Pro-life movement should focus on improving those living

Reproductive rights violated by new laws

Maddie Schutte

Our country has proven its lack of respect for women’s bodies through the recent abortion ban laws happening around the country. These poorly researched and misogynistic laws have no place in our government.

These four states have passed or are in the process of passing a heartbeat bill, meaning abortions are illegal if a heartbeat can be detected or if the pregnancy is further than six weeks along, according to The Washington Post. Cases of rape and incest are not exempt from these laws, only severe health risks for women will be an exception.

If these laws aren’t horrible enough, including rape and incest is unimaginably evil. A woman who never consented to have sex never consented to carry a child to term. In an even more heartbreaking situation, a child who is raped shouldn’t have to have their life, and more specifically their education, set back because they were raped and unaware they were pregnant until it was too late.

This situation is no longer hypothetical. In Ohio, an 11 year old rape victim will not be able to terminate her pregnancy under new state legislation. Her physical and mental health will never recover from giving birth. Being forced to give up a child for adoption takes an emotional toll on both the mother and the child. This pregnancy is not her responsibility given it was not her choice. Telling her, by law, that she has to put her physical health and opportunities at risk is a complete violation of her privacy, and a sickening method of control.

Restrictive abortion bills aren’t just happening in southern states, two new bills hit home in the Minnesota House and Senate. One preventing abortion if a fetal heartbeat is present, and the other preventing the procedure if the pregnancy is 20 weeks along or more. It’s scary to see even in a predominantly democratic state, there’s still enough support to create two restrictive bills limiting women’s health care.

Whether you support abortion or not, it isn’t anyone’s place, especially not the government’s place, to control women’s bodies. Being pro-choice doesn’t have to mean you are pro-abortion, it means you support letting other women make that choice for themselves. It’s completely understandable to not support abortion, but there is a simple solution to that; don’t get one. You will never know what situation another woman is in, so leave that decision up to her and her doctor.

The supporters of these bills who claim to be pro-life seem to lack the motivation to fight for life when it doesn’t involve a woman’s body. If pro-lifers truly cared about protecting lives, they would fight for the crisis at our border, for universal health care and improving the foster care system in America. However, the sad reality is the fight for life stops the second the child is born. The pro-life movement is hypocritical and ignorant.

Rather than trying to restrict abortion, states should be pushing to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the first place. According to Planned Parenthood, only 24 states and the district of Columbia require sex education in schools. They also found that 43 percent of females and 57 percent of males lacked any information on birth control before having sex for the first time. If every state was required to provide comprehensive sex education, the number of unwanted pregnancies would significantly decrease.

It is horrifying to see the lack of thought, respect and education behind these abortion ban laws. The only way to get rid of abortion is to prevent unplanned pregnancies. If the pro-life movement truly cares about human lives, they should be putting their energy toward saving the already existing lives in our country.