Many of the current topics being debated in Washington D.C. have been heated on both sides of every topic. While nearly every topic is important, it horrifies me that they are even up for political debate. Out of any of the most contentious topics that horrifies me the most would be the current debate between Pro-Choice and Anti-Choice people. The Pro-Choice side is in support of women being able to have an abortion, regardless of any of the circumstances surrounding the birth. The Anti-Choice side believes that women should not be able to have an abortion, even in the case of rape. While most people on either side of the debate are upset about the other sides opinions, my concern lies elsewhere.
To my greatest shock and continual amazement, other people have decided that they can decide what a woman can and cannot do with her body.
Every person should be able to determine for themselves what they can and cannot do with their body, yet politicians and other individuals think a woman's choice about her own body is up for discussion.
News Alert: the only person who can determine whether a woman should have a bay is, spoiler, the woman.
So why do they continue trying to take away this choice?
Three main reasons:
1. It is not the woman's choice alone, but also her partner's decision to make.
2. The life of the embryo is more important than the woman herself.
3. It is the will of God for that woman to have a child.
We pride ourselves on separation of church and state, on being founded on principles of equality and yet we continually see the same arguments for every debate. These points are made over and over again like a broken record in the Congress and House, while violence against women is committed and protests erupt in the streets. The common thread through each of these points is how people are viewing pregnant women.
What is the most common phrase used to describe pregnant women?
"She's got a bun in the oven."
Women are not people when they are pregnant, they are incubators. During their pregnancy, the only thing that matters to everyone else is that she has a 'possible person' growing within her. Forget that it her body that is changing. Forget that she is a human being and not chattel that is being used for breeding. But that is what most Anti-Choicers ignore when they argue against abortions.
What they also do not seem to get is that Pro-Choicers are not saying every woman should get an abortion. They are simply saying that a woman is a human being and that she should be able to choose whether she wants the child or not. It's as simple as that. Does the woman want to have an abortion, yes or no? And whatever that decision is, we, as the people who are not pregnant, need to be able to respect that and respect her.
But, others cannot accept that. Rather than realizing that every person has a right to their own decision, the government rules that women need to consult their partners before getting an abortion. Lets take the embryo out of the equation, and think back to the times when a woman could not own property. When she had to get permission from her husband to take money out of their shared account. These are things that we no longer think about. Imagine if we were talking about a woman taking money out of the account instead of an abortion. Would the response be the same? Or would people be outraged that a woman had no choice in how she spent the money that she earned?
For the first 140 years of our country, a woman had no say in what happened in politics. She had no voice in the government, and she had no say about any of the laws that affected her personally. By denying a woman the right to a choice about what she does with her own body, we are taking the voices away from half of the world's population. Instead of listening to the women themselves, people are involved with male politicians who argue that rape and incest is God's will. We are allowing male politicians to take money away from organizations like Planned Parenthood that help domestic violence victims, pre-screen for breast cancer, provide family planning and help, and contraceptive methods for women and men.
This debate is not just about whether a woman should or should not have an abortion; this debate is about whether a woman is person or if she is an instrument of breeding.
I will continue to fight for my fellow women. I will fight for our right's to choose what happens to our bodies. I fight for out right to be treated like human beings.
"She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted."
