On June 24, the U.S. Supreme court overturned Roe v. Wade, the piece of legislation which granted access to abortions. That federal right was taken from many people capable of full-term pregnancies. For 50 years, we were given the right to safe and legal abortions, but this landmark legislation stripped women in the US of their rights. 

Many states have flat-out banned abortions while other states such as California, New York and Alaska – others have yet to do so. Many states have decided that abortions are banned after six to twelve weeks into a pregnancy. The catch is, one in three women don’t even find out they are pregnant until after the six-week mark. Cryptic pregnancies are pregnancies in which women can go through the full term without even realizing it.

The removal of legal and safe abortions is causing a disproportionate effect on the lives of Black Indigenous and women of color. Y’all might say “not everything is about race” but race is literally the defining factor of WHO gets the safe procedures done and who can actually be well off after having a baby. 

Rich, white women will be able to travel out-of-state and even out of the country to have abortions performed whereas BIPOC women living in low to middle-class neighborhoods become more susceptible to physiological and psychological stressors. 

If basic needs are not being met for the pregnant woman what makes people think the child will be able to be properly fed, clothed, or taken care of? Why are women being forced into taking care of a child if they know they won’t be able to? Why are men making these decisions over our reproductive systems? The same people who are banning abortions are also cutting funding for programs that are supposed to help mothers. 

Some states have bans on abortion except for in the case of incest and rape. We are basically telling women that in order to have a right over their body, someone else has to violate her first. We are not the land of the free if we still keep women oppressed. Most people end up saying “Oh just put the baby up for adoption.” Adoption does not replace an abortion. Women will still have to go through scary complications while keeping the baby, no health risks are avoided, nor are the physiological and psychological stressors moved out of the picture. Abortion has no replacement.

And to the Christian pro-lifers, if God gave us free will to do as we please, who are we to remove that free will from anyone else? Let women take care of themselves in a secure way. Just because there has been a regulation to ban abortions, this does not mean all abortions will cease to exist; we will just have UNSAFE abortions. 

And in the words of Megan Thee Stallion: “Take the bans off our bodies.”