It’s time for family dinner, circa fall, 2002, a mere one year after getting my first period. I am twelve years old, and only just beginning to understand my relationship to my body and my body’s relationship to society. We gather around a long, wooden table, listening to the birds twitter playfully in the backyard and digesting homemade lasagna with water or wine, age depending. Five o’clock has always been a sort of “sobremesa,” in our household, where my family discusses current events, pop culture, and politics over a meal.
On this particular evening, the subject is women’s rights, or more specifically, the ongoing debate over abortion, a matter in which I lack full understanding as a child, but in which I am still able to form a sensible opinion. Even as a pre-teen with narrow life experience and limited exposure to the many nuances of the argument, I find it entirely contemptible that a woman could ever be forced to have a baby, or that a woman would ever be denied the choice to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. In fact, as I listen to my parents and my older siblings weigh in, I chuckle inwardly at how anachronous this debate even is in a bright, new millennium.
“This is old news,” I think, a hint of sarcasm coming through my inner monologue. “It’s not the 1950’s. Of course, women should have the right to choose. This won’t even be an issue by the time I’m older.” Cue eye roll.
* * *
What a rude awakening. Since the blissful naivete of my childhood, I have woken up. I have struggled to be taken seriously as a professional, I have scrolled through thousands of misogynistic comments on the internet, and I have been relentlessly cat-called, stalked, coerced, love-bombed, and psychologically abused. I have experienced the pay gap and hit the glass ceiling, I have navigated rape culture in college and dating, and I have born the burden of contraception. I have carried Mace when I’ve gone out alone, I have done more than my share of emotional labor, and I have noted the high maternal mortality rate when debating if my future includes children. I have watched a man accused of sexual assault be confirmed as a Justice on the Supreme Court and now, in 2022, twenty years after that heartwarming family discussion, I have seen Roe V. Wade overturned. Don’t even get me started on the pussy-grabbing former President.
Photo by Alicia Goodwin
I can’t put the wool back over my eyes. Sexism is still very much present in our modern lives. It does not belong to the 1950’s or to other countries, as some would have us believe. At present, in the United States, I am watching, aghast, as women and people capable of becoming pregnant lose access to legitimate and life-saving healthcare at the hands of a corrupt political party. Even in a blue state, I fear that one day I may no longer have access to my own reproductive rights, including access to birth control, which appears to be on the chopping block next, and which has recently been denied by rogue pharmacists. (I’m looking at you, Walgreens).
This whole thing really grinds my gears. In no other way is anyone ever responsible for using their body to protect, heal, or harbor anyone else, but when it comes to women and people who can become pregnant, it’s almost like there is a history of oppression or something. In the United States, you cannot be mandated to donate blood or bone marrow, you cannot be mandated to provide a skin graft, and you cannot be mandated to donate your organs. Verily, even once you’ve met your maker, forewritten consent is required. You would think then that a woman could not be forced to donate her uterus for the purpose of incubation, yet according to the Supreme Court, we can give women fewer rights than a corpse. It’s downright ghoulish.
Photo by Alicia Goodwin
Maddeningly, the debate over a woman’s right to choose would be entirely moot if the promise of separation of church and state were upheld and Christian ideals weren’t constantly snaking their way into our government and undermining democracy. People who can become pregnant would merely be protected and everyone could choose to live by the moral codes and religious beliefs with which they identify. In fact, in the effort of moving away from this type of overzealous theology, let’s talk science for a moment.
What do you think a botanist would call the fertilized ovule of a plant, a seed or a fruit? I know it’s probably been a while since sophomore biology for most of us, but the answer is simple. According to science, the fertilized ovule is a seed. Only when it has reached its full development can a seed be transformed into a fruit, with all its associated properties. As such, it's generally understood that a huge transformation occurs between the point of fertilization and the development of offspring. (It's also a pretty solid mathematical concept that a part does not equal a whole). So why do so many people have trouble with this logic once a sperm and egg touch? As it relates to human sexual reproduction, a zygote is irrefutably not the same thing as a fully developed baby.
Likewise, now that we’ve gone all Bill Nye, let’s call on philosophy for some additional perspective. What even are babies? What is the inherent “chairness” of tiny humans? Well, they’ve just been thrown into an existential crisis upon exiting the womb so naturally, they cry a lot, meaning they can breathe on their own. Certainly. They also have fully developed organs and bones, which they control, using their fully developed and functional brains, so they can learn and think and experience emotions. And - oh yeah! They’re their own hosts! They’re autonomous.
In contrast, an embryo is a clump of cells, whose development and sustainability relies entirely on the mother. Therefore, although an embryo is composed of human cells, it does not meet the requirements to be considered a baby. It is growing into a baby, yes, but if what truly makes us human and alive is taking our own breath, governing our own bodies, reasoning, and experiencing complex emotions, an embryo is still a long way away. So why, you might ask, is the potential of a baby deemed automatically more important in society than a literal woman? Can it really be seen as “pro-life” to pass abortion bans that will result in more death?
No. Disregarding the lives of women and people who can become pregnant because they are vessels for “potential” babies makes us livestock, not humans with human rights, and it certainly doesn’t protect or revere life. It’s all imaginary. If it were really about saving lives, birth control would be more easily accessible, healthcare would be universal, prescription drug prices would be capped, the homeless would be housed and fed, drug rehabilitation would be free, BIPOC people wouldn’t be left to rot for petty crimes in prison, gun laws would be an obvious solution to school shootings, adoption would be cheaper, and foster care would be much better funded. Instead, it's about control.
Image via Mashable.com
Historically, the Christian church has always exploited the supposed “word of God” to amass power and dominate those considered “others” and I cannot think of a better ploy than convincing followers that God is fundamentally against abortion (even if the beloved book of Numbers suggests potions ought to be given as punishment for infidelity that will make a woman's “uterus drop” and her “womb discharge”). Ironically, the Catholic church’s position on abortion is only a mere 144 years old, a quick wink in two millennia. Before that, abortion was a non-issue because the fetus was not yet thought to have a soul. But seriously though, what better way to expand your power than by tricking everyone into reproducing (a baby is God’s will so naturally, birth control and abortions are evil). It’s brilliant.
Furthermore, a “pro life” stance provides a conventional straw man argument (murder is evil) that is easily swallowed by those indoctrinated into a religion that bases everything on faith instead of on factual evidence. The word “baby” is used to humanize microscopic cells while the word “murder” is used to demonize procedures that save lives, simultaneously shutting down any and all discussions of nuance and circumstance. It’s difficult to try to argue a case for murder rights and when you think murder is synonymous with abortion, disdain for a group of people you don’t know or understand seems not only justified, but dignified. It is the moral high ground after all, right? In other words, by using a little propaganda and a little semantics, the church is able to convince the general public into expanding its members and its resources. (Hm, it kind of sounds suspiciously like missionary work).
Meanwhile, numerous medical procedures are blanketed under the term “abortion” in hospital coding, which means anyone needing these life-saving procedures is now at risk in states like Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama. However, reality is there are many instances within the realm of pregnancy in which the fetus is not viable for delivery, such as during an ectopic pregnancy (when the zygote implants in the fallopian tube) or when the mother is deathly ill and unable to carry to term. When the pregnancy itself is the reason for such health complications, abortions save lives. Oh, and by the way, a miscarriage (you know, those things many women have by no fault of their own) is just a euphemism for abortion, when the body senses something is wrong and aborts the growth of the embryo itself. But even when no choice is involved, such as in miscarriage, the procedure to remove the remaining cells and tissue, which can get stuck inside the uterus and cause problems, is still called abortion.
When it comes to overturning Roe, though, no one’s fooling us. This is not a moral issue; it’s smoke and mirrors. Cis white men in power will continue seeking abortion access for their mistresses and white, wealthy women will still find ways around the law to protect themselves. Women of color, immigrants, trans and non-binary people, and those in poverty will suffer most. They will have the most restrictions, the least access, and the harshest consequences for seeking care.
Even with Biden’s Executive Order Protecting Access to Reproductive Healthcare Services, doctors in many states are still waiting for clarification and approval from legal teams before providing life-saving care. Plus, we know people in positions of power get away with not following protocols so I just can’t trust that fair and equal access to abortion will be a thing in red states or swing states.
Photo via the latimes.com
Corrupt politicians, employing Christianity as a weapon, want to keep minorities, women, and LGBTQ people in poverty and at a disadvantage and make more white, Christian followers. It’s also still pretty early since Roe was overturned and we have yet to see just how harsh the legal system will be in states with abortion bans. We may not only see people dying. We may see them become felons for exerting bodily autonomy and lose the right to vote.
But let's not feign surprise now, after fifty years of anti-abortion campaigns, legislature, and debates. We all knew Amy Coney Barrett lied when she said she didn't yet know how she'd vote regarding overturning Wade or Casey. This was a deliberate lie and an infiltration of what is supposed to be an unbiased court of law, the same as with Justices Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. So let's not pretend overturning Roe V. Wade is only about abortion. It's about the right to privacy, a precedent that until now, protected other rights, like interracial marriage, birth control and gay partnership. It’s about capitalism, huge profit margins, keeping the one percent in power, and enslaving everyone else. It’s about revoking human rights and sullying the American government with alt-right religious ideologies. As disheartening as it is, I’m not sure how long we have before the White House becomes the next cover of a dystopian novel.
Despite my fear and uncertainty, though, I, for one, will be lighting a fire under my ass. I will be marching. I will be protesting. I will be donating to and writing my representatives. I will be researching the political affiliations of my service providers and of my preferred retailers and I will be making changes. I will be voting. I will be volunteering. I will be listening to BIPOC people, immigrants, indigenous tribes, and the LGBTQ community. I will be trying to learn and better myself as an ally, so that hopefully, light can beget more light. For now, let’s get one thing straight. Pregnancy-capable people are givers of life. They do not take it by protecting themselves.