Considering it’s 2016, I feel there are too many headlines wasted on abortion debates. Why legislators feel it is their obligation to dictate what women can and cannot do with their bodies, is completely beyond me. Much of this talk can be chalked up to campaign trail rhetoric in the US. Even more disturbing, women exposed to Zika virus are being denied the right to terminate their pregnancy, and now Poland may be facing an all out abortion ban. Given that men are typically mystified and dumbfounded when it comes to the female reproductive system, I wonder why so many display such avid interest on this one issue. Perhaps, the abortion issue is a harbinger of something deeper.
I am reminded of a quote from Sandra Cisneros’ “A House of My Own”:
Even as women have made great advances in all other avenues of life, our biology is the last chain that can be used to hold us back. A woman may be educated, have a career, a home, and her own money. But the powers that be still want to condemn us to be barefoot and pregnant at their will. What is the point in having an education, the right to vote or to own property if we are stripped of the fundamental right to control our own bodies?
Fortunately, I am confident that none of this will come to pass as the majority of the electorate is too smart to elect a misogynist in 2016. And hopefully, in 4 years time, society will have evolved enough such that this issue will no longer be worthy of debate. Here’s hoping…
33 and Free 