Because it matters for everyone

I’m a white woman of privilege who’s gone through menopause.  Why would I care about Roe v. Wade?  Buckle up folks, because I’m about to tell you.

First of all, I’m livid about the Supreme Court leak that implies that Roe v. Wade may be overturned.  I believe that all women in this country have the right to navigate their own healthcare, and healthcare decisions should be made between women and their healthcare providers.  What business do judges who know nothing about healthcare have making those decisions for women?  Also, I believe that having a child is a big decision.  It may not be right for a woman to have a baby at the time she becomes pregnant. She could be poor; she could be rich; she could be young; she could be older.  Her relationship could be ending.  It could be the beginning of a relationship.  It could be a fling.  It could be that she’s married and never wanted children.  It could be the baby is seriously deformed and would need care 24/7.  It could be she was raped.  It could be her birth control failed.  It could be she sized out of a Plan B pill (yes, these pills have only been proven effective for people 165 lbs. and under).  It could be that carrying the fetus to term would be a risk to her life.  To me, it just doesn’t matter.  This woman has made a decision, and it isn’t the right time for this woman to have a baby.

In the United States, many women do not have easy access to healthcare and in turn birth control.  Sex education in many states does not cover birth control.  In my state, my children were taught that abstinence was the best birth control for them.  This message, my friends, is bullshit.  It would definitely help to limit the need for abortions if sex education and birth control were widely available throughout the country.  Even so, abortions should be widely available for those who choose to obtain them.

So what does the overturning of Roe v. Wade mean?  It means that it will no longer be a federal right for a woman to have an abortion.  When Roe v. Wade was first passed, the law claimed a woman could have an abortion until the fetus could survive outside the womb, which is now somewhere around 23 to 24 weeks.  Now the state legislature gets to decide if a woman can have an abortion or not.  Currently, states can determine the timing of when an abortion is illegal, which can be as early as 12 weeks of gestation.  In some states, there is a waiting period and counseling is required before having an abortion.   Put the time it takes for a woman to realize she is pregnant and the waiting period together, and there are women whose pregnant bodies age out of the legal abortion window in their state.  Often pregnancies that resulted from rape are excused.  But what does it take for a woman to prove she was raped?  Can it take more than the 40-week gestational period?  Of course it can.  Isn’t it enough that this woman went through the horrible trauma of a rape?  Now she has to go through the trauma of proving it so that she can abort the fetus that the rape created.

So what happens if Roe v. Wade is overturned?  Abortions become illegal.  Women can go to jail for having abortions.  Some states are talking about making abortions tantamount to murder.  Doctors can go to jail for performing abortions.  Will the Plan B pill become illegal?  What about IUDs or birth control pills that allow an egg to be fertilized but make the uterus unstable for the fertilized egg to plant?  What about when a woman has a miscarriage?  Will there be now be autopsies to determine if the miscarriage was truly an accident or if the woman forced it to happen to terminate her pregnancy?  Women have already been committed to jails for causing miscarriages. Can you imagine that? A woman has gone through the unbearable trauma of losing a fetus she was hoping would grow into her child, and now she has to prove she didn’t try to terminate her pregnancy?  How about if a woman wanted to cross state lines to have an abortion.  Would that be legal?

There is concern that overturning Roe v. Wade would have more consequences than just overturning abortions (as if that wasn’t enough?). There is concern that same-sex and interracial marriage could be overturned as well.   

If abortions become illegal, then who will take care of the children who are born out of unwanted pregnancies?  Even in the case of a healthy child, there is childcare, healthcare, education needs, emotional support, food, and housing.  If a mother can’t afford these things for herself, how can she afford them for a child?  Then what happens if the child has special mental or medical needs?  Where does the money and the time come for these things?  Today, there is a formula crisis in this country.  Mothers who can’t or choose not to breastfeed their children are struggling to find food for them.  Do we really want to add more babies into this environment?  As George Carlin put it so eloquently in a monologue he gave back in 1996, “If you’re pre-born you’re fine, if you’re preschool, you’re fucked.”

So now that we know that abortion is a women’s issue, an economic issue, a medical issue, and a human rights issue, who are we leaving the decision to?  9 judges.  None of these judges’ lives will be impacted by this decision that will impact over 64 million women in this country.  As a friend said to me, “This issue isn’t anti-abortion, it’s anti-women.”  Women who want to have sex for pleasure are being punished.  If we look beyond the 9 judges of the Supreme Court and take a look at the Congress, only 4 of the 535 representatives and senators are single parents.  The majority of these people are millionaires.  Do they really understand the gravity of this decision?

During my reproductive years, I gave birth to 3 children.  Fortunately for me, they were all born healthy.  I never had to make a decision about ending a pregnancy.  If I had, I was coming from a place of privilege.  It would have emotionally and possibly physically challenging, but there would not have been financial or logistical challenges.  Most importantly, it would have been legal.

Sure, I have children and nieces and nephews who might need abortions, or their partner may need an abortion.  So what?  They’re all of privilege too.  If they aren’t, their parents or grandparents will pay for their abortions.  Their needs can be taken care of.  But what about the other women in this country: the ones without the means to get birth control or travel to a safe place to have a legal abortion?  Who will take care of them?

We’re talking about a woman’s right to control her own body.  How can a woman have equality in this country if she can’t have that control?  A number of the Justices turn to the constitution and point out that there was nothing in the original Constitution that gave women this right.  Of course not.  When you state “all men are created equal,” there’s no women in that statement.  There were no POC either, but that’s for another blog post.

Sadly for me, I see that abortion may once again become illegal, but it will never go away.  This fact means that what we are making illegal is not abortions but safe abortions.  We are willing to put the lives of women on the line, some of these women already mothers of other children for the sake of a fetus that is not yet viably a baby.  Hearing this news, I am sad, scared, and horrified.  I want to support my fellow women and humankind in this country and allow for safe and legal procedures.

If you feel that this issue isn’t worth fighting for, I leave you with this statement from Martin Niemöller, a German Lutheran Pastor during the Nazi’s rise to power:

“They came first for the Communists,

and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionists.

Then they came for the for the Catholics,

and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,

and by that time no one was left to speak up.”