It is no secret that these are times in which things are changing and shifting all over the world at a rapid pace. In the past year, there have been strides made to restore and ensure the civil rights of Americans as well as people all over the world with the recent overthrow of tyrannical governments in countries like Tunisia and Egypt. While it is important to remain aware of the ways in which the rights of certain groups, like the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning community, whose rights have been unconstitutionally limited for far too long, continue to be affected by legislation and sentiment that seeks to deny civil liberties, it is nonetheless important to maintain an awareness of the way in which groups of people who have "equal rights" are being legislated against as well.
Within the past few months, there has been much talk of anti-abortion legislation on both state and federal levels as officials elected in November begin their new terms. It is understandable to me that the pro-life platform is against abortion on the grounds that it denies a human life without its consent. However, many of the new laws being proposed and unfortunately passed do not only affect what many Republican legislators claim are "government-funded" abortions, they affect the rights of American women.
An amendment recently passed bans all Planned Parenthood centers from receiving federal funding to support any of the services they offer. In an essay published in The Huffington Post, Janine Balekdjian points out "none of the federal money currently given to Planned Parenthood is used for abortions. Instead, it's used for providing vital health services like birth control, sexually transmitted infections tests and reproductive health exams. Planned Parenthood is sometimes the only provider of such services, particularly in low-income communities."
By preventing federal funding from going to Planned Parenthood centers, this legislation denies many women access to birth control and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases. While this legislation does nothing in terms of preventing abortions from occurring, it in fact makes it much more likely women would experience unwanted pregnancies due to a lack of pregnancy prevention resources.
There is a proposed bill in South Dakota that would term the murder of doctors who perform abortions as justifiable homicide. There are bills proposed in other states, including Ohio, that would prevent abortions later than 18 days after conception, and one in the House of Representatives called the Protect Life Act that would allow hospitals to refuse to perform emergency abortions in the case of a life-threatening pregnancy.
Essentially, these laws would deny women their rights, and even their lives, in order to protect the life of a life that is not fully formed. Abortion is an issue that should not be taken lightly and every life has its value. However, denying women their rights is not the answer to protecting young lives.
In Georgia, House Republican Rep. Bobby Franklin has submitted a bill that would force police to investigate women who have miscarriages. This bill would have women who have abortions labeled murderers and women who cannot prove their miscarriage, a generally traumatic and deeply upsetting experience for a woman, as guilty of prenatal murder.
Thankfully, the part of the No Taxpayer Money for Abortion Act, which redefined rape in such a way that would, according to Balekdjian's article, "(allow) the rape exemption (for abortion) to be applied only in cases of ‘forcible rape,'" was removed. This part of the definition "excluded women who had been drugged, were unconscious, date raped and (statutorily) raped." Basically, this would have been a government approval of all of these kinds of rape.
It's not enough to protect the lives of unborn fetuses and call it the protection of human life. Our legislators need to keep in mind the sanctity of the lives of people who have been born as well. It feels ridiculous to have to say, but it seems necessary given the tenor of anti-female legislation that has been proposed and even passed in recent months.
It doesn't seem right that our rights would be violated in the name of protecting the lives of others. It doesn't help that these laws are being largely proposed and voted on by men, who the laws do not affect and who are apparently unable to understand how miscarriages and abortions affect women. To me, this type of legislation is just further proof that gender discrimination is not over and that misogyny is alive and well in America today.
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