Abortion should not be up for debate
I started my day on May 3 much like any other.
I grabbed my phone, snoozed my alarm and geared up to play Russian roulette with my anxiety by opening
ame clear that the news had taken another turn for the worse. Several “You can’t ban abortion, you can only ban safe abortion” posts and, a quick Google search later, I learned there was a leaked draft ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that established a right to abortion
he United States.
My week since that day has been flooded with conversations around a person’s right to have an abortion. My peers and I have spent our time sharing statistics that show how many people lose their lives when they do not have access to safe abortion. We’ve pointed to the obvious, that a ban on abortion will disproportionately affect those with less privilege. We have questioned why those who claim to be “pro-life” are not doing more to protect the lives of the living. We have drowned ourselves in an echo chamber of logical and rational counter arguments to an obscene situation.
Recently, during my ritualistic morning scrolling of
Instagram, I read a post entitled “How to win the abortion argument.” The post went on to provide detailed tactics to employ and a list of points to make. After reading it, however, I realized this is not an argument I should need to win, for this is not an a teenage years and I recall time spent in classrooms where I was asked, more than once, to “debate” the topic of abortion — and I am appalled. Why have I been made to entertain conversations with those who would strip me of my rights, instead allowing others to make decisions about my body? When will we stop treating the right to abortion as an open conversation, as a debatable process, and recognize it for what it is: a non-negotiable?
The political agenda to ban abortion has transparently never been about care for life, but rather about exerting control over those who can bear life in their body. When will we view those who are “pro-life” not as a group whose opinions should be entertained, but rather as unlawfully hateful individuals who should not be tolerated?
No one should have to defend their right to their own bodily autonomy. Not in school, not online, not to their family, not to the law, not to anyone.
In 2022, the right to have an abortion should not be up for debate. It should never have been debatable in the first place.