We All Deserve the Freedom to Control Our Bodies

[niyad]

We All Deserve the Freedom to Control Our Bodies
3/1/2023 by Cecile Richards

For 400+ years, we’ve been playing by their rules. (You know—the ones cisgender white men made.) Not any more. Women are the majority of voters in this country and together we have the power. It’s time for a new set of rules that values all of us—our bodies, our lives and our work. The Majority Rules project—an artful essay and op-ed series from Ms. and Supermajority Education Fund—marks an essential step toward achieving gender equality.

https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/1604826076-459a426873f71c2bdc57d6e00a044512da849d49090cbd94fd3adbca836e2cf5-d?mw=700&mh=394

Rule 2: Our bodies are respected.

January marked the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that recognized the right to an abortion “without excessive government restriction.” For 49 years, Jan. 22 served as a reminder of this hard-won freedom and the constitutional authority that protected one of the most personal decisions a person can make.

But this year, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landscape of reproductive freedom in this country looks markedly different. Reproductive freedom is under attack like never before. Immediately after the Supreme Court decision this past June, previously passed “trigger laws” ensured that abortion was immediately banned in more than a dozen states. Additional states have implemented severe restrictions on abortion, and in some cases, criminalized abortion to such an extreme that doctors are legally restricted from performing life-saving care on pregnant women and people—forcing doctors to choose between saving lives or going to prison.

Because of these new legal complications, women and all people who need abortions have been forced to continue dangerous pregnancies that threaten both their physical and mental health—a reality that can only be described as traumatizing and barbaric.
As is true of many policy outcomes in this country, anti-abortion laws disproportionately affect women of color and women who earn low incomes, who now face even greater geographic, systemic, and financial barriers to accessing abortion care. On top of restricting abortion access, we’ve also seen calls to criminalize birth control, even though people in the country agree that birth control is an essential part of healthcare.

Attacks on the freedom to make decisions for our own bodies have not been limited to abortion and contraceptives; these attacks also extend to the transgender community. Over the past few years, more and more state legislators have introduced bills that are explicitly designed to create barriers for transgender people seeking gender-affirming care. Attacks on reproductive freedom and anti-trans legislation go hand in hand, as they are both about controlling which bodies are respected and who gets to make choices about their own lives. Decisions about our bodies, including abortion and gender transition, are deeply personal choices that should be made solely by the person seeking healthcare—free from political interference.

. . . . .

Restricting or criminalizing abortion does not eliminate abortion. These laws simply put lives at risk. … But people are fighting back. ----Cecile Richards

https://msmagazine.com/2023/03/01/abortion-pregnant-health-women-birth-control-trans/