But I Thought It Was My Body? Women’s Fight for Sexual and Reproductive Rights
posted by DorMiya Vance | April 11, 2022 | In OpinionDorMiya Vance, EIC
The women of the United States have dealt with a political chokehold the male patriarchy has continued to hold since the late 1840s.
Women’s sexual and reproductive rights are under fire now more than ever.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research and policy organization focusing on reproductive rights, there have been 529 abortion restrictions introduced in 41 of the United States. Forty-eight of these restrictions have been passed in at least one political chamber across 13 states. And so far, nine of the restrictions are currently enacted in five states, including Arizona, Indiana, Idaho, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
Political stances have been placed on women’s bodies, essentially taking away their choice of reproduction.
Various strategies have been used to decrease access to legally safe abortions. Planned Parenthood lists five ways women’s reproductive rights are interfered with at the state level: 1. Targeted regulation of abortion providers or TRAP laws; 2. Unconstitutional measures and bans at specific weeks of pregnancy; 3. Bills restricting nonsurgical abortion or complete access; 4. Biased and political interventions; and 5. So-called “personhood” measures.
In the most recent case, the governor of Arizona signed into law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy on March 30. The bill will go into effect 90 days after the legislative session ends on June 30. Passing this law adds to the increasing number of abortion restrictions in the U.S., decreasing women’s control over their bodies.
Though the fight for reproductive and abortion rights has been significant since 1973 with the case of Roe v. Wade, in more recent years, reproductive rights movements have increased as more women have faced adversity from the male-dominated governing body.
In 2013, there was an increase in abortion restrictions in states such as Texas and North Dakota. That same year, North Dakota passed the first “fetal heartbeat” law — banning abortions as early as six weeks.
From 2015 through 2019, former President Trump downplayed the need for abortion services, COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, less than a dozen states attempted “to restrict abortion as a “nonessential” service,” according to The Guardian. The following year, 2021, turned out to be “the most hostile year for abortion rights legislation on record,” as reported by The Guardian. In 2021, Texas enacted a six-week abortion ban, eliminating what Roe v. Wade accomplished for women in 1973.
In the same year, a court case in Mississippi, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, was argued before the US Supreme Court. The case “challenged the constitutionality of the “Gestational Age Act” in federal court,” according to Ballotpeida.org.
Ballotpedia.org reports that the “Gestational Age Act” law in Mississippi prohibits “abortions after the fifteenth week of pregnancy except in cases of medical emergencies or fetal abnormalities.”
In 2022, women have increased the fight for fundamental human rights. The men in charge should not have the final say-so on what a woman chooses to do with her body. Women are not property.
Women deserve fair and equal opportunities for preventative reproductive care. If abortion and reproductive rights become unconstitutional, women will be forced to take unsafe preventive care methods, spreading injustice to all people and groups.
SOURCES https://www.oyez.org/cases/2021/19-1392
Photo courtesy of Blink O’fanaye
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