Will The War on Women’s Bodies Ever End?

 Will the Attack on Women's Bodies Ever End?

By Elsa Gil

Since the 24th of June 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned in the United States, the conversations surrounding women’s bodies and rights pertaining to abortions have become imperative.

With many women worldwide who once had the right to abortion care now questioning the longevity of these laws that are sworn to protect them. This change has many women in the western world cautioning that geography will never affect one’s human rights; bigotry will. Many Europeans love to chant, ‘At least we’re not like America!’ Yet, the quickening rise in fascism must make us question this. This may be a familiar reality too.

The air is thick with unequivocal hate, and it's suffocating us all.

The Trump administration’s goal to have a country-wide ban on abortion has been festering for some time. Trump played the long game when it came to banning abortion within America. Appointing three conservative Supreme judges, who would later go on to overturn Roe v. Wade two years later. Republicans’ reasoning for having a country-wide ban on abortion is religious immorality. ‘Choose life’ is proudly woven into their Trump merchandise, but many do criticise the Trump administration for their hypocrisy.

Conservative people have a fantasy that if we simply tell sexually active people the consequences of sex, then this would eradicate ‘unnecessary’ abortions.

However, this is extremely fictitious and not at all plausible—and later feeds into many Republicans' dream to control women in all aspects of their lives.

Denying women abortions for ‘illogical’ reasons is futile. For example, a person walking down the pavement being struck by a swerving car is refused treatment by an ambulance because they knew there was a risk of being severely harmed when they decided to walk down the street. Examples like this seem completely irrational and nonsensical, likely because they are common things that can happen to anyone—but is sex not a common thing?

Due to society’s demonising a woman's sexuality, sex becomes hidden and shameful—the products of it even more so. This in hand creates a darker shadow around the conservation of abortion; society’s inability to accept the realistic lives of women leads to people being incapable of conceptualising the idea behind why a woman may seek an abortion.

People are deluded in thinking we can eradicate social issues when we can only decrease them.

Conservative men think that abortion is this mystical thing that happens behind closed doors done by mysterious women that are lurking in our shadows. But one in four fertile women will have an abortion in their lifetime. The conservative women who surround these men have likely gotten an abortion themselves. However, due to the stigma created by these groups, women are afraid to ever admit this. As a likely consequence of being ostracised from their communities.

They boast that banning abortion will save lives and protect women—they just don’t know it yet!

Though research contradicts this.

Abortion will never disappear; it simply goes underground, risking the safety needed for such complex procedures. Without proper legislation that protects individuals involved in these procedures, lives are at risk. Many women old enough to remember a time before Roe v. Wade recount the memories of sketchy doctors and invasive stories. Some were lucky in leaving these primitive abortion clinics, yet not every patient survived; some were subjected to either being burnt in a residential furnace or buried underneath the basement’s concrete. No one knows how many women were killed as a result of their illegal abortions. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, this dark past threatens to return.

Abortion is not a single issue and never has been. If not resolved, it will have detrimental consequences on society. Women being forced to carry unwanted children damages the safety of a good childhood needed to shape upstanding members in society.

Pro-choicers don’t strive for abortion—it is always a final, secure choice, but that choice exists to stabilise the lives of millions to harness control over their lives. Abortion gives women the ability to grasp their future—and restricting a young woman's freedom will forever restrict society’s freedom as a whole. No one should be irrevocably punished for wrongdoings; this is what pro-choice aims to fight for.

Society cannot conclude on stripping the rights of billions by passing invasive laws that crudely police into people’s personal lives. The promises of fourth-wave feminism have collapsed—not all women are liberated under law to have independent lives.

Now more than ever is the time for women to liberally diverge