Uterus, The American Enemy

I wrote an article about the Taliban’s effect on Afghanistan women over the summer. I wrote it predominately for a Western audience; a call to action to help highlight and fight alongside the cause. Only a handful of weeks later, I woke up to the news that the Taliban – or at least their ideologies – had hit Texas.

The hub of cowboy boots, fried foods, country music, and Queen Bey’s birthplace was overly joyous in their announcement of the abortion ban. A real yeehaw moment for Conservative America. Tragically, several States have since followed suit. Once again submitting women’s health to the dominance of men’s authority. Who would have imagined that the 21st century, for as old as it is, would still procure oppressive systems surrounding women? Women. That’s who.

Pro-lifers are problematic people for a multitude of reasons, but none more imperative than their palpable disdain for women and our uteruses. Being non-American, I was raised in a community where abortion has always been accessible. The word abortion is comfortable within my language. It has been in my mouth and rolled off my tongue several times throughout my life, and off the top of my head, I can list numerous clinics within my (British) postcode. I remember how teen magazines would run articles on women who’ve had abortions, and how columnist agony aunts were readily comfortable in suggesting terminations to those with unwanted pregnancies. Therefore, advocating abortion as a normal extension of healthcare. Which of course it is.

One of the misconceptions (and there are many) about being pro-women, therefore pro-choice, is that we’re all comfortable with the idea of abortion. I’ve never had a termination. That doesn’t mean I’m special, deserve a red carpet to walk on, or should be rewarded a round of applause. Not only have I never had an abortion, but unless it was a necessary medical decision delivered to me by a trusted gynaecologist, I would never consider having one either. Again – hold the applause. The point is this, what is right for my body, isn’t necessarily right for another woman’s body. Who are we to govern each other’s bodies by our own individualized compass? To my Termination Sisters, do you. I fully support you. No judgments here.

For the people in the back row, whose school disastrously failed to deliver adequate and efficient biology lessons, abortions aren’t just used as contraception. And even when they are, that’s ok too. Terminations are used for a multitude of medical reasons, including (but not limited to) miscarriages and life-threatening health risks to either mother or child. I’m sure there are those screaming at me right now for failing to mention sexual assault survivors in need of terminations – I hadn’t forgotten. Here’s the thing, it narks me that we’re forced to create an elongated list of possible reasons as to why we should be entitled to choose what we do with our bodies. Ugh. I understand that building a case is important – really, I do – but it’s infuriating that we revictimize sexual assault survivors by detailing their assault as a justification for the most basic right an individual can have: to make choices for their own physical welfare.

I wonder, how far are we to go with this ban? Where are we going to draw the line between what’s medically reasonable, and what’s hypocrisy delivered by tyrannical regulators who don’t support women’s health inclusively? Should women amass together in between our overworked schedules of saving and running the world and our families, while campaigning for equalities we don’t have and begin a new campaign against men having the right to choose whether they have vasectomies? Maybe we should pass a law so that they need their wives’ and mothers’ consent in order of getting the snip.

It’s interesting (a diplomatic word for WHAT-THE-ACTUAL-FUCK) that here in America women don’t have permission to have their tubes tied without the consent of their (male) significant other. If they don’t have a (male) significant other, they must wait until they find one, who will then hopefully grant them the authorization to be in control of their insides. This doesn’t bode well for those who don’t intend on coupling up with uterus regulators, aka men. Adding to that already bizarrely despotic principle, there’s now an angry pursuit to abolish abortion throughout all 50 States; leaving women vulnerable to ‘alternative methods,’ meaning we’ll see an incalculable number of women dying just to be fetus free. Coat hangers have never been our friends.

It’s true, abortion isn’t for me. That’s my right. That’s me advocating for my own health and my own principles. It’s an individual decision, and my right not to have an abortion impacts no one. So why is it that if we turned these sentences inside out and stream them the opposite way, they become a problem?

The situation is clear. Women should individually decide what is best for their reproductive organs, without debate, without pressure, without Congress’ influence, and without the external judgment of others. Especially the judgment of other women.