As I am writing this, it is less than a week before one of the most controversial presidential elections of our time. By the time you start reading this, it might be a day beforehand. But I’m still going to write about this because it makes me angry.
I have seen so many memes and posts and articles (both supporting and against) Hillary Clinton’s and Donald Trump’s comments about abortion, and frankly, a lot of them are wrong.
Many people are saying Hillary Clinton is arguing that a baby can be aborted days before it is due. I have seen things on social media about it, I have had conversations with people about it. The rhetoric was started by Trump, who used that exact language. And naturally, people have repeated it and are believing it.
But it simply isn’t true. Abortions that late in the term do not happen unless it’s for a medical reason, like, say…I don’t know…the baby or mother is dying? Kinda important in that case, if one or both of them are dying. Believe me, women aren’t just going to say, “Oh, a week before the due date? Can’t do it anymore!” That doesn’t happen.
And most abortions after about 21 weeks are for medical reasons. The fetus is dying or will die shortly after birth, the mother can’t carry the baby to term, and many other issues.
Clinton is fighting for a woman’s right to choose. And why shouldn’t she have the right to choose? It is her body. You, or I, may not agree with it, but it is not my life, it is not my body. It. Is not. My. Choice.
If the courts reverse Roe v. Wade, like Trump wants them to do as president (they won’t, btw), that means women will be left with no choice but self-abortion. And believe me, that is not something anyone wants. I’ve been reading articles all semester for my Women’s History class about self-abortions and it is some of the most heart-wrenching, graphic stuff I’ve ever read. Read some of Margaret Sanger’s writings. She was the pioneer of birth control in the early twentieth century. As a nurse prior to her activism, she would help women recover from abortions, either self-induced or done for five dollars with who knows what kind of instruments. So many women died because of it. Ruptures, punctures into other organs…it was terrifying to read. We cannot go back to that, and people cannot WANT to go back to that. It’s gruesome and cruel and denying a woman her right to have sovereignty over her own self.
No one should be involved in my own personal decisions concerning my body. No one else has to make the decision and live with it. No one else has to go through it in my own personal way. The government should not be involved in my reproductive rights and decisions. The church should not be involved in my body.
My body is mine. Not yours. Not the government’s. Not the church’s. Not anyone else’s but my own. Why should anyone else have sovereignty over myself but me?
