Human rights issues are not political Battlegrounds

Isabelle Paley | The Chronicle

January 22nd, 1973. That is the date when women were given freedom over their bodies. That is the date when the Supreme Court stood up for females everywhere. Forty-Eight years later, that freedom, the very thing America cares so much about, is threatened to be revoked.

The Texas Heartbeat Act and now the Mississippi Abortion case are just a  portion of the arguments made against Roe V. Wade. But if this important piece of women’s rights is retracted, everything America stands for is false. 

In the Declaration Of Independence, the famous phrase “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,” is shining on the front page. The infamous words are taught to schoolchildren everywhere, but when are they going to be put into action? According to the Oxford dictionary, liberty means “the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one’s way of life, behavior, or political views.” 

When someone’s religion, when their political views threaten my liberty, my right to my own body, the foundation of our country is put into jeopardy. Many arguments of anti-abortion protests quote the sixth commandment of “though shalt not kill,” saying that abortion is murdering an innocent child. But with the first amendment protecting our freedom of religion, the Christian message being spread throughout the fight on abortion is combining religion and government, something that our forefathers said long ago would not mix.

 In America, everyone is entitled to their own beliefs and views. That is something that makes our country so great. Different individuals are what push democracy forward. However, one group is attempting to enforce their beliefs among all. We are not asking for you to get an abortion. We are not asking for you to change your beliefs. We are asking for you to let us exercise our freedom. We are asking you to let us have the choice, the right to our bodies.  

Abortion is not black and white. What if a woman was raped or having the child threatened her life and the babies. There are so many things to consider when creating laws against women’s bodies. Banning abortion after a heartbeat is detected, usually at around six weeks, forgets to take in the science of childbirth. A woman doesn’t know she’s pregnant after a missed period. That’s 4 weeks until she can even take a pregnancy test. Which leaves 2 weeks left to decide what she’s going to do about the pregnancy. And life-threatening medical emergencies for the mom and the fetus are not detectable well after 6 weeks of pregnancy. So when lawmakers claim that “they are not banning abortion, there just putting restrictions on it,” they are making it pretty darn impossible for a woman to receive medical care. When did the right to women’s bodies get in the hands of men who can’t even have children? 

Without Roe V. Wade, many women are going to be forced to receive illegal abortions or cross state lines to get a medical procedure done. We are already seeing this happening in places such as Texas, with America’s strictest abortion law to date. So when women are asking for the right to their bodies, we are asking for you to respect our liberties, our freedoms. Because human rights is not a political argument and I pray that our government will uphold the constitution in giving women their reproductive rights.