Our Bodies Are Not a Debate

[Listen to an audio version of this blog here.]

I originally wrote this in May of 2019, when Alabama passed aggressive abortion legislation that permitted abortions only if the mother’s life is at risk or if the fetus cannot survive, but not in cases of rape or incest. I was outraged and saddened and in disbelief. Today, in the aftermath of the supreme courts decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, I feel more numb than anything. Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, “The state controlling a woman would mean denying her full autonomy and full equality.” The overturning of Roe v. Wade not only undermines women’s autonomy and right to equality, but it compromises our health, safety, and livelihood.

Sometimes, I don’t want to believe that we live in a world that is absolutely saturated with sexism. Sometimes, I forget how bad it is because I live a relatively comfortable life and sexism doesn’t punch me in the face every day. But facts are facts. Women’s bodies are being legislated; men’s bodies are not, and that is sexism in a nutshell. I’ve written about rape before: how 1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted each year and how only 1% of perpetrators are ever convicted of a crime. While we normalize violent criminal acts against women, we simultaneously restrict women’s autonomy over her own body. And while the hardcore Christian types argue that if a woman isn’t ready to have a child, she…