So, women, let’s get out from under the bus.
Health care reform has proven to be the single greatest threat to a woman’s human rights in over 30 years. Who would’ve thought that improving US Americans’ access to health care would come at the expense of women’s reproductive freedom, human rights and their very lives. Of course, there is plenty to complain about in the so-called reform of the US health care system, but the disregard for women is deplorable. And offensive.
As several others have pointed out, when you start from a position of compromise, there’s no where to go but into a worse position. Obama’s apologetic attitude towards abortion (safe, legal and RARE), starts the debate in a place where anyone of the opinion that a woman has an absolute right to control her body and her reproduction is already on the defensive. I mean, can’t we all agree that abortion is wrong? No, I’m afraid we can’t. Because it is a personal decision that one third of the women of this country are eventually going to make, because it is not as simple as deciding that a fetus has an absolute right to be born. Because the world is not a black and white place of rigid morality. Because in order for a woman to have personal autonomy she has to have the right to decide what happens to her own body. Can you imagine any health care decision that a man would consent to let the government decide whether or not he had the right to make it?
We are on the cusp of losing the right to abortion in this country. It was a mistake for the reproductive rights movement to not fight tooth and nail to get rid of the Hyde Amendment. It is an unjust piece of legislation that allows the morality of a vocal minority to interfere with the personal health decisions of every low-income woman in this country. Every single day women sell their belongings and forgo paying bills in order to scrape together enough money to pay for a first trimester abortion. Women who are receiving food stamps, housing assistance, medicaid assistance are forced to come up with $300-400 for a medical procedure that would be covered if the federal government hadn’t decided to foist the morality of a few people onto the general population. We impose hardship on our most vulnerable citizens for a questionable moral stance that has no place in government policy.
Now, Congress is poised to impose this morality on even more women by taking away private insurance coverage for abortion or requiring women to pay higher premiums if they want abortion to be covered in their PUBLIC health plan.
It is way beyond time for women and people who believe in justice to stop pandering to these whiny fetus-worshippers and demand that it is our country too. It is our right to believe in the rights and dignity of women. It is our right, as women and as human beings, to have control over our bodies, to determine, when, whether, where and HOW to bear children.
If you believe abortion is wrong, don’t have one. It really is that simple.
Repeal the Hyde Amendment. Justice Demands It!