Hot Take: Stop trying to control women’s bodies

On Monday night, a draft from the Supreme Court was leaked indicating they have voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision that guaranteed abortion access. Many Americans are now fearing a future where their reproductive rights are being taken away as the United States continues to progress backward.

The debate about legalizing or banning abortion has been going on since at least the 1960s and it’s gotten tiring. Why are we still fighting about what women can and can’t do with their own bodies? Reproductive rights are human rights and should NOT be taken away. It’s a woman’s body and it should be her decision what do to with it, not a man’s or bystander’s.

If you decide you never want to get an abortion, that’s fine, but you shouldn’t take that choice away from women. If you want to call yourself “pro-life,” that’s fine, but just remember there’s nothing pro-life about not only denying people their reproductive rights, but also denying people the right to sexual education, denying the right to birth control and forcing others to give birth against their will.

A common rebuttal many pro-lifers, especially those who are Catholic, have is that abortion should be illegal because it is against their religion. This rebuttal is not valid because (SPOILER ALERT!) not everyone in the United States is religious! If you don’t want to get an abortion because it’s against your religion, that’s fine, but don’t deny someone of another religion or no religion at all that right.

Oh, but what about the phrase “Abortion is murder! You’ll killing a human!” No, just no. Doctors discovered the fetus would not be able to survive outside of the womb until 22 weeks into the pregnancy at the earliest. The recommended abortion window is in the first 11 weeks of pregnancy.

Many people only support abortion in instances of incest or rape. This belief only reinforces the idea that in order for a woman to have a right to her own body, someone else has to violate it first.