Women’s Bodies Are Not a Battleground

You would think that with March being Women’s History Month and all, lawmakers across the country who are presently waging war on women could find it in them to back off for a month.  It’s only 31 days; surely they could find something else to occupy their time in that period.  I know it’s not like gas prices are going through the roof and the economy still kind of sucks or anything but there has to…oh, no wait a second.  Those are still things that are happening.  See?  I know actual issues aren’t nearly as invigorating as restricting women’s rights or anything, but surely they would be able to survive for a month. 

All sarcasm aside, the sudden and unrelenting attacks against women from (mainly Republican) lawmakers has got to stop.  These days, you cannot get through a day without hearing at least one jaw-dropping, head-slamming-against-the-wall story about what new restrictions they are trying to pass over women’s reproductive freedoms. 

The latest wave in attempts to restrict women and demean their intelligence has resulted in attempts to limit their ability to have an abortion and even goes so far as to try to restrict their ability to access birth control easily. 

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what set off this firestorm off anti-woman legislation, but it seems to have started up several months ago during the Republican debates and gained momentum since then. 

Over the past several months, multiple states have proposed, and in some cases enacted, various laws that claim to be trying to help women make an informed decision, but in reality they scratch away at women’s right to body autonomy. 

Several of these states have attempted to pass legislation that would require a woman seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound done 24 hours before the procedure, and hear a description from their doctor about what the fetus presently looks like in detail.  Texas, one of the states that has this law, also requires doctors read a state approved pamphlet spouting off medical inaccuracies about abortion to their patients. 

It’s as if these lawmakers thing women are too stupid to even understand what an abortion is. 

Newsflash:  They know.  Women do not just wake up one morning and think, “Hey, I could really go for an abortion today.  Yeah, I think I’ll do that.” 

They also don’t walk into abortion clinics hoping to have to undergo a procedure that is invasive and medically unnecessary, not to mention painful.  But if they live in a state with these abortion laws that is exactly what they are getting.  Why?  Because most of the ultrasounds being performed will be transvaginal ultrasounds, where a ten-inch long wand is inserted…well, you can figure out where this is going. 

Bills of this nature are essentially allowing for a woman to be raped, just because she has the nerve to seek an abortion.  As defined by the World Health Organization, rape is the “physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration – even if slight – of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other body parts, or an object.”

Huh, funny thing there that these bills have the forced penetration of the vulva by an object.  Women who want an abortion have to allow this penetration to be done in order to have a perfectly legal medical procedure performed.  They don’t really have a choice.  If they want an abortion, they have to have the ultrasound.  If they don’t allow the ultrasound, they cannot have an abortion.  Sounds like coerced penetration right there.  Congratulations, America; you’re managing to find a way to legalize rape. 

Enough is enough.  Women are not brainless creatures who need to have every little thing explained to them.  We are not stupid enough that we need Congress to debate things that affect us without our input.  Trying to make abortion illegal will not stop abortions from happening.  Abortion has existed for much of history and it’s not going to go anywhere. 

I, and every other woman, across America, have a right to make decisions that affect our bodies without the government or anyone else trying to step in and tell us they know better.  Women are also capable of making informed decisions without the help of others.  For a party so against government stepping where they don’t belong, they sure do like to step into women’s lives where they don’t belong. 

Women deserve better treatment than they have been receiving from lawmakers as of late.  Politicians are elected to protect our freedoms, not take them away.  Yet that is exactly what is occurring across the country and I for one am sick and tired of it.