I feel that Reproductive rights can be a very touchy situation, especially because of religions and such. But I do think it is important to take a step back and look at the situation as a woman’s choice about her body and life, instead of abortion/anti-abortion. Women have been fighting the struggle for reproductive rights for centuries.
Historically, these rights are an especially controversial subject due to the moral, ethical, and religious considerations. Throughout U.S. history, government policies, government agencies, and private organizations have sought to control women’s sexuality and reproduction. Currently 43 states restrict young women’s access to abortion by mandating parental notice or consent. Seven of these laws have been found unconstitutional and unenforceable in Arkansas, California, Illinois, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey and New Mexico.
Complicating the matter are different tendencies within the reproductive rights movement: a mainstream perspective focusing on “individual choice” and “privacy,” led largely by White middle-class women, and another perspective focused on social justice, which defines reproductive rights as the right to have and rear children as well as the right not to.
With all the laws about reproductive rights for women, I have to think why should anyone own a women’s life and body and be able to tell them how to live. Just because men cannot get pregnant does not mean women cannot think clearly, ethically, morally, rationally about their body, human life or the consequences of their actions. Just because men cannot get pregnant does not mean that women do not have rights when they are pregnant. Women have responsibilities but are powerless. Men have power but are irresponsible with women’s rights.
Think about this. I am a woman and I have these human rights:
- The right to life.
- The right to privacy.
- The right to freedom.
- The right to bodily integrity.
- The right to decide when and how I reproduce.
With reproductive freedom comes opportunity: opportunity to build strong families and to enjoy a productive and meaningful life. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, striving to ensure that our government respects and supports reproductive freedom for all is important.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 
Reblogged this on cervixsays and commented:
This post continues an ongoing discussion of extreme importance. Every person has a right to bodily autonomy, and for others to decide what people can or cannot do with (and to) their own bodies is to rob them of their human rights.
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@cervixsays Thanks for commenting! bodily autonomy is huge. And I always have to think that if men could get pregnant would Reproductive Rights even be in discussion. Sometimes I think it’s just a way to control women’s human rights.
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With a grinning nod to Steinem’s “If Men Could Menstruate” and a side note that, in this country, it’s often the white, heterosexual, middle- and upper-class men making those calls, I agree.
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@cervixsays Yes! I have read that and its so true! White upper-class males are the ones making the government decisions, about women’s human rights. When you start thinking about who has “control” it makes sense why this is an ongoing discussion, women trying to explain that its their human rights and men not getting it. Obviously, not all men view it this way, but unfortunately majority do.
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I wouldn’t go so far as to say the *majority* of men do, but I absolutely agree that too many of the vocal ones with ample political power do, and that that’s largely why we’re stuck with limited access to necessary reproductive healthcare options.
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Yes, I guess I should rephrase, majority of men with political power do which is why it is such a controversy, going along with religions also not believing it should be a choice.
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Interesting. You know, women can reproduce whenever they want. However, once they have reproduced I don’t think they should be able to kill the life of the one that was reproduced.
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@excogitatingengineer Thanks for commenting your perspective on reproductive rights. I respect your views on this issue, but please try and view it as a woman’s choice about her body and human rights. Should women not be aloud to have sexual intercourse if they do not want children. Shouldn’t they have the right to personally choose?
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I get the point you’re making, excogitatingengineer, but women can’t exactly reproduce any time they want. Many women who want to get pregnant have ample difficulties getting pregnant in the first place, and many other women have difficulties growing a fetus to term. To say that someone “has reproduced” implies that their offspring is out of their body and functioning on its own (which a fetus wouldn’t be), and the phrase “kill the life” implies that you feel life begins at conception rather than birth, which is a controversial statement at best.
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It is clear that women must have full and unfettered rights to their bodies, that means full access to birth control at any age, well maybe 12 and up, without notice to anyone and access to abortion in the first trimester, without approval from anyone but a physician. All this must be at no cost to the woman, all completely paid for by the state. That’s how it is in Canada.
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@Happy Bare Thanks for commenting. I do agree that women should have complete rights over their bodies to choose. And that choice should be personal, not forced in either direction. I do think that birth control should be very easy and convenient to get to simply decrease the amount of abortions. If unwanted pregnancies can decrease, less women and girls will have to make the life changing decision of abortion or to raise a child. I think that majority of society thinks that women that do have abortions have such an easy decision and that it doesn’t take a huge emotional toll of them, even though this is what usually happens.
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I do believe that women who do seek abortions repetitively should have mandatory counselling.
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Awesome article! I think Michael Schwalbe said it best in terms of women’s role and worth when abortion is restricted. He wrote, “It says, in effect, that women should not resist motherhood and that women are less important to society that the fetuses they carry.” I think such a statement is so powerful, and he really said it well. The problem is really that women can’t even find, in some circumstances, safe, legal abortions. And for that matter, many women get abortions under unsafe conditions. Our wishes and even safety is ignored by denying basic rights. The right to a choice.
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What about the baby growing in the womb of its mother? The question to ask is – when does life begin? Does it begin at conception? At 10 weeks? 29 weeks? The moment the full baby comes out of the womb? When? What exactly grows in the womb? A pollywog or blob of cells? Or a baby? Of course we know the answer. And this is why expectant mother’s have BABY showers.
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