Let me begin by stating that the majority of those who are pro-life in the U.S. are men, who will presumably never experience being pregnant. The majority of women, who generally have the ability to become pregnant, are pro-choice. I am basing this off of a national poll from The Gallup where out of all the people who responded being pro-choice, 54% were women and 46% were men. Plain and simply, the ‘pro-life’ stance values the life of a fetus more than the life of the mother. Often women are not even considered in the situation, and they are thus dehumanized. The socioeconomic and individual situation of women and why they may desire an abortion is disregarded and ignored.

Pregnancy affects women economically in a different way than men. Women require time off from work to have a baby, and in some cases often need to stay home in order to raise the child. This can affect a woman’s job and career. If a woman has a child earlier in life, this could impact her ability to receive the education she would have otherwise as well.

If a woman who, for instance, is not economically stable enough to support a child has one, she will likely require federal assistance. People who are typically anti-abortion are also opposed to people receiving this form of aid, and do not care about the fetus once it is born. If these anti-abortionists are not willing to be invested in that fetus’ life once it’s born, doesn't that imply they’re not actually ‘pro-life’? I think ‘pro-birth’ would be more appropriate. Issues regarding our current population are ignored. I think it would be best to tackle issues such as homelessness and hunger before trying to force women to give birth, don’t you?

Religion is also a way in which people blindly justify opposing abortions. Catholic hospitals have been noted to deny women life-saving abortions. For example, Tamesha Means went to Mercy Hospital in Michigan three times due to extreme pains and bleeding from her pregnancy. Her health and complications were ignored; the hospital discharged her each time without thoroughly discussing her pain and options. On her third visit, with a severe infection as a result from the unstable pregnancy, she miscarried, right as her discharge paperwork was being filled out. Means is now pressing charges, claiming, “The group's anti-abortion directive denies proper medical care to women.” Some women, like Means, are being denied the right to live. In cases where a woman is suffering or her life is in jeopardy, her fetus is thus valued as more important than herself. Access to abortion can also become a racial issue, as women of color are up to five times more likely than white women to receive an abortion due to “issues related to racism, difference in opportunities, and differences in social and historical context”.

Sometimes, women are actually reduced to fetal containers or incubators. Marlise Muñoz, a woman in Texas, was declared brain dead at 14 weeks pregnant. However, Muñoz was not allowed to be taken off of a ventilator because she was pregnant. Her family did not want to keep her alive for the sake of her fetus, but state law required the hospital to keep pregnant women on life support. Her husband stated that it was "the cruel and obscene mutilation of a deceased body.” It took two months of legal disputes to finally take Muñoz off life support.

Anti-abortionists deny that there is any reason for an abortion, and assume adoption is a readily alternative. However, that assumes that there are plenty of willing families waiting to adopt, disregards the psychological bond formed between the mother and infant, and doesn’t take into consideration the discrimination a woman could face by her community for not keeping her baby. There are currently over 400,000 children in the foster care system and over 100,000 children in the US waiting to be adopted. However, there are in fact LGBTQ families looking to adopt, and they are often faced with criticism, discrimination, and backlash from religious and conservative groups, who are also typically anti-abortion. Why propose adoption as an option if there are already so many children whose very existence proves this wrong, and if so many people are discriminated from adopting?

I mentioned in the beginning that men are more likely to be anti-abortion than women. Perhaps this is because some men view abortion as a woman’s way of receiving the independence they deserve, since it allows women to control their own bodies and not be as dependent on men as they raise a child they weren’t prepared to have. If a woman has a child and has to stay home to raise them, or cannot achieve an education she would have, she can become more economically dependent on the child’s father. Regulation of women’s bodies occurs in terms of contraception as well as abortion in patriarchal court systems. By trying to defund organizations such as Planned Parenthood and by drafting new absurd regulations for buildings in an effort to shut down small scale organizations, patriarchal groups are trying to threaten the rights of women so that they are no longer autonomous people.

Ultimately, a woman is a person who deserves the same rights as a man. Politicians, law, and the general public have no right to regulate and decide what women can and cannot do to their bodies. There is a double standard that exists in terms of regulating reproductive organs. For example, the medication for erectile dysfunction, which affects men, is not regulated — yet women’s uteruses are still faced with regulation and controversy.

‘Pro-life’ individuals should not be so quick to declare themselves in favor of life if they disregard the life of a woman and the fetus once it’s born. The fact that there are still a substantial amount of women who take this stance only exemplifies how ingrained the anthropomorphism of a fetus is in our culture. If a zygote and an infant are both falling from different sides of a room, and you only have the opportunity to save one, which would you choose? By choosing and rushing to save one, you admit there’s a difference, and I would hope you would choose the infant.

It is worth noting that my issue is not with people who do not think abortion is moral and thus choose not to receive an abortion. If you decide not to receive an abortion, that is your own autonomous choice. However, if you go a step further and try to deny other women of their right to make their own decision, and make efforts to try and take their reproductive services away, you are not being ethical. You are denying them of their autonomy; you are being bigoted.

This article does not fully encapsulate the issue. For where I gathered information and for more information on:

US pro-life and pro-choice statistics:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/170249/split-abortion-p...

http://www.gallup.com/poll/183434/americans-choose...

Tamesha Means:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/12/...

The racial gap on abortion:

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/...

Marlise Munoz:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/26/health/texas-pregnan...

LGBTQ couples facing adoption discrimination:

http://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/...

A lawmaker looking to regulate ED medication in the way that abortion is regulated:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/13/nina-turn...

Misconceptions about abortion, specifically of the procedure and safety:

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/4/28/1...

*I recognize that the language in this article is normative — I do not feel I have the full extent of knowledge to diverge into the other forms of sex/gender identification with justice.