If there is one topic in American public discussion that is simultaneously talked about far too much and yet not enough, it is abortion rights. It finds its way into pundits' talking points as much as any issue, and yet it has become so skewed and emotionally charged that, for all the noise, very little is actually communicated. In the 42 years since Roe v. Wade, the anti-abortion brigade had been enormously effective at shifting the focus of the abortion debate from being on the women's rights to the fetuses' rights, and the question has become an issue of "killing babies" and not women's choice, an issue of morality instead of logic. It's a tactic the GOP employs today.
And this has forced pro-choice supporters into a corner. The conservative side has been so successful at stigmatizing abortion that it has pushed its opposition into assuming the moral defense, and abortion rights supporters are now forced to argue why their cause is not wrong, instead of why it's right.
That is why the only vocal defenses of abortion rights are all somewhat concessionary. Pro-choice supporters now have no choice but to claim their cause an unpleasant necessity, a least-of-several evils rather than a moral right, an option for only the darkest circumstances of rape, incest, or severe health risks. Because to suggest otherwise, to say that a woman has a right to an abortion even if she is simply unintentionally pregnant and not in the right place to raise a child, is no longer morally acceptable. It is seen as callous, irresponsible, proof of the oft-percieved (by the far right) descent of women from the hyper-sexualized-yet-supposed-to-be-innocent-and-pure objects of male infantilization and consumption they're supposed to be, into the rakish, wanton, unwholesome sluts they're rapidly becoming.
And the pro-life movement's long march across the moral high ground has made gains in the legislative theatre as well as the court of public opinion. Not only are millennials becoming more and more pro-life, but poor women's access to abortions is being cut consistently, and we even have presidential candidates claiming they'd use federal troops to prevent people from getting abortions.
To make progress, the abortion rights movement needs to shift the attention from the rights of the fetus to the rights of the woman. When the pro-life army is allowed to assert the fetus as morally superior to the woman carrying it, they spread the message that women should only be defined by their traumas and mistakes, that they are nothing more than objects and vessels, that their lives don't matter. And this is a message all too prevalent in our society.
We need to change what we focus on when we talk about abortion, because, at the end of the day, the debate isn't about the "sanctity of life," or "protecting the defenseless." It all boils down to one question: should women be allowed to be fully human, and be given control over their own lives?
