I deserve control over my body, not the government

As a woman, the results of the election have me filled with fear. The rights women have fought to secure are under attack, threatening millions of women across the country. Women in the United States should not be preparing anxiously through sleepless nights in preparation of losing their fundamental rights. Reproductive rights are not a luxury–they are a civil right.

Choosing whether to bring life into this world or not is a personal decision that everyone should have the right to make.

Yet we now face the facts: we no longer have bodily autonomy throughout the country.

During his campaign, Donald Trump introduced Project 2025, an agenda of policies he pledged to enforce if re-elected. The measures surrounding reproductive health and services proposes revoking mifepristone’s FDA approval: a medication used for abortions (nearly two-thirds of abortions are medication based).

Project 2025 also calls for Medicare and Medicaid to eliminate funding for Planned Parenthood facilities and block the funding for the United Nations Population Fund which provides a range of reproductive services to women and girls.

Those are only a few policies that will begin once Trump takes office and will pursue an agenda that has already affected women in red states. Prohibiting access to mail in abortion pills has caused those in need of them to leave the state or go through with an unwanted pregnancy.

From my experience, I was fortunate enough to receive the help I needed from Planned Parenthood, which allowed me to protect my health and future. I had the opportunity to decide what I wanted to do with my body and it gave me a second chance to a better future.

Taking away reproductive rights perpetuates the cycle that causes our society to take big steps backwards. We must protect human rights as future generations will be heavily impacted. Reproduction is far from simple; it’s deeply complicated.

Even in countries like Japan and South Korea, women are resisting the patriarchal societies which govern them through the 4B movement: a radical feminist movement that opposes the systemic issues of gender inequality and patriarchal oppression. Essentially, it has women opting out of sex, getting married and childbearing. The movement highlights the importance of raising awareness for gender inequality. While these movements have resulted in a massive decline in birth rates, sparking government panic, they illuminate a deeper truth: reproduction without autonomy is oppression.

If this movement proceeded in America it would stem from the same misogynistic frustrations such as the expectation as a woman to sleep with men, while the men don’t want abortion to be accessible.

JAMA Network, a medical journal by the American Medical Association show 64,000 pregnancies resulted from rape and in 2020 alone, 287,000 women lost their lives due to birth complications a study condoned by the World Health Organization. For the victims of rape, being compelled to carryout an unwanted pregnancy can exacerbate the psychological trauma they’ve already endured. The risks of complications associated with pregnancy and childbirth underscore the access to safe abortion services, which act as a safeguard for the physical and mental well-being of individuals.

As I live the reality of Trump’s enforcement of restrictive reproductive laws, it’s urgent to recognize the importance of our human rights now more than ever, since we are having our rights stripped from us. There are no laws requiring men to undergo procedures or regulate their own involvement in child-rearing, only women are the ones held accountable. If men are granted the freewill to decide what they can do with their bodies then why can’t we?

Decisions about our reproductive freedom should not be based on personal values or political agendas, it should be considered a right. This lack of gender equality is causing outrage from women all throughout the country. I don’t see this as a political issue, but a human rights crisis. Everyone deserves control of their own bodies.