Part Three: How Did We Lose Our Reproductive Freedoms if the Majority of Americans Voted to Keep Them?

Part three of five of The Most Compelling Abortion Argument That Neither Side Is Discussing: What Happens to the Unwanted and How Does that Impact Us All?

Photo by Jack Prommel on Unsplash

Part Three: How Did We Lose Our Reproductive Freedoms if the Majority of Americans Voted to Keep Them?

The majority of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, support legal abortions with restrictions—so how then did we end up here and now with Roe v Wade being over-turned? By appointment, that’s how. Apparently six of the of the current appointed members of the Supreme Court Justices of the United States are anti-freedom, in that they are anti-freedom of reproductive rights (Justices: Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and John Roberts). These were not elected officials and yet they hold lifetime seats on the Supreme Court. One third of our branch of government, the judicial branch, holds the longest standing seats which are controlled by unelected officials. We can’t even argue that the presidents who appointed them represent the rule of the people because five of the nine Justices were appointed by two presidents who did not receive the majority of popular votes: George W. Bush and Donald J. Trump who won not by the most votes of United States citizens, but due to electoral college votes. This is why the electoral college, while intended to create democracy, actually destroys it. It’s not only reproductive freedoms on the line, but also the freedom of women to have any and all liberties under fetal personhood restrictions.

What are Fetal Personhood Laws

A fetal personhood law would declare a fetus the same legal rights as the mother by declaring a fetus a person. This means that women could be prosecuted, sent to prison, and taken away from their families which may include the children they already have at home, and not just for abortions but miscarriages and possibly even for using birth control. Roe v. Wade has protected women against prosecution for miscarriages and abortions under fetal homicide laws. Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, that protection is gone. One could argue that under this circumstance a fetus is being given more personhood rights than a woman.

The only right granted specifically to women in the constitution is the right to vote. If we want personhood rights, we need to make sure that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is adopted into the constitution, which would state: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

As Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, “The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When the government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a full adult human responsible for her own choices.”

When Roe v Wade was overturned, women were essentially written out of the constitution.

Freedom

Freedom is the state of being free. The right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint (within laws that govern and protect inarguable harm to others). That’s where we get stuck, the “inarguable” part. Here’s the kicker: there’s no freedom without discourse to know what is and is not “inarguable harm;” so in order to maintain freedom, we have to maintain freedom of expression. Whether you believe in “my body, my choice” to protect reproductive freedoms, or to protect against forced medical mandates, you believe in freedom. It doesn’t mean one thing on the left and something else on the right. Freedom is freedom across the board, nonpartisan.

If we believe otherwise, we have become a target to age old divide and conquer techniques that will eventually strip us all of the freedoms we value most. We don’t convince others by taking away their power. We convince others by stepping into our own power, which we can only do with freedom.

The Blame Game Makes Losers Of Us All

In the documentary, “Reversing Roe,” we witness Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump all on public record proclaiming to support reproductive freedoms—until the time came when it no longer financially and politically served them to do so, and they changed their tune. All politicians, no matter what side, are still politicians. I have never agreed with every single thing my party has stood for, and I know it’s no different for most Democrats and Republicans. Human integrity is flawed; and as such, our political system is flawed—no matter what side of the fence one sits on.

Though historically a Democrat myself, I know that most of my Republican sisters are standing with me on the issue of abortion; so I don’t want to invite defensiveness and weaken the justice team by pointing blame to their party. Believe it or not, there are southern, conservative Christians who believe in reproductive freedoms. I know, because I’ve been by their side when they chose to use those freedoms to have an abortion, which only proves that it’s just as important to keep abortion safe and legal for those who don’t feel safe publicly admitting they believe in it, as it is for those who do. When the plane is going down, even the atheists begin to pray.

I understand the temptation to blame Republicans for the Roe v. Wade overturn, because Republican presidents appointed the judges who reversed that decision. Nevertheless, pointing that out feeds into the “us” versus “them” polarization propaganda that we’ve all been victim to, particularly since 2015.

Put Out The Fire

There’s a fire in the town square.

Everyone who cares about preserving the area rushes to the scene with buckets of water

to put it out.

When they arrive, they see the people who started it.

Filled with rage, they throw the water on them instead of the fire.

Everyone gets burned.

Put out the fire, then blame the match.

This concludes Part Three: How Did We Lose Our Reproductive Freedoms if the Majority of Americans Voted to Keep Them?

In Part Four of The Most Compelling Abortion Argument That Neither Side Is Discussing: What Happens to the Unwanted and How Does that Impact Us All? the question asked is who is responsible for an unwanted pregnancy and how much does it actually cost to raise a child today?

Sage Justice is intensely sincere. Balancing wisdom and humor she most often writes deeply personal solution based pieces about the enduring virtues that connect us all: love and healing. She is an award-winning playwright and critically acclaimed performing artist who has appeared on stages from Madison Square Garden in New York City, to The Comedy Store in Hollywood, California. Ms. Justice is the author of Sage Words FREEDOM Book One, an activist, a member of the Screen Actors Guild and an alumna Artist-In-Residence of Chateau Orquevaux, France. She is a co-founder of The Unity Project which fuses activism with art, to educate and inspire, with a special emphasis on community engagement to end homelessness. She has a series of short reels about living with the rare genetic disorder, Vascular Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome that you can find in a highlight reel on her Instagram page @SageWords2027

Photo By Margot Hartford