The Day They Overturned Roe
There are moments in life that mark a dramatic change in its trajectory. The beginning of the covid COVID lockdown, the economic crash of 2009, death of a loved one. The times that, beyond our control, for better or worse, our lives will never be the same. The Ssupreme Ccourt overturned Roe V. Wade today. It is a decision we have been dreading for years. It is not a surprise when you look at how the government has been shifting to take away the rights of people all along. This won’t be the first time that I admit that I am scared. I graduate college in December, and in the past three years I have seen the world I thought I knew fall out from beneath me so many times that I have grown used to the instability. Severe anxiety and depression are just a part of daily life now as I try to convince myself it’s worth it to take another step.
Trump stacked the court and implemented policies that took a sledgehammer to the progress we fought for over the course of centuries and started a coup. He was a tool to embolden people to fight for this and was a wakeup call for the rest of us trying to hold onto our sanity. The hard lines of each state’s politics in America have been normalized. Each state acts as if it is a separate country. The juxtaposition of shouting about freedom while simultaneously fighting to remove the rights of the people is not lost on me. It is a national tragedy. With the overturning of Roe, contraception and the privacy associated with sexual health are given to the states to decide. More and more, the power of the federal government is being weakened to promote the independent nature of the states. The protection of the federal government is looking less and less trustworthy with this shift to rugged individualism. We’re falling in the wrong direction. Trigger laws are taking effect and are removing access to competent reproductive healthcare. Roe V. Wade set the precedent for many laws and accessibility in healthcare as well as the protection of same sex marriage. This court decision has enacted state control over women’s bodies now, and we know it will not stop there.
Prior to Roe v. Wade, there were one million illegal abortions performed each year. Post-Roe, the number of abortions didn’t change, but the number of people who survived them did. The same has now been set in action in reverse. Forced pregnancies or dangerous procedures don’t have to be the only options. Stay informed. Watch where the power lies by watching who is protected by these laws and who is at risk.
I believe that the government should not be able to tell me what I can or can’t do with my body. The exception to abortion bans doesn’t need to stop after
Rape and incest should not be the only exception to abortion bans, bodily autonomy and the right to say no should be afforded to every American. If those are the only times that you allow people to make that choice for themselves then you are missing the point. We as individuals do not get to choose when life begins; that’s a philosophical issue with no answer. We as individuals do not get to decide what a valid reason for terminating a pregnancy is. We cannot tote the idea of free will while we are actively reducing the ability to express ourselves and make choices for ourselves within our lives. We cannot sit back and dissociate from the reality of this decision. It took decades before to make the decision and then overturn Roe v. Wade, and we now risk facing decades of rollbacks in human rights and facing the secrecy and threat of the states. We did not choose these consequences, they were chosen for us for stepping outside the line of allowance.
San Francisco will be dominated by the Trans March, the Dyke March, and the Pride parade this weekend. We won’t be silent. There is a war in this country that people don’t want to believe is there. Guns are more protected than we are as people. Doesn’t that strike you as a little off that people who talk about being pro-life also believe that people should be able to hold the power of a weapon that takes it away in the blink of an eye? The government was never going to fight for our rights. They take them away and give them back conditionally like a cruel god and often in the name of a Christian god that I have not recognized since I was a child. I am not the only one that lives with fear. It is in the hands of us all, but that does not need to make us weak. Don’t get caught in the web of confusion and end up surrendering to the grief thinking that life has to be this way. Be completely aware of the fact that this puts us all at risk, in the future if not right now. Fear can only stop us if we let it. Stay strong and stay together.