I grew up in a very conservative, Christian home in the Heartland. I attended Vacation Bible School, was baptized in three churches of various denomination and ascribed to the virtues of fundamentalist theology.
Through the Reagan-Bush years of the 1980's, when I became an adult, I also considered myself a solid Pro-Life Republican.
Boy how life will change you.
I began deconstructing my faith, in earnest, in 2005. My marriage began falling apart the next year. It crashed and burned in 2012. Along the way, I deconstructed my long-held ideas on family, sex and spirituality. I lost my homophobia, my transphobia and my abortion phobia.
Becoming a parent, as I did in 2001, really changes you. There were some monumental shifts about to happen at my core. I eventually abandoned Christianity, while holding fast to some of it's virtues, things I found universally true, like "the Golden Rule." I got out of the fundamentalist cult, but it took some time and lots of deprogramming.
The Christian Cult in America would tell you that life begins at conception. That is not science, it is a religious belief. In truth, a fertilized egg, known as a zygote, is a ball of 32 cells that's about the size of a poppy seed. So, indeed, ZYGOTES begin at conception. Multi-cell organisms with human DNA begin taking shape, but you can hardly call that "a life."
So who's RIGHT TO LIFE is it, exactly?
I'd argue that it's the fully viable outside the womb mother or host. She has the right to life. That right is constitutionally protected. She should ALSO have the right to bodily autonomy, meaning if she doesn't want to be the host carrier of this zygote, that is HER CHOICE! By the way, she should also have equal rights as an American male, but I digress.
A woman's right to life, bodily autonomy and choice is not up for debate, but don't tell the Congress or Supreme Court. They've yet to conform to 21st Century societal norms and values. They are stuck in the Dark Ages, the Court even alluding to 19th Century laws in their majority opinion. Justice Alito writes, "American law followed the common law until a wave of statutory restrictions in the 1800s expanded criminal liability for abortions." WOW!
It's almost like "A Handmaid's Tale," was a prophecy about 2022 America. Alarming and bone-chilling!
This is a problem for all members of our society, regardless of gender, because if the Court can take away one right--that of a woman to choose/bodily autonomy--then they can take away all of them. Isn't that what the gun lobby cries every time "gun control" is even whispered in the halls of Congress? That aside, men--and I'm talking sys-gendered and trans--cannot rely on their own bodily autonomy. The logic goes that if women can't make decisions affecting their own person, then what about trans women? Will their rights be infringed next? I mean, it wasn't written in the Bible that you can choose your gender identity. You're simply cursed with the body you were born with! And in the case of pregnant women, same. A fetus can sometimes be a curse, when unwanted.
And I'm not just talking cases of rape and incest. What about unintended pregnancies from consensual sex?
I have a friend, Shelli, who at the age of 18 wasn't informed by medical professionals that her prescription medication might counteract her birth control. Well, it did and guess what? She got pregnant at a time in her life when she wasn't ready to raise a child, did not have the means or wherewithal and made her choice NOT TO CARRY TO TERM! Her body, her right, her choice.
You see, the issue isn't so black-and-white. "God breathed life into your womb, therefore, you have no choice," isn't a scientific fact or even a legal precedent. It's theological ideology crammed down non-believing people's throats. I used to buy the theology, but I don't anymore. And in this country we have the FREEDOM FROM RELIGION! i.e. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." and cramming theology down people's throat is a direct violation of First Amendment Constitutional rights!!
I raised two daughters in this country. For the first 18 years of my youngest daughter's life, she had the protection of the Court (Roe v. Wade still being in effect) and the right to choose for herself. Both of my daughters grew up under the "Roe umbrella" of protection. Is the Court going to tell them, now, "Oops we got it wrong in 1973?" APPARENTLY!!
I have three sisters, born 1970-79. They, too, grew up with the same innate rights to life and liberty. Their bodily autonomy was protected for the majority of their lives.You can't take back what you already granted in 1973.
And if the Court believes they can (and did), then what's to stop them there. They can roll back protections for the LGBTQ+ community, minorities (inclduding African-Americans) and any other right they choose. Who gave them this power? God? It certainly wasn't any of us. We don't vote them into position.
But we do vote for the one person who appoints them.
EVERY LIVING BREATHING HUMAN BEING IN AMERICA HAS THE RIGHT TO BODILY AUTONOMY. PERIOD.
In that regard, I am still 100% PRO-LIFE!
