A Gun Has More Rights Than I

On Friday June 24, 2022 around 11 A.M. I discovered the truth.

I was at my job, there was a lull in the day and I took a brief look at Instagram. Little did I know I would be seeing a post that changed my life and the lives of thousands of others.

I quickly went to Facebook to see if anything had started to blow up there; as that was usually where I see news headlines first. Nothing yet. I had an inkling of hope - maybe it was just about the previous rumbles of leaked documents. I hopped on google just to be sure and my stomach hit the floor.

The Supreme Court had overruled Roe v. Wade, a decision made by the court in 1973 to give women the right to choose to receive an abortion on a federal level.

Before Roe, it is estimated that “between 200,000 and 1.2 million illegally induced abortions occur[red] annually in the United States.”1 As many as 5,000 to 10,000 women died per year following illegal abortions and many others suffered severe physical and psychological injury. Roe not only moved abortions out of the backalleys, but it also helped define the contours of the right to privacy, which protects individuals from unwarranted governmental interference in private affairs. In addition, this decision, and those that followed, recognized that the right to make childbearing choices is central to women’s lives and their ability to participate fully and equally in society. Center For Reproductive Rights. (2003). Roe v. Wade and the Right to Privacy. New York City, New York.

So now if you need to make that kind of choice it is a state level decision. Obviously this is absolutely horrible.

Here is a map of the United States predicting the effects of the decision from Fortune.com's article (read it here https://fortune.com/2022/06/24/abortion-laws-by-state/ )

As someone who is lucky enough to have the education I do (and I have committed to always learn as much as I can regardless of it) I can understand that certain things about reproductive health can be misinformed. But I can not accept the willful blindness and internal bias when it comes to another persons life and decisions. And unfortunately the current laws are being made by people with extreme internal bias. That is not good for a country based on freedom. Liberty for all? More like liberty for balls.

Banning abortions wont eradicate them. It will only ban safe ones.

Ectopic pregnancies, rape, and incest are some things that people will use to say "see this is why it should be okay" and you're not wrong - but you're not right either.

Because that's like saying someone with a uterus only deserves that choice if those things occur. And it doesn't end there. Miscarriages are being criminalized. Something someone has no control over.

The definition of autonomy is the quality or right of self-government. Bodily autonomy is a basic human right. Read that again. Basic HUMAN right.

My day ended again on Instagram, where I saw the cartoon by Martin Rosner (further up in this blog post) and I realized it's true.

A gun has more rights than I.

That better change soon.

The rebellion begins now.