In 1973 the Supreme Court decided in favor of allowing women the right to abortion after the court case Roe V. Wade. Since then, it has been legal to terminate pregnancy in the United States. In May 2022, it was revealed that the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe V. Wade, creating an uproar amongst abortion activists throughout the country, including myself. Women have a right to their own bodies, but as more and more restrictions are placed on them, it seems we are taking a huge step backward in time. 

   Women have always been treated inferiorly to men. Over time though, especially in the last century, immense steps have been made to secure equal rights for women, for example, the right to vote, or namely the right to abortions. Yet now, our rights are being sent down the drain. The Supreme Court wants to make abortion a felony. Do you know what felons can’t do? Vote. The basic rights that women have fought so hard for are trying to be taken away in 2022. 

In the eighteenth century, the forefathers of our nation argued strongly for “no taxation without representation.” Britain was enforcing harsh laws and taxes on the American colonists without giving them the chance to defend their own rights. These ideals are what our nation was founded on. Yet currently, laws are being made on female bodies without any representation from the people upon which the law will be forced. The majority of the Supreme Court are men. They are deciding what to do with our bodies and our lives. The female body, however, should belong to no one but the person who inhabits it. 

Abortion is not murder. It is a medical procedure. Up to a certain point in pregnancy, what exists inside a woman is not a human, it is cells. Is a seed a tree? Do you see environmentalists advocating for saplings? Of course not, instead they care about protecting the trees already on our earth. Yet many ‘pro-lifers’ seem to have it backward. Once that baby pops out of the womb, they couldn’t care less about it. According to everytownresearch.org, in 2018 there were 61 children who died in the United States due to school shootings, yet the Supreme Court has continued to do nothing. This past year in 2021, there were 49 deaths and 126 injuries from gun violence on school grounds. Still, the Supreme Court does nothing. Instead, they focus on unborn fetuses. They are not pro-life, they are simply anti-women.

You cannot ban abortion, you can only ban safe abortion. Those with uteruses will still continue to terminate their unwanted pregnancies, but no longer will there be safe procedures available. A report from the Guttmacher Institute has said that nearly 23,000 women worldwide die yearly due to unsafe abortions. If the U.S. were to ban safe ones, that number will only increase. Once again, banning abortions is the opposite of pro-life. 

In 2011, the CDC estimated that nearly 1 in 5 U.S. women had been raped in their lifetime. A third of these victims were assaulted under the age of 18. Many of these rapes resulted in pregnancy. Yet under the abortion ban, these survivors of sexual assault, many of them children, will be forced to carry their rapist’s baby. An eleven-year-old rape victim was forced to carry out her pregnancy. Not only is this absolutely vile and disgusting, but also so incredibly not pro-life. Ruining a preexisting life for an unborn clump of cells.

Not everyone is in the right situation to have a child either. Some may be financially unstable, or too busy to give a child the life it deserves. Some are at risk of death if they have a baby. Many simply just don’t want a child, which is perfectly valid. Even if the baby is placed in foster care, there is no guarantee it will be adopted. Hundreds of thousands of kids go without a home each year in the United States, yet does the Supreme Court care? They place so much attention on the baby inside of the womb, but once it is out it apparently doesn’t matter anymore.

Abortion is a human right. Control over your own body, your own life, is a human right. Our nation was founded on equality, democracy, and independence, and yet we are forgetting those ideals. Women have fought so long to share these rights and we are still fighting. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V. Wade is in no way pro-life and is entirely anti-women. Abortion is a right, and by banning it we are taking a huge step backward in the constant battle for equality.