This article may be triggering.
Even though I grew up in a Roman Catholic household, I do not think that abortion should be illegal. I cannot imagine being a victim of rape and having to bear a child that is unwanted. I can't even imagine having to birth a child that is unwanted period.
On May 9, 1960 the FDA approved "the pill" in Chicago, Illinois. Yet, what most people don't know are the effects that this first contraception caused. When the pill was first approved, the side effects killed many women. These side effects included hair-loss, weight-loss, nausea, blood clots, stroke, and heart attacks.
When I watched "She's Beautiful When She's Angry", I legit locked myself in my room and refused to go out for two days. I was disgusted. Women where dying left and right, and no one seemed to care. I can't even begin to imagine what our ancestors must have gone through to allow us to be where we are today. I know we take it for granted, and most people think "it's not that bad," but it's only that way because of women that fought for our freedom. It's women who first dared to wear trousers, first dared to work, thank you for allowing me to have a blog and have a voice on the injustices we are still seeing.
Our fight is not over. Although we are more advanced in the West, our sisters in the East are still suffering. These abortions laws have set us backs decades, and we need to be more proactive in how we choose to proceed. We thought that someone like Trump couldn't be Commander in Chief, yet here he is. We thought abortion would never be illegal, yet here it is...We want to think that bad things won't happen, but they will, it's Murphy's Law, and we need to come to terms with it.
1. Middle class and above will still be able to afford safe abortions
Abortion laws are only going to affect those who cannot afford it. If a wealthy woman needs to have an abortion, for whatever reason, she will be able to afford a safe abortion. Meanwhile, unsafe abortions will occur in lower-income households, putting our sisters at risk.
2. More children will be in the foster care
A child worker in Petra.
Okay, saving lives, I get it, but who exactly is going to take care of these children? What if the woman doesn't want the child, where is it going to go?
Child services, that's who. First of all, we are already overpopulated, so why are we trying to have more children? In terms of cost, this will not be efficient, I hate to put a number on children, but this is going to be coming out of our taxes. Maybe some wealthy people evade their fair share of taxes, but it will be an economic drain on everyone.
3. The alternative (birth control) is not safe for women
After watching several documentaries on Netflix about women's right, and it's history, I was shocked. Women have had to endure so much bullshit, and we still are. Not trying to leave men's role out of it, but c'mon. The pill has been killing women since it was first approved by the FDA, and it still is. On September 26, 2018, Alexandra Williams collapsed in her driveway. After her autopsy revealed blood clots in her lungs. After further investigation, it was evident that these blood clots were side effects of her birth control.
4. Some women do not have family to help them raise a child
Above is Rachael on her 19th birthday, when we were also celebrating her pregnancy with Carter.
I thank my grandparents and family every day. My family is very open about teen pregnancy since women in our family have been pregnant at 14 years old. Before you gasp, realize that I'm Colombian asf, and these things happen in my culture. My grandmother's sister was pregnant at 14, and my cousin did too when I was in middle school. Since these things happen, my grandma has told me that if I ever get pregnant, I have a family to depend on, and truthfully that is such a nice safety net. Although I have a family that would help me raise a child, I do not want to put that responsibility on my family, let alone that child.
The thing is, not everyone has family that would do that for them. There's nothing worse than having an unwanted child and having to fend for yourself. Of course, it builds character or whatever, but there has to be another way to build character than by bringing another human being into the world.
5. Women have been persecuted before the Salem witch trials
On June 1692, Bridget Bishop was the first witch convicted in Salem, Massachusetts. Women have been persecuted from the beginning of time. Eve was the woman society (unknowingly) blames for our sins. Adam was doing just fine until Eve showed up and took a bite of the apple. Then Mary is accused of impurity during her pregnancy with Jesus because no one believed a virgin could be pregnant unless she wasn't a "virgin."
I get it, we don't want to admit it, but we as a society, kind of hate women.
6. Successful women will not be able to advance in their careers
Hopefully, we've all seen the pilot episode of "Shameless." It begins with two ignorant men speaking ill of low-income women, saying that "they will not abort." Again, abortion mostly occurs in middle to upper class, because they can "afford" it! This will cost successful women and therefore inhibit their ability to succeed in our already fragile workplace.
This will leave women out of the workforce we've tried so hard to be a part of. Successful women will be forced to bear children.
7. Women's right are being taken away
How did the Holocaust happen? Do I need to explain it? It didn't happen overnight, it was a gradual process. Hopefully, we've all learned something about it, and how it started off. It was a slow process, that took careful planning. At first, they took away the little things. At first, men started accepting "locker room talk." Then they will start to take our reproductive choice, what's next?
Take a look at the image above, isn't it sad? We don't care when men are shirtless, but God forgive the moment a woman chooses to do the same.
8. What about rape victims?
When I was in middle school, I found out one of my close friends had been molested by her stepdad. That is the earliest recollection of something like that happening to someone I cared about, until college. My freshmen year, 5 girls in my dorm were raped. I never really understood how it happens, or what that person must be going through. The girls tried to brush it off like it wasn't a big deal. I can't even imagine having a child resulting from that.
I read an article about a woman who regretted not getting an abortion in "I Wished I'd Had a Late-Term Abortion, Instead of Having My Daughter." I cried the entire time, and can't imagine what that must feel like.
9. Are we being distracted by women's right?
The conspiracy-theory driven person that I am, can't help but think this is a distraction. Part of me thinks that all these abortions laws are distracting us from bigger world issues as if the Kardashians aren't enough, the government has to throw us another curb ball.
I mean think about it, creating all these abortion laws will distract us from helping others. It will keep our focus in this conflict while the government and the world could get be massacred. Okay, rant over.
10. How will we explain this to our daughters?
The woman on this picture is a true badass. I briefly spoke to her, and she has been protesting since the 70s. SINCE THE 70s!! How are we going to explain this to our grandmothers and daughters? How do we explain these times, in which we allowed our rights to be taken from us? This is the shit history books will write about in a decade or two and title it, "What Were They Thinking?"
