Roe V. Wade Essays

She was just 16 when she was raped on her way home one night. She fell pregnant without her consent. She was alone and wasn’t capable of raising a child on her own. She was still young and although she saw herself having a child in the future and looked forward to that journey, now was not the time. She only had a part-time job with minimal income therefore she wasn’t financially capable of raising a child to the standards she’d promised she’d one day raise her baby. It was her body and her life… but apparently, it wasn’t her choice. One of the biggest problems with the abortion debate is that the two sides aren’t in direct opposition. The pro-life movement seeks to force their moral beliefs on others – grounded in their own religion or personal philosophy. The pro-choice movement doesn’t make claims on the morality of abortion – we leave that as an individual choice for every woman faced with an unwanted pregnancy. If they feel abortion is wrong and they want to give their child up for adoption or keep it, we will support their decision. Pro-life people say ‘Abortion is wrong.” we only say ‘Abortion is:” Making abortion illegal won’t stop abortions from happening, it will only stop them from being safe. 43% of abortions worldwide are illegal. Changing laws doesn’t solve the problem, making contraception available and affordable does. DIY surgical abortion is not a nice thing to talk about. It involves the insertion of the wire from a coat hanger – or a knitting needle, or another thin rod or stick – into the cervix of a pregnant woman, with the aim of opening the cervix to induce a miscarriage. It is as horrible and dangerous as it sounds. This kind of abortion often leads to uterine perforation, infections, infertility, and the deaths of women. So why the hell are we potentially resorting back to these awful ways?

Roe v. Wade was a 1973 landmark decision by the US Supreme Court. The court ruled that a state law that banned abortions (except to save the life of the mother) was unconstitutional. Abortion has long been viewed as an uncivil topic for public discussion because it requires consideration of other things that some people think are not nice to talk about: women’s bodies, wombs, blood, and sex. Perhaps this is part of the reason why those of us who believe that women should be able to choose whether or not to be pregnant will often demur on the issue, even though we are in a majority: 69% of Americans oppose the overturning of Roe v Wade, and yet so many of them remain quiet about their opinions for fear of offending someone who might base their disbelief in the rights of women on a religious text. But it’s time we do speak up. The abortion discussion is split into two main groups. Pro-life or Pro-choice. Pro-life essentially translates to anti-abortion, meaning this group of individuals believes that abortion is the taking of a human life, rather than an issue concerning the restriction of women’s reproductive rights. Whereas pro-choice means that someone can be personally opposed to abortion, or feel uncomfortable with it, but would not impose her or his moral, personal, or religious views onto other women. It is the belief that every single woman in this world should be allowed to make decisions about her body and the cells she is carrying and it is the respect for whatever decision she chooses to make. Because it is as simple as this, If you’re against abortion then don’t have one but do not think you have the right to make that decision for others.

Pregnancy has an enormous effect on the woman involved. As Sarah Weddington put it to the US Supreme Court in Roe v Wade: “A pregnancy to a woman is perhaps one of the most determinative aspects of her life. It disrupts her body. It disrupts her education. It disrupts her employment. And it often disrupts her entire family life.” Pro-life activists merely consider the unborn child’s life and almost completely dismiss the woman’s life and the effect the pregnancy can have on the woman. Many people regard the right to control one’s own body as a key moral right. If women are not allowed to abort an unwanted fetus they are deprived of this right. The simplest form of the women’s rights argument in favor of abortion goes like this: a woman has the right to decide what she can and can’t do with her body. The fetus exists inside a woman’s body. A woman has the right to decide whether the fetus remains in her body. Therefore a pregnant woman has the right to abort the fetus. The single most important factor for women’s advancement in society is our ability to control our fertility. Without that, we are trapped by the realities of pregnancy, childbirth, and childrearing; rather than a privilege and a gift, these aspects of being female become an unbearable burden. Attempts to limit women’s reproductive freedom are no more than a gambit to keep women ‘in their place’– a gambit in the guise of religious moralism. True, the guise can run deep, and many so-called ‘pro-lifers’ genuinely believe that killing a fetus is equivalent to killing a human being. But such religious feeling has no place in the public policies of a country that claims to separate church and state. A right that should forever and always remain in women’s hands is being ripped away by politics and whilst it is only fair to let pro-life activists believe in what they perceive as right, the issue is that their voices are screaming louder than women all over the world who are not able to offer their unborn child the quality of life they would hope for. Louder than the teenager who although admits she made a mistake, only wishes to be able to save herself. Louder than the mother, who although works hard, is still not financially prepared to raise a child rightly. Louder than then the woman who although has a stable, happy life, suffered from rape. Motherhood is the gift of life and a blessing both men and women are thankful for but it is a gift that women should be able to choose when and if they receive it. Pro-choice is not a synonym for pro-abortion it is a synonym for believing that each and every woman should be entitled to have a choice and all control over her own body. We need proper sex education and access to contraceptives. Women don’t want to have to go through a stressful medical procedure just to avoid having a child but in many scenarios, it is the only option. If you don’t agree with that statement, that is ok and if you do, that is also ok. Your personal objections to abortions don’t give you the right to deny bodily autonomy to others. It is her body and her life… and it should be her choice.