Nowadays when it comes to abortion there are two types of people. One is the “Pro-Life” who oppose abortion and the other one is “Pro-Choice” who believe that a woman should be able to decide what to do with her pregnancy and body. Pro-Lifers believe that abortion is murder and it is a sin. On the other hand, Pro-Choicers believe that a person should have full rights on their own bodies be it for terminating a pregnancy or practising celibacy or anything related to one’s own body. So when the question of abortion comes up these two belief systems are in splits.
In 1973 the Supreme Court of US passed a landmark judgement in which abortions were legalised. Since then the States have put their own restrictions on abortions. Recently in the US, five States have passed their own abortion ban bills. In Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio the bill bans abortion once a foetal heartbeat is detected. Now for most of the people, this would seem fair but what is not understood is that the heartbeat of a baby can be detected as early as six weeks into the pregnancy.
Most women aren’t even aware that they are pregnant at this time. A woman suspects a probable pregnancy when she misses her period which can be anytime in the next four weeks. A pregnancy test is taken after a week from the missed period for accurate results. Now this leaves a very small period of time for a woman to get the procedure done. The bill which passed in Kentucky was struck down by the federal judge. Others are yet to come in force and yet to be challenged. These bills have been introduced after two conservative justices were appointed by the very logical US President Donald Trump.
Now let’s understand what is happening in Alabama. This bill which is passed in this State is the most repugnant of them all. The bill bans abortion at any stage of the pregnancy and if the pregnancy is terminated the woman and the doctor who performed the procedure will face 99 years of prison or for life. The only exception is if the woman is facing any serious health risk. This means if the pregnancy is a result of incest or rape even then the woman can’t terminate her pregnancy. If a twelve-year-old girl is raped and gets pregnant, she has to carry the child. She will have to carry her rapist’s child but wait her ordeal does not end here. The rapist can have joint custody of that child with his victim. Is there anything more torturous and de-humanising than this?
The Pro-lifers are in support of these bills. They think that an embryo should have more human rights than the mother who is a living human herself. The hypocrisy behind their beliefs has to be understood. These Pro-Lifers don’t care what happens to the baby after it is born. They are not concerned if the child has a proper home, education, health care or any other basic needs of a child. They only care until the time a baby is inside the body of a woman.
It is as if they don’t care about the baby at all, and the only thing that matters is the control that they hold over a woman’s body. They want to strip women off of their bodily rights and control their sexuality which is instilled in patriarchy. This is not a war between Pro-life and Pro-choice. This war is on women and about protecting their basic human rights. Giving human rights to an embryo than to an actual living human being is preposterous. Not letting women decide what to do with their own bodies and giving more prison time to a person who gets an abortion than to a rapist is a sign of declaring a war on women and this is exactly why this world needs more feminists.