Amanda Munro (The Beacon)
By Amanda Munro, Guest Commentary
It's easy to oppose contraception coverage when you've never had to worry about pregnancy. It's easy to support cutting federal funding for Planned Parenthood when you've never struggled to pay for reproductive healthcare. And it's easy to be pro-life when you've never stared in horror at a little pink plus on a pregnancy test.
It all comes down to this: I don't care what your beliefs are or what religion you belong to. You do not have the right to legislate what happens within my body. Taking away my right to choose what happens to my body is taking away my fundamental human rights.
Abortion has been reduced to a never-ending debate about when life begins, but what it really boils down to is whether you believe a live, grown woman has more rights than an unborn fetus (or, as personhood laws would like to mandate, a fertilized egg). Many people and prominent politicians in the United States believe that the government should force women to give birth against their will, even if doing so is against the woman's (or the child in question's) best interests, and even in cases of rape, incest, or threat to the life of the mother.
Or, like Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan, they try to redefine the lines of rape in order to prevent victims from getting an abortion, distinguishing between rape and "forcible rape" as if some types are more "legitimate" than others. As 1 in 5 women who have experienced sexual assault can attest, there is no such distinction, yet Missouri representative and hopeful senator Todd Akin said recently that if a woman is a victim of "legitimate rape" her body will simply shut down the pregnancy automatically, but even if that handy little biological functioning doesn't work out, abortion should still be illegal in all circumstances. Romney-endorsed Indiana state treasurer Richard Murdock said Tuesday night that when women become pregnant as a result of rape, it is something that "God intended to happen," therefore they should not be allowed to receive an abortion.
Just the fact that people in positions of power in this country even hold such idiotic viewpoints (not to mention a complete ignorance of basic human anatomy) is sickening, but the idea that they would force a woman to carry the child of her rapist to term against her will is a disgusting breach of human decency and shows a complete disregard for the kind of emotional devastation so many women in this country go through today. I mean, really?
And as if that kind of legislation isn't bad enough, fake pregnancy clinics are popping up all over the map that give medically false information to women, discouraging them from choosing abortion. Kansas wants to pass a bill that would force doctors to lie to women by telling them abortions increase the risk of breast cancer. Some states are trying to mandate medically unnecessary vaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortions. Trust me, I wish I were making this stuff up.
And now hopeful president Mitt Romney wants to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, when the organization's main function is to promote all aspects of women's reproductive health (such as cancer screenings) and only 3% of its budget is actually for abortions. Thousands of women across America depend on Planned Parenthood for affordable reproductive healthcare and wouldn't be able to afford life-saving procedures and cancer screenings otherwise. Cutting funding for it based on that miniscule 3% would be devastating for the health of women across the country.
And all of this "pro-life" talk fails to take into account the quality of life a child will have after birth. It seems that the "sanctity of life" is enormously important to pro-life advocates up until the child is actually born. But if the family doesn't have the finances or capability to properly take care of that child, that's their problem. Or they can just give it up for adoption and add that baby to the other 408,425 children in foster care who don't have families of their own. Because of course, it doesn't matter if these children we'd be bringing into the world actually have the potential for a happy, healthy life as long as they're born in the first place...right?
The most baffling thing about this whole issue is that many of the people and personhood laws that would make abortion illegal would also make contraception illegal. It seems to me like the most logical way to decrease abortions would be to increase the availability of birth control, but apparently that's also a no-no (because of course the ideals of certain fundamentalist groups in America should be imposed on all Americans whether we agree with those ideals or not.)
And yet, it's obvious that we have a finite number of resources in this country; we already have ever-increasing poverty and unemployment, and more babies being born just means less money, jobs, and quality education for every person. So, how do the fundamentalists propose to solve this problem? Abstinence! Yeah, as if that's ever worked in the entire history of humanity. Sex is a perfectly normal activity and always has been; get over it.
And while women are increasingly limited in their ability to protect themselves by laws, prescriptions, and shaming sex talks or name calling (you slut!), men can still buy a box of condoms for five bucks in the grocery store without comment. Because men can have as much sex as they want; why shouldn't protection be readily available to them? But women? They're bullied and shamed for having sex, prevented from access to protection, and then blamed for the consequences. (Still think we don't live in a patriarchal society? Think again.)
The blatant sexist messages reflected in the issue of reproductive rights say that a woman can't possibly make decisions for herself and that the government must step in and take away her autonomy over her own body in order to save her from her ignorance. These attempts at legislation convey the message that more powerful, fatherly figures must lie to a woman, shame her, and prevent her from making decisions that directly and only affect her, because clearly women don't know what's best for them or their unborn children; religious groups and the government do! And that's the United States we live in today in a nutshell. I had hoped we would have progressed to a higher level of thinking by this century, but I guess I was too optimistic.
Like they say, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." Laws are being passed all over the nation that are infringing on our human rights and it's time we put a stop to it. It is a woman's fundamental human right to make her own decisions about her reproductive health without the interference of the government or anyone else. It is a woman's right to easily access safe and affordable reproductive healthcare, including contraception and abortion. And it's a woman's right to receive accurate education on her reproductive health and be free from discrimination based on her reproductive decisions.
If you don't agree with that, fine. Don't get an abortion, don't get birth control, and don't go to Planned Parenthood. I respect your right to make those decisions. But don't you DARE make it against the law for me to do so of my own free will. It's my body, it's my right, and you do not have a say in the matter.
Amanda Munro is a sophomore political science major. She can be reached at munroa15@up.edu
