On Monday January 23, 2017 Donald Trump began signing the first of many Executive Orders this week, including one coined the “Global Gag Rule.” This law first came to be under Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1984, and has since been repealed and reinstated depending on which political party holds office. What this piece of legislation does is withhold US foreign aid to NGOs if they provide abortion services, even if the money is not going to abortion specifically. This makes access to reproductive care in developing nations and conflict-ridden areas much more difficult and dangerous for women.

When he signed this Executive Order, Trump was sitting in his chair in the Oval Office surrounded by six other men. Four of those men looked mighty smug at the prospect of limiting women’s health. I’ve come across a Huffington Post article that proves that this is not the only time in history there has been a roomful of men legislating about women’s bodies. It is pretty insightful and I recommend giving it a look.

But just take a look at this photo. The three men clustered in the right corner look so happy about toying with women’s bodies, hell they’ve probably been doing that their entire political career. The younger man to the left of them is also looking pretty proud of himself. Unfortunately, we can’t zoom in closer to their faces without ruining image quality, but you can see that disgusting pride they’re displaying on their faces.

If you scroll through the aforementioned Huffington Post article, you’ll notice that all the male politicians are expressing one of two or three emotions, or so it seems to me, pride for dictating what women can and cannot do to/with their bodies or confusion/exasperation because women are criticizing them for policing and politicizing their bodies and reproductive rights.

The fact that it’s roomfuls of men with little to no women legislating a woman’s body is problematic. A man does not have to face the same health problems as a woman, they do not need to worry about pregnancy, cervical cancer, etc. Things that organizations like Planned Parenthood help women with. Unplanned pregnancies are at a thirty year low. And that is due, in large part, to women having better access to reproductive healthcare, family planning, and education. For politicians who say that all Planned Parenthood does is provide abortions, they are sorely mistaken. Planned Parenthood has helped to lower the number of abortions because there are less unplanned pregnancies.

Personally, I agree with Rachel Green when she says, “no uterus, no opinion” because, if we’re being honest, how can a person who does not have my reproductive organs and biological functions/processes decide how I live my life? That’s what is so wrong with men regulating women’s bodies; it reaffirms the primeval patriarchal notion that a woman belongs to a man, including her body. And that’s just not true. If Congress wants to pass laws about my body and health, I’d like to see more women a part of the legislative process, because they understand my body better than any man can, especially Donald J. Trump, Mike Pence, and Paul Ryan.