My Right as a Woman

I marched in the Women’s March on Saturday. It was incredibly inspiring to stand shoulder to shoulder with thousands of women (and the men who support them) who believe in the right to control their own bodies. There were all ages, grandmothers like me, small daughters, and everything in between. All races and genders stood together to demand the right to bodily autonomy. As woman after woman bravely stood and talked about choice and reproductive freedom, I was inspired to be braver. I was inspired to speak my truth more clearly and openly.

Here in Texas, I am surrounded by so called pro-life Republicans. Many of the people I know are deeply religious, and they are unable to see the irony on being pro-life just until a child is born. If they were truly pro-life, then it should matter to them what happens to a child after birth, not just while it is in the womb. It should matter to them that there is poverty and hunger and racism and child abuse.

It should matter that the life, physical health, and mental health of a fully grown woman, not to mention a 12- or 13-year-old victim of rape or incest, might be at stake if she is forced to bear a child. They are unable to see that forcing a woman to bear a child can, in itself, be life threatening. They fail to see that abortion is also health care.

Statistically it is more dangerous in the US for a woman to carry a child to term than to have an abortion (20.1 deaths per 100,000 vs .44 deaths per 100,000 respectively). The US leads the developed world in maternal mortality, and Texas is number 42 in the country with 34.5 deaths per 100,000. That puts Texas behind countries like Uzbekistan – 29 per 100,000; Malaysia – 29; Armenia- 26; Turkmenistan – 7; and United Arab Emirates – 3.

I am not criticizing anyone’s deeply held religious beliefs. I just don’t want those beliefs to infringe on my own or any other woman’s bodily autonomy. When a woman, in the eyes of the law, becomes just a vessel to bear children, she is no longer an independently functioning human being with rights of her own. In the eyes of the State, she becomes a second-class citizen. When she is not allowed to make her own fundamental health decisions, she in essence becomes a ward of the State. She is no longer free. A friend shared a very practical treatise, not on the morality of abortion, but on the legality and constitutionality of the laws that have recently been passed. Even if you have already read this, it is worth a second read.