Who Owns My Body?

For my English class passion project, I decided to delve into the world of women’s reproductive freedom. This includes topics like abortion, birth control, and sex education. Reproductive freedom for women is not something that I think should be an issue in this country. It amazes me that our society has twisted into a place where women cannot always control what happens to their bodies. (Maybe I should say twisted back, because twenty years ago, women had full rights to abortion and were not being taught an abstinence-only sex education.) I am interested in this topic because it is one that may very easily affect me as a young woman. I would like to know exactly what we future mothers and partners have access to and what rights we have regarding our own bodies, and I think it is important for my generation to understand these things so we can rise to our full potential and fight for ourselves.

I am pro-choice but anti-abortion. Though the procedure itself is one of the safest ones available, I can completely understand how some consider it “murder.” The idea of killing a growing baby inside a woman’s body is one that we all cringe at, no matter our political tendencies. However, I believe that since birth and motherhood are such unbelievably weighty things, the decision of what to do with an unwanted pregnancy should always be a choice; women everywhere should not have to keep a baby for which they truly believe they could not care. The decision is already such a fiercely personal and difficult one, and to have some politicians waving their fingers at a woman and telling her she will go to Hell if she gets an abortion is beyond maddening. Currently, one in three women around the world has an abortion, though this number may be decreasing since access to abortion clinics is becoming more and more limited. (Also, does Hell really have room for one-third of our planet’s females?)

If the people behind pro-life organizations and campaigns were mostly women, I think this would be a more fair fight (though, realistically, no fight would really exist). However, this is not the case.

The panel for the House Oversight and Government Reform committee hearing on birth control access

This infuriating picture is of a committee overhearing a case about birth control by an all male panel. A panel of people who will never, ever be able to become pregnant; they will never be the victim of rape and then have to live with the occasional consequence of a baby, or become accidentally pregnant at the age of fifteen. Yes, an abortion is ideally a decision made by both parents, not just the woman, but in the end, it is the woman’s body that suffers, and has to bear the child; the man is able to simply walk away, while the woman is not.

The entire cycle by the government is one that is unwinnable. More conservative politicians claim they want no abortions, but then limit access to sex education and decent contraceptives, resulting in more unwanted pregnancies, further resulting in more desire for abortions. Moreover, women who decide not to get an abortion (like the government and these politicians want) end up receiving very little support from their states. Basically, the government is saying, “Don’t get an abortion and keep your baby...what, you want help with that baby since you are single, already have four kids, and are working for under minimum wage? Pfft. No way.”

I would like to learn more about what my generation of young women can do to ensure we have control of what happens to our bodies. I want to know how the government chooses who is in charge of our reproductive freedom laws and how this fight can be made more fair. My knowledge of how the government functions is very minimal, and I’d like to figure out who exactly is behind the choices regarding reproductive freedom.

(Senate Candidate Todd Akin claiming that women can control when they become pregnant - people like this, with such an inaccurate idea of how the female body functions is attempting to make decisions regarding our reproductive freedom and rights)

Annotated Bibliography