As many of you may know Alabama, Ohio, and Georgia have  declared abortions to be illegal in all cases. That includes rape, incest and even pregnancies that are declared dangerous to carry through. Why is it that women’s rights are slowly being taken away by Congress men once again? Now, there are many reasons to why abortion is “bad” and why abortion is “good” but that should be up to the person who’s carrying the baby. Yes, that’s right. I am pro-choice up to a certain point. I think abortion is up to the women carrying, but I also think that abortion after 8 weeks is wrong. Banning abortion prior to 8 weeks is taking away female rights.

Reproductive choice empowers women by giving them control over their own bodies. When the new law came out many women felt powerless because, if we have no right to make choices about our bodies then what can we make choices about? The Open Society Foundation says, “Everyone except the woman herself is able to decide what is in her best interest. She either is too young, too irresponsible, too incompetent, too lazy, or too poor to decide whether to end a pregnancy or have a child. “This shows that the abortion ban is making it seem like women have no rights to OUR bodies. Additionally, having access to legal, professionally-performed abortions reduces maternal injury and death caused by unsafe, illegal abortions. According to the National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, “[about] 68,000 women worldwide die of unsafe abortion annually, making it one of the leading causes of maternal mortality (13%). Of the women who survive unsafe abortion, 5 million will suffer long-term health complications. Unsafe abortion is thus a pressing issue.” This means that having an unsafe abortion is way too common even when abortion was still legal. When the Congress banned abortion they didn’t take into consideration that women will still try to find a way to have one if they really wanted to.  

“Arkansas just passed a law that will let rapists sue victims who want an abortion.”

“Oklahoma Republican Declares the rape is the ‘Will of God’.”

“Man who raped 12-year old awarded joint custody of her child.”

“North Carolina sex assault laws under scrutiny.”

“Once sex act has begun, you cannot withdraw consent.”

“State lawmakers considering bill that would change criteria for consent.”

“Rapists protected by loophole?”

These are just a few headlines that have been issued out to the public. Why are men now making laws and decisions over women’s bodies? I think that the only people who should be making laws about female bodies should be females.

Carly Rae Jesse (ordinary women) posted on twitter, “Last night my 35–year-old friend had a pregnancy scare because she didn’t know antibiotics reduce the effectiveness of birth control. Ladies, how many of you know this? I sure didn’t. Want to lower the abortion rate? Improve sex ed. Don’t ban abortions.” Schools don’t go into detail about the risks of birth control. They tell us how effective they are and they don’t elaborate. Banning abortions is putting children and females at risk.

Some say fetuses feel pain during the abortion procedure. If that was the case then I’d be against abortions. But that statement is false. According to Live Science, “Utah recently passed a law that requires doctors to give anesthesia to a fetus prior to performing an abortion that occurs at 20 weeks of gestation or later. The law assumes that a fetus may be able to feel pain at that stage in development; however, medical groups and other critics of the law argue that a fetus cannot feel pain at 20 weeks,” proving my point as to the fetus cannot feel pain when it comes getting an abortion. “Fetuses cannot feel pain until at least the 28th week of gestation because they haven’t formed the necessary nerve pathways,” Mark Rosen, an obstetrical anesthesiologist at the University of California at San Francisco says.

Many others might also use the phrase, abortion is murder. Considering the definition of murder is stated as the following: “Murder is the killing of an innocent human life.”  They will then say, “Abortion is the killing of an innocent human life, therefore, abortion is murder.” Personally I say that a fetus is technically a clump of cells until it reaches the 6-8 week point. Once the cells pass the 6-8 week point then I consider it a fetus. I think that abortion after the 6-8 week point is wrong. “An embryo officially becomes a fetus at the end of the embryonic period, which is the 8th week after conception, the 10th week of pregnancy.”

Congress shouldn’t be making laws against us females and our bodies. Abortion shouldn’t be banned. Abortion up to 8 weeks only, should be up to the women who is carrying the baby, not Congressmen who have absolutely no idea about what it takes to carry and give birth to a child.