Abortion Rights
Feminine healthcare and subsequent reproductive rights are often at the forefront of every conversation in American political rhetoric, weaponizing women and infantilizing their needs. The reproductive lives of people who can become pregnant, including those who do not identify as female but have the reproductive organs to go through pregnancy, are treated as headlines, while their rights are stripped away in the courts. On the state-level, legislatures in Oklahoma and Texas have taken measures to revoke these healthcare necessities introducing “heartbeat” bills that perpetuate the demonization of those who receive abortions. On the federal level, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS), recently had a draft opinion from Justice Samuel Alito leaked that stated the intent of the court to roll back Roe V. Casey, a revision to Roe v. Wade which led to the national legalization of abortion under the Nixon administration in 1973. Rolling this back would result in abortion rights being turned to the states. SCOTUS is comprised of 6 men and just 3 women, making this vote to revoke reproductive rights, a predominantly male decision, implying an ideal of female otherness, and promoting further gender inequality especially in terms of medical care.
On the state level, Oklahoma and Texas have recently taken strides to restrict abortion access. The Oklahoma Heartbeat Act, “[…] prohibit[s] abortions at the time when a physician can detect early cardiac activity in an embryo or fetus, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy – before many women even know that they are pregnant” (Stracqualursi, 2022). Additionally, the state Senate passed a bill “allowing private citizens to bring civil lawsuits against abortion providers” (Stracqualursi, 2022). While the bill prohibits civil action against individuals who receive abortions, it perpetuates the stigma around reproductive healthcare by encouraging legal action against abortion providers and pregnancy clinics. Targeting abortion clinics themselves, endanger all the patients that utilize their services who tend to have children, have a low socioeconomic status, are unmarried, and in their late 20s with some college education (Miller and Sanger-Katz, 2022). In 2014, about half of those who received abortions were below the poverty line and therefore have less resources to facilitate an easy pregnancy (Sanger-Katz, Miller, and Bui 2021). Additionally, according to a Stanford study on the impact of legalized abortion on crime, crime fell 17.5% from 1998 to 2014 due to legalized abortion and from 1991 to 2014, violent and property crime fell by 50% (Donohue and Levitt, 2020). The expansion of women’s healthcare and autonomy led to a safer environment not only for women, but for the greater community. Men taking away this decision from women while simultaneously not having to ever make that decision for themselves, despite facts proving the necessary impact of abortion, is a continuation of male domination in every aspect of society, including the most intimate components of women’s health.
Patriarchal structures allow men to reap the benefits of the system while simultaneously subjugating women. Barbara Ehrenreich, a journalist and political activist, wrote about the idea of a housewife in her essay “Maid to Order.” While she doesn’t specifically call out the hypocrisy of men legislating on abortion, her sentiments regarding male domination are resonant of the impact of the patriarchy. She writes, “And when the person who is cleaned up after is consistently male, while the person who cleans up is consistently female, you have a formula for reproducing male domination from one generation to the next” (Ehrenreich 2000:2). While in a cisgender heterosexual relationship men can create the “mess” or contribute to the creation of an embryo, a woman must deal with those consequences and clean up after him, presumably through an abortion. This pattern replicates itself in every corner of society and is made even more poignant when men prohibit women from cleaning up after the mess that they themselves created for the women to deal with. If gender inequality ceased to exist, “and in a less gender-divided social order, husbands and boyfriends would more readily do their share of the chores” (Ehrenreich 2000:7).
This system of male domination is not new and continues to breed in the highest levels of the United States government to prohibit women from having bodily autonomy. On May 2nd, Politico released a leaked draft opinion written by Justice Alito that stated their decision to vote against Roe v. Casey which would give authority back to the states to legislate on abortion. According to the draft, SCOTUS claims that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start. Its reasoning was exceptionally weak, and the decision has had damaging consequences. And far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue, Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division” (Gerstein and Ward 2022:5). Those making this decision turn to their own moral standing and disregard the thoughts and experiences of women who are faced with abortion and need reproductive care. Thus, prohibiting women from their right to self-determination and bodily autonomy.
Simone de Beauvoir wrote, “Legislators, priests, philosophers, writers, and scientists have striven to show that the subordinate position of woman is willed in heaven and advantageous on earth. The religions invented by men reflect this wish for domination” (Beauvoir 1949:5). The structures created by men infantilize women making it so they cannot make decisions for themselves and subjugate feminine autonomy to the will of the states. This is particularly challenging for women who have a lower socioeconomic status and reside in poorly funded black and brown communities that lack the infrastructure and support from the government to facilitate safe pregnancies. Wealthy women will not have to face the same consequences as they have more resources available to travel to different states to receive the reproductive care necessary. Thus, the issue is also not just discriminatory to women and their health care rights, but to specific demographics who systemically lack the resources necessary to see out a healthy pregnancy.
Women, in their defined state of otherness as outlined by Beauvoir, remain in subordination to men by their social status which is further perpetuated by their control of women’s healthcare. Judith Butler, a prominent activist and author, during an interview stated, “The right to abortion is based on the right of every individual woman to assert freedom over her own body but follows from the collective demands of women to be able to live their desires freely without state intervention and without fear of violence, retribution and imprisonment” (Yancy 2019). Women ask for nothing more but permission to exist. In that existence, sufficient healthcare, including abortions, is a vital and necessary right that should be afforded to anyone with the ability to give birth. It not only benefits the greater community but protects the sanctity of all women’s lives and livelihoods, especially the most marginalized and systemically suppressed. The fate of abortion and reproductive healthcare are predominantly in the hands of cisgender men who will never have to face the question of an abortion. Male domination, especially in issues regarding gender equity, is a testament to the rising gender inequality in society and the government today.
References
Beauvoir, Simone de. 1949. “Woman as Other.”
Ehrenreich, Barbara. “Maid to Order.” 2000. Harper’s Magazine.
Gerstein, Josh and Alexander Ward. 2022. “Supreme Court has voted to overturn abortion rights, draft opinion shows.” Politico. Retrieved May 2, 2022. (https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/02/supreme-court-abortion-draft-opinion-00029473).
Miller, Claire Cain and Margot Sanger-Katz. 2022. “What Would the End of Roe Mean? Key Questions and Answers.” New York Times. Accessed May 3, 2022. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/03/upshot/abortion-united-states-roe-wade.html).
Sanger-Katz, Margot, Claire Cain Miller, and Quoctrung Bui. 2021. “Who Gets Abortions in America?” New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2022. (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/12/14/upshot/who-gets-abortions-in- america.html).
Stracqualursi, Veronica. 2022. “Oklahoma lawmakers pass 6-week abortion ban modeled after Texas law that allows civil enforcement.” CNN. Retrieved May 1, 2022 (https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/28/politics/oklahoma-heartbeat-act/index.html).
Yancy, George. “Judith Butler: When Killing Women Isn’t a Crime.” New York Times. Retrieved April 32, 2022. (https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/opinion/judith-butler-gender.html).
