Battling Morals v. Right to Privacy
By Cassie Ordonio
As if going to high schools to shove God down children’s throats is not enough; there is going to Planned Parenthood to scream “baby killer.”
At age 16 in 2008, I witnessed a girl around my age being harassed by a crowd of mostly older women who rallied outside the Fairfield, Calif. high school to shame young girls and say that abortion is a sin.
Every year on Jan. 22, protesters gather in San Francisco for the Walk-for-Life march on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade case in 1973 when abortion became legal in all 50 states.
“Abortion hurts women,” screamed the signs held by thousands of protesters, but what really hurts women is the harassment they get for whatever choices they make.
“People need to understand the sanctity of life, especially young people,” anti-abortion demonstrator Nancy Sharpe told SFGate on Jan. 23. “Until the genocide of babies ends, until abortion disappears, we will be here marching. It is a tragedy and it must end.”
Regardless of what anti-abortion believers think, if abortion were to be illegal in the United States, women will find ways to proceed with an abortion even if it means internally injuring themselves or possibly losing their lives.
Before Roe v. Wade, approximately 5,000 American women died annually from unsafe abortions. Worldwide, two in five unsafe abortions occur among women under age 25, and about one in seven women who have unsafe abortions is under 20 according to the Population Reference Bureau.
A baby doesn’t have a heart beat until six weeks of the mother’s pregnancy; so some argue it’s not a human being yet. However, I understand the concept that every life is sacred.
Anti-abortion believers want abortion to be illegal, but is it because they don’t want their tax dollars to go to the clinics that perform abortions? Or do they really want women to struggle to take care of babies they’re not financially, emotionally or mentally prepared for?
What I really want to know is what will protect women from being slut-shamed, and what will protect women who become pregnant after surviving rape.
Though rape is a small percent of why women get abortions, any anti-abortion law needs to protect—and believe—women who report rape as the reason they need abortions.
For everyone else, it’s both partners’ responsibility to use the protection they were taught about in sex education.
Regardless of the politics and religion, it’s her body and her choice.
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