Georgia, Alabama, Missouri and a handful of other state legislatures have, in their eyes, taken a stand at the right hand of God by enacting laws designed to stop all abortions. Their sententious actions leave most of us wondering why they don’t use a more effective approach to reducing the number of abortions.
Why not have mandatory, comprehensive sex education classes in junior high and high school? Why not have easy, low-cost access to any of the multitude of birth control options? Why do these sanctimonious, hypocritical state legislatures continue to push abstinence as the only way to avoid pregnancy among young women and girls?
Do they really think reversing Roe v. Wade will end abortions that are now available in safe, sterile facilities and performed by skilled and caring physicians? Do they consider how many women and girls may die after trying to end their own pregnancy at home with a coat hanger or another equally barbaric method?
What about women who struggle to feed the children they already have? What about the young teen girl, raped by a counselor at her church, or her step-father or an older boy at school?
Already emotionally damaged by the rape, she fears the stigma of carrying her pregnancy to term; her young body may be severely harmed delivering a child that she does not want. Her life will be ruined, but thank goodness the zygote/blastocyst/embryo inside her is protected and deemed a person with rights. Will that young girl take her own life after giving birth? Or during her pregnancy?
How many already have?
State legislatures must come to terms with the simple fact that no one has the right to tell a woman what to do with her body. It is every woman’s right to maintain control over her reproductive health, period. The emotional, financial, familial consequences of an unwanted pregnancy in our current environment are already very difficult to endure. Overturning Roe v. Wade will make things much worse. Memo to state law makers and pro-life advocates: Keep your moralistic, narrow-minded notions out of other people’s lives and mind your own business.
Jonathan C. Seegmiller, Salt Lake City
