Minding Womb Business (the wrong Way)

During several months of radio silence, a promising spring and an intense, challenging but also fruitful few months have turned into the long days of summer. Back in the days, summer used to be slow-news times, but those seem to lie in a distant past as several news bombs have hit and made considerable impact in recent weeks.

News bombs tend to hit the news cycle and then disappear again, seemingly with little trace. However, one particular news bomb that dropped a few weeks ago will continue to resound for times to come. The US Supreme Court, the highest judiciary body in the land, decided to overturn Roe v. Wade. This means there is no longer the federal right to abortion and individual states can decide whether to allow abortion or not. In terms of human rights for women and girls, the clock has been turned back decades. Religious beliefs, conservative views, and the general need to control women’s bodies have made it okay to sanction the violation of the inalienable right to bodily autonomy.

In comes the controlling tide

Roe v. Wade is a US Supreme Court landmark case from 1973 in which the court ruled that a ban on abortion is unconstitutional. Roe v. Wade stands for the legal pseudonym Jane Roe who filled a case againt the Texas district attorney at the time Henry Wade. ‘Jane Roe’, whose legal name was Norma McGorvey, fell pregnant with her third child in 1969 and wanted an abortion, which was forbidden in the state of Texas where she lived.

As the US has always known a strong anti-abortion movement made up of conservatives and religious, predominately right-winged folks, Roe v. Wade has always been controversial. The slow but steady shift of the political affiliation of Supreme Court judges, who are appointed by the ruling president for life, made it possible for the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling to be overturned. Due to the death of three Supreme Court judges during his tenure, then-President Trump has appointed no less than three conservative-leaning judges, so the Court could make steps to control women’s wombs once more.

The Consequences

This ruling doesn’t mean that abortion is illegal across the USA. It means that individual states can now decided whether they want to impose an abortion ban. Within a week of the ruling more than half of the 50 US states have either banned abortion or are planning to do so as soon as possible. In different countries and regions, abortion can be allowed under different circumstances. However, in many US states abortion is or will be illegal under any circumstances, this include cases of rape, incest, and/ or when the mother’s life is in danger. The latest ruling affects 40 million women;  almost 60 per cent of women of reproductive age in the US are living in states where abortion is or soon will be illegal or difficult to get.

Pro Life is Pro Controlling Women

The abortion debate, especially in the US is framed as pro-life vs. pro-choice. It is interesting to note that many ‘pro-lifers’ are in favour of the right to carry arms, which are murder weapons. Many are also supporters of the military industrial complex, that has waged many a dirty war in faraway lands killing millions of innocent people. The pro-life stance of these people is not terribly consistent, so what they might actually mean is that they are pro-controlling life. This would make much more sense since guns and the military are pretty intense tools of control.

Everyone is entitled to their personal opinion about abortion. It becomes highly problematic if one wants one’s personal opinion or belief, which can be highly restrictive to others, to be public policy. Across the world, abortion is completely illegal in 24 countries including European micro nations Andorra and Malta. In another 50 countries, including EU-member state Poland, abortion is severely restricted. No matter one’s opinion, policies that control women’s wombs and women’s lives, have little to do with protecting unborn life and everything to do with control and these policies are profoundly anti-woman.

This should not be our burden

When it comes to what one calls family planning, it takes two to tango, or so you’d think. However, when it comes to contraception and managing the creation of offspring, policymakers, doctors, Big Pharma and anyone else who wants to have a say in these matters, have been getting it all wrong for decades. All the pressure and responsibility in terms of regulating and preventing pregnancies are put on women. Women are urged- or scared- by their mothers, and whoever else, not to fall pregnant too young. There is the birth control pill, and the IUD (intrauterine device) but there are no equivalents of these tools for men. Boys are not told with the same vigour not the impregnate girls, ‘or else’. There are condoms, which many men don’t like to use, so they invented the female condom, which says it all really. Because the big fat question is: why is the burden of contraception predominately put on us women while we are clearly not the ‘problem’? Most women have a womb; one womb in which they can gestate one child- on some occasions several children- for the duration of nine months. This means a woman can give birth to one (or two or three in the case of twins or triplets) every nine months during her reproductive years. Men however, can create several kids every single day until the day they die assuming they have the stamina and swimmers that are fast enough. And yet birth control is not at all targeted at men, which would clearly make more sense. A vasectomy, for example, is a relatively simple procedure which can very easily be reversed, unlike sterilisation in women. And yet, vasectomy is not at all promoted as an easy and viable contraceptive.

It’s likely that men don’t want to develop tools and methods that infringe on their bodily autonomy, and assuming that is the case, they shouldn’t bother us with it either. However, I think the main issue is that too many men are still way too keen on controlling women. To deny a woman or a girl the right to abortion is to deny her the right to bodily autonomy, her right to decide how she wants to live her life. Whether she wants children or not, when and how many. It denies a woman or girl’s the right to take some form of control if a case of incest or rape results into pregnancy. A woman is allowed to prioritise her health if a pregnancy puts her life at risk.

This latest curtailing of abortion rights in the so-called Land of the Free is not affecting me personally, but that doesn’t mean I am not terribly upset about it. Revolution is looming. We really need to take that womb power back.