Roe Vs Wade

 

Roe Vs Wade

my personal experience

When I hear the political and judicial debates about freedom of choice Vs. right for the embryo to live, I am propelled to reflect on the assumptions behind the right to live argued by the radical religious right group.

 It seems that their attitude to women assumes inequality or inferiority to men. Whereas men have the freedom to act out of lust impulsively and sometimes even aggressivity. Women, on the other hand, are not given any freedom, instead they are containers for babies. I happened to have the opportunity to go through a transformation in my life that allowed me to deeply reflect on this hypothesis.

When I turned Thirty, I married the love of my life, eager to join the motherhood cult. But no matter what we tried no pregnancy happened. Instead, I experienced monthly disappointment or despair. We could not conceive. We tried all the medical options available at the time—but nada. After mourning “not being a woman” for not getting pregnant I joined Kris Kristofferson’s idea that freedom is another word for nothing else to lose.  With little risk I was able to be like a man.  Sexually Free.  Luckily for me, I didn’t have to bear the consequences of losing a career, nor did I have to take on a lifelong responsibility I did not choose to have. Read more about that chapter of my life in my memoir: “From Mud to Lotus: I meant to behave but there were too many other options”.

 Nonetheless, I was plagued by this Roe VS Wade dilemma and concluded that legally the ones who insist that a 7-day fetus is a human being that needs to live should also own the responsibility to carry it to term and raise the child from birth, nurse it, get up at odd hours, and pay for the consequences—as it is their choice and thus their responsibility. Until science makes it possible for men to be pregnant and bear the child to maturity, the law needs to protect unwilling women from the coercion to carry the fetus to term, because men want it. When science affords men and women the same choice of avoiding pregnancy or birthing, women will become free of the forced responsibility if they don’t want to do so. Also, the babies will receive a loving parent—then and only then is it humane to bring another baby into this world.

Until we arrive at such scientific innovation, let’s look at options for both men and women to sterilize themselves and not cause for unwanted babies to be born. This will bring equality for both sexes. But, if men cannot birth babies, and don’t have to experience themselves what they demand unwilling women to go through, they cannot have a say.

 As long as the law coerces unwilling parents to birth a baby. Inadvertently, the law supports trauma for the unwanted child. That is an act of promoting harm thus, the law of Roe Vs. Wade should stand and be supported by all.