America has taken a giant leap backward into the early 1900s in terms of women’s health care and women’s rights to their own bodies. The “republicans in the House of Representatives [who] are mounting an assault on women’s health and freedom that would deny millions of women access to affordable contraception and life-saving cancer screenings and cut nutritional support for millions of newborn babies in struggling families” (nytimes.com editorial). The only reason why they want to cut the funding is because of the fact that Planned Parenthood provides abortions. The United States republican politicians who are in power are trying to control women’s bodies. It is 2011 and any optimistic ideals are being crushed by this country’s House leaders. What would Margaret Sanger say today? She fought for women’s rights to contraceptives and sexual health care as a way to avoid abortion which makes sense; but how can people avoid abortion if their rights to affordable birth control are being stripped slowly away? The fact that the religious republicans of the country are the ones trying to strip away the funding of Planned Parenthood as well as make outlandish laws regarding abortion. Morals are not more important than life itself and the religious right is trying to pass it off that way. In a sarcastic rhetoric: ‘It is alright if you are on drugs or are homeless or were raped by someone you trusted, just have the baby anyway – that is obviously the right choice for your mental and physical health; that is what God would want, you know.’ That is what can be interpreted from these people who think they know what is best for women’s bodies.
This can also all come back to separation of Church and State, just as the argument about same-sex marriage. The only reason there is any argument at all is because people cannot see past their individual views to see what is best for society. In this democracy, if someone focuses on their own beliefs without thinking of the whole, it can be incredibly detrimental. For example, if abortion was made completely illegal because of one person’s beliefs, it could be the end to many women’s lives everywhere. The “sanctity of life” as comedian George Carlin liked to refer to it as, is something that has been established not by the politicians and state leaders, but by the moral obligations of the Church. The Church has overlapped into this democracy allowing for clouded judgment and close-minded bigotry against women.
The Planned Parenthood Action Fund was founded in 1989, but the movement began in 1916. They offer "family planning and health services, particularly to low-income women, including testing for sexually transmitted disease (STD), sexual abuse and rape treatment and counseling, cancer screening, vaccination, access to birth control and abortion" (healthland.time.com). There are some startling things going on right now and Planned Parenthood is trying to take a stand against these groups trying to sabotage the Planned Parenthood name by doing things like "sting" operations to different Planned Parenthood locations all over the country. A group called "Live Action" set out with six different men posing to be sex traffickers in January of 2011, claiming that they needed health care such as birth control and abortions for their sex workers, some as young as 14-years-old. Instead of these people taking all of their time and energy trying to make Planned Parenthood look bad - what if they used that time and energy to actually do something about stopping sex trafficking? The energy that people are using right now to try to "de-fund" Planned Parenthood, an organization that provides affordable or free women's health care, could be used in way more beneficial ways that would move this country forward, it is such a shame. Each year Planned Parenthood provides 830,000 breast exams, 1,800,000 cancer screenings, and 4,000,000 STD tests and has 2,500,000 birth control patients (plannedparenthoodaction.org). Planned Parenthood makes these services affordable and safe through the federal funding that they have received as a non-profit organization. With this detrimental fund cut to the organization, it could be the first step to abolishing legal abortion and even birth control. This is the first of many unbelievable actions that are being taken in pursuit of control over women’s rights to safe and legal abortions, birth control, cancer screenings, STD testing and much more.
The discussion of only allowing abortion for certain women under certain situations was the first thing I heard this year that really caught my ear. It is not hard to see where this idea is coming from. Federally funded abortions make some people in the public upset who do not believe in choice, but it would make it easier if people knew that the abortion was only being performed for people who need it under certain circumstances. There is an extreme misconception that some women use abortions as a form of birth control as opposed to proper birth control methods and that every time they get pregnant they have an abortion. Representative Chris Smith, republican of New Jersey introduced the “No Tax-Payer Funding for Abortion Act” “a bill that would not only permanently prohibit some federally funded health-care programs from covering abortions, but would change the language exempting rape and incest from rape to ‘forcible rape’” (thinkprogress.org). This would exclude statutory rape and date rape. According to Kansas State University, “Two-thirds of rape victims between the ages of 18 and 29 know their attacker and over 60 percent of rapes occur in residences” (k-state.edu). The idea of changing the word rape to mean anything but unwanted sexual violence is an act of violence against women as Representative Wasserman Schultz said. Changing the word’s meaning is making an excuse and placing the blame on the woman. If this bill passes a rapist could stand up in court and claim it isn’t his fault because the woman was dressed “too sexy” at a party and even though she said no, she obviously “deserved” it. Changing the word rape is the most misogynistic thing this already patriarchal country can do because it is giving power to the rapists and stripping the power from the women.
Another bill that has been proposed recently by the House of Representatives “has a provision that would allow hospitals receiving federal funds to refuse to terminate a pregnancy even when necessary to save a woman’s life” (nytimes.com). This bill not only undermines the progressiveness of Roe vs. Wade and women’s rights to their own bodies but has the ability to literally kill a woman. Roe vs. Wade “established the right to a legal abortion” (54 Burack) and the bill that would allow hospitals to refuse to terminate a pregnancy even when necessary to save a woman’s life goes completely against it. This takes the power away from the woman and practically hands it over to the old, white men in the House who are trying to control what women do with their bodies. I cannot grasp the logic behind why it is more important for both the woman and the child to die as opposed to terminating the pregnancy and saving the woman. A woman dying due to the morals of men is the reason why this country is so far behind in progressive equality between all people of this nation and why this country is viewed as a patriarchal nation.
There is no question that America has come a long way in terms of women’s rights and equality but it is heartbreaking to see it head in the opposite direction. The women’s movement has paved way for equal rights from the 19th amendment giving women the freedom to vote, to Roe vs. Wade, allowing for safe and legal abortions. To take a step away from these freedoms would put the movement back by decades. If men could have abortions I am almost certain that the subject of sexual freedom and rights to your own body would not be up for discussion. The only solution to this is that people who Cynthia Burack designates as the Religious Right need to be voted out of power and there needs to be more support for Planned Parenthood and other non-profit organizations that provide information and action towards safe and affordable health care for women and girls.
Referenced Websites
No comments:
Post a Comment