The tyrannies of “pro-life” campaigns

I have been living in the land of the free and the home of the brave for almost three months now, and I’m in a state of limbo. I am not the ignorant tourist toting a rucksack so large that it could hold supplies to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Nor am I the fully- fledged émigré who can recall, vaguely, a distant past in which a sidewalk was called a pavement and tea was drunk with milk in it.

Admittedly, I am more ignorant than I am knowledgeable about all things American, though I am happy to say that I am receiving fewer blank looks from Americans when I open my mouth. That is not a CV-worthy achievement, but it is progress.

On the sign was written: “STOP ABORTION NOW”. To drive his message home, he had attached a plastic baby to his stomach and decorated the scene with fake blood

In my new status as both outsider and insider, I believe I’m pretty well-placed to talk about a contentious issue in American society, and its place in the “land of the free” trope.

Recently, I celebrated my twenty-first birthday. In the days leading up to my birthday I could see the finish line, and there was wine there. Twenty-one is a magical age here, where a person has many doors opened to them (and they may stumble through those doors in a drunken stupor, legally).

On the day of my twenty-first, I was driving along a busy road when I saw a man standing on the sidewalk holding a placard. On the sign was written: “STOP ABORTION NOW”. To drive his message home, he had attached a plastic baby to his stomach and decorated the scene with fake blood.

On that day in my life, the United States government relinquished its say in whether or not I could intoxicate my own body with alcohol. On that same day, the values of a group of conservative legislators, legitimated in state law, impeded my access to an abortion, meaning that I have limited control over the fate of my own womb for the duration of my time here.

It seems absurdly inconsistent in terms of political policy that American conservatives should champion small government, whilst so often insisting that government should have an enormous say in deciding reproductive options for women.

As if the ultra-conservative stance on abortion isn’t harmful enough, when combined with the conservative stance on contraceptive and reproductive education for young people, we have a lethal public policy, literally.

The majority of my classmates have never received any proper, formal sex and relationship education in school. Girls and women of all different backgrounds have, do, and will seek abortion regardless of its legal status. It is not unlikely that a woman you know has received an abortion at some point in her life. We as a global community have a duty to provide an alternative to a folding table in a back room with dirty tools.

Those advocating “pro-life” in America would like to live in a society in which women are dictated to by government

“Pro-choice” is not the opposite of “pro-life”. It does not advocate that an abortion should be the answer in the majority of cases. I would like there to be better access to contraception and sex education for both genders, so that women and their partners never have to face the prospect of an abortion.

But I recognise that unwanted pregnancies have always been a fact of life for many women, whether or not they are “careful”, and whether or not they consented to sex. I believe it is a kind, humane society that chooses to use the resources at its disposal to give women a way out, should they desire it. Those advocating “pro-life” in America would like to live in a society in which women are dictated to by government, whilst tyranny of government is otherwise abhorred and griped about daily.

This issue should not be seen in terms of a dichotomy between abortion as “right” or “wrong”, because that will get us nowhere. It should be seen in terms of whether or not women should be given different choices, with the civil liberty to decide for themselves what goes on inside of their own bodies.

155 years later, and America is as much a house divided as when Abraham Lincoln made his famously radical address at the Illinois State Capitol building, and the issue of abortion is about as divisive as they come. The sight of that man on the side of the road was hard to stomach, and equally nauseating is the hypocrisy of staunchly conservative American political policy.

Women’s wombs are being held hostage by the values of legislators who they will most likely never meet. Where is the freedom in that?

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Header Image Courtesy of flickr.com/ Steve Rhodes