On Wednesday, December 14, 2016, Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed the "Heartbeat Bill" which banned all abortions after 6 weeks of pregnancy or "after a fetal heartbeat is detected" and approved a law that bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Ohio is only the latest state to approve the 20 week ban, after Georgia and South Carolina. Not only that but President-Elect Donald Trump has expressed an interest in overturning Roe v. Wade.
This would not be the first time a male has dictated women's reproductive system; in fact, they have been doing it for centuries.
In light of the election, women all over the country have been stocking up on Plan B pills and switching to IUD's which can last 5 to 10 years. Mr. Trump has made it very clear that he wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act, making birth control more expensive and harder to obtain. These are only some of the harsh stipulations that we are expecting to come in 2017 when it comes to our reproductive health.
We, as women, need to stand up for our rights now more than ever.
We deserve the rights to our own bodies. We deserve a voice in this matter.
Trump has mentioned defunding Planned Parenthood, which would not only mean that abortions would be out of the question, but also it would do away with free cancer screenings and birth control for women who don't have the means to go to a regular physician.
Making safe abortions illegal or more hard to come by will not make them cease.
In fact, making abortion illegal does not reduce the number of terminations women have, a study has concluded.
Michelle Wolf, a commentator on The Daily Show, had this to say on the matter,
"Ladies, we have to be done taking the high road. From now on, when they go low, we go b****, or else we're gonna keep living in a country where we care more about the rights of a coffee cup than the rights of a woman."
This is the time for women of all backgrounds to stand together for something much bigger than all of us. We must not let the government rule over our bodies. We should have the right to choose. We cannot and should not forgo the rights to our own reproductive health.
