to make her get help from? YOU. As Kanye West once said in his song Gold Digger, “She got you for 18 years” (child support, anyone?). You didn’t think these same people making the rules were about to pay for the forthcoming child, did you?
Don’t believe me? Check out this article titled, GOP lawmakers want would-be fathers to pay child support from conception. Another is the potential possibility of having to raise your child without your partner because the health of the child was prioritized over the mother. Oh, in the case your girlfriend gets pregnant in high school and you have to get a job to help support them, your future economic prospects are not looking all that great. So don’t think this just affects women, guys. Check out this NPR article for more information: The end of Roe v. Wade has huge economic implications for male partners, too.
Most importantly, where does it stop?
If a ruling states that people are no longer entitled to their own bodies' privacy, then what else are we not entitled to? What else will we be giving up? Will you tell me who I can and cannot marry? (Okay, this is not for you freaking pedophiles or crappy bestiality people - Eeww!) I am talking about the Loving v. Virginia case (interracial marriage), the Obergefell v. Hodes case (gay marriage), Griswold v. Connecticut (birth control access for married couples). If these rulings are overturned, how long before we become like those far fetched movies and TV shows that no one really thought would come to pass? The Handmaid's Tale (women's rights), Raised by Wolves (religious freedom), Sorry to Bother You (slavery and capitalism greed), Get Out (slavery and repeated trauma), and Idiocracy (anti- intellectualism). If we continue to let people like Indiana Senator Michael (Mike) K. Braun, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and Colorado House Representative Lauren Boebert speak for us, then how long until we are there? How long until history repeats itself because it isn’t taught anymore because it hurts our children’s feelings?
How long until slavery, as it once was, is reinstated?
Are you thinking about these things? Because I am. I have been. Usually I try to console myself, in platitudes such as “they got it.” They are marching and letting their voices be heard. They don’t need me. What can I do? After all, I am just one person and not even important. And right now, no one really knows who I am, that I exist or even really care.
So, after stomping that whiny attitude into the dust,
I decided to focus on what I can do. While I cannot donate money, I can donate my time. I can donate my voice. I can donate my body, (no not to science, have you lost your mind). I can find out when protests are happening, make a sign, wear green, and march alongside others. I can write letters to my legislative representative. I can, and I will do something. Because I am tired of being filled with impotent rage. I have to change, and so I shall. It might not be easy but it is worthwhile, because I want to leave this world better than when I came into it. I don’t want to have my children living through real life Hunger Games or a place where unmitigated lawlessness and slavery thrives as displayed in the, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler.
I might be just one person whose voice isn’t that loud or whose letters don’t really stand out or whose stories others aren’t interested in reading. But I can make a difference. As Dinotopians like to say, “One raindrop raises the sea”.
I can be a raindrop, and so can you. Together, let’s raise the sea level (but you know, not the actual sea because that’s another problem - climate change).
Here are some organizations that I found that I am getting in contact with and finding out information:
American Civil Liberties Union’s List of Reproductive Freedom Sites
Reproductive Rights Organization’s Article on Top 7 Things You Can Do Right Now for U.S. Abortion Rights
Pro-Choice America Organization’s article, Fight Back for our Freedom
Marie Claire’s article, 14 Abortion Rights Organizations Accepting Donations to Support Their Fight
What do you think of the recent court rulings? Are you for or against them? What are you doing to make the world a better place?
This was a heavy article so tune in for the next article a funny poem.
Also shout out to my editor, Amanda, without your help this article would be nearly as easy a read.
Comments