If your Twitter feed looks anything like mine, you are alternating between tweets about YouTube drama, and you guessed it, new abortion laws. States such as Ohio, Georgia, and Alabama (famously GOP states) have all written new laws limiting abortions in different ways.
In Ohio, a heartbeat bill was passed in April that outlaws abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected. This is an extremely limiting law because fetal heartbeats are detected as early as five weeks, with six weeks being the norm. This bill provides no exceptions for cases of rape or incest. There is also a fetal heartbeat law in Georgia scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2020.
In Alabama, a law was passed on May 14 criminalizing abortion in all stages of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest. The only exceptions to this rule are when the life of the mother is jeopardized, if the mother has a mental illness that would result in the death of her or her future child, or if the child has defects that will ultimately result in stillbirth or death immediately after birth.
Additionally, some states are proposing the idea that insurance shouldn't cover birth control. There have also been rumors of criminalizing birth control, but that will most likely not occur based on precedents set by Griswold v Connecticut in 1965.
We have a concept called "body autonomy." This is basically the belief that no one can force us to make decisions about our own bodies; we get to decide if we want tattoos, if we want to donate blood, or if we want to donate organs. No one can force you to donate blood or donate organs. Laws like the ones in Ohio, Georgia, and Alabama are limiting body autonomy. They do not allow women to make their own decisions about their lives, their futures, and their health.
At the moment, there are approximately 443,000 children in foster care in the United States. If these politicians were truly pro-life, wouldn't they be targeting the children that need help? Or advocate for more funding for education so that these children have access to better education and resources? Or try to achieve reform for the penitentiary system?
These laws are forcing women to go through nine months of pregnancy, push their bodies to their physical limits during childbirth, and deal with the financial responsibilities that accompany a child.
These laws are a way of taking away a women's right to her own body and this is not acceptable.
