A few days ago, Ohio announced it was passing a law that would ban abortions after six weeks. If a doctor were to perform an abortion, they would be charged with fifth degree felony, even in cases of rape or incest. This bill would also make it harder to find contraceptives, such as the ‘day-after pill’. Read more about the bill here. As a young woman, I am beyond PISSED about this. It’s hard to get my words to actually form coherent sentences, but here goes anyway.

F*ck you, Ohio.

First off, women normally don’t find out they’re pregnant until 4 to 6 weeks and if they then make the hard decision to get an abortion, they have a lengthy discussion with a therapist, a wait of 24 hours, and finally the process of finding a doctor to perform the operation. Limiting the time women have to decide doesn’t lower the amount of abortions that’ll happen. It only moves women to find people who will perform unsafe abortions. I’m sure you’ve heard of coat hanger abortions. If you’ve forgotten how dangerous they actually are, I highly suggest you read up it on.

Secondly, how are rape and incest not reasons to have an abortion? Why does the woman have to be punished for a man’s decision? This means that a woman will have to carry a baby that she never wanted to full term and either choose to raise it all by herself or go through the process of giving it up for adoption? Choosing to raise a child by yourself costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. According to Huffington Post, a child born in 2013 would cost over $245,000 to raise until age 18. Every time she were to look at the child, she would have to be reminded of the night she was raped. On the flip side, if she were to give it up for adoption, she would still have to deal with the pain of giving a child away.

If a child weren’t to be adopted, it would go into foster care and start the life of being transferred from family to family. Most children, after the age of 9, are never adopted and once they reach 18-years old, they’re sent off to live on their own without any support. They’ll probably go to food stamps and welfare because they need support to get by, but yet these are programs that many people also want to take away. Many people that are ‘pro-life’ aren’t actually pro-life. They’re just pro-birth. A majority of these people wouldn’t even consider adopting a child out of welfare because it isn’t their responsibility for another living person, but yet deciding the fate of another woman is?

Most women who want abortions have a reason to do so. Some are addicted to drugs and if they keep the baby, it is most likely going to be born addicted to drugs as well and immediately start a hard life of addiction. Is that what you want for a baby? People may say, “If you have sex, you should be prepared for the consequences,” and in some ways, I understand that. However, sex is a natural part of life and people need to start understanding that.

I don’t think I’ll ever understand why the government thinks it is okay to control women’s bodies. In 2015, over 400 bills were passed regulating women’s reproductive system yet no bills were passed for men. If it’s not your body, stay the hell away from it. A women’s decision should be between her, her partner (if applicable), and her doctor. That’s it.

End rant.