Policing Women: Abortion Rights & Representation in Government

Though Roxane Gay has a singular voice, she speaks the truth for all women in America in an excerpt from her book Bad Feminist, "I struggle to accept that my body is a legislative matter. The truth of this fact makes it hard for me to breathe. I don't feel like like I have inalienable rights." (Gay 274) Women's health in America can feel more like a stock market more than "alienable rights", as Gay says, because some days you feel that you have the protection of your own body, other days it feels like the protection of your body is at risk and you have to fend for yourself. These are not rights that directly in our control, which is troublesome and downright unfair.

I grew up in a liberal household where my mother guided me in a way that I was allowed to make my own decisions about my body, so long as I remained in contact with my gynecologist and remained informed about possibilities. I have taken for granted the privilege in that -- to be in open communication about my body and my plans for it. I cannot stomach the idea that only 40% of abortions in 2013 were legal in the South Central region of America. I cannot stomach the idea that in the largest state in the continental US, Texas, there were only 8 clinics available to operate abortions in October 2014. I cannot stomach the idea that women are being fed lies about abortion that are scientifically impossible, like abortion being reversible. If women are not being fed scientifically impossible information, hostile to abortion states try other tactics. "Waiting periods, counseling, ultrasounds, transvaginal ultrasounds, sonogram storytelling -- all of these legislative moves are invasive, insulting, and condescending because they are deeply misguided attempts to pressure women into changing their minds." (Gay 272) These misguided tactics anger me based on how policies are created to diminish the the legitimacy of the decision making of women. Some women take abortion very seriously, others do not, but why should that matter? Why does anyone get to say about the direction that a woman gets to take her own life?  Because I now see the lies and misconception, I would assume that society would be progressing in these policies. However, quite the opposite is happening.

Lack of female representation at the
peak of government

Digesting and understanding that the government is in control of bodies, especially the bodies of women, is troubling and difficult at best. To add onto that, in most situations, older white men are the leaders of the discussion. In the documentary Miss Representation, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admits there have been more than a handful of times that she has been the only woman in a discussion about women's health and women's rights. Today, only 20% of women make up the US Senate and 19% of the House. Because of the misrepresentation of women in government, this hinders the ability to convey a singular message for half of the population. If the conversation about women's bodies and policy is going to be had from a governmental point of view, it would only be appropriate that there was enough female representation in government to balance the conversation.

Bush Administration: 1:7 F to M ratio

Beyond the government, there are strings being pulled behind the scenes that are controlling women without knowledge nor consent. In Jennifer Nelson's Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement, Nelson tells us the story of a poor Mexican woman, Guadalupe Acosta, conned into becoming sterilized after giving birth to her first child in 1974 California. It is vital to understand that so much of this was, and is, happening to women who are of a lower socioeconomic status and women of color. Similarly, when an African American teenager, Minnie Lee Relf, was sterilized without consent, "it become a public scandal that contraceptive providers judged women of color "incompetent" to make decisions about their reproductive lives. Relf and Acosta's sterilizations, and the many stories similar to theirs, should have been a warning sign for the future. However, just last year 39 incarcerated prisoners were sterilized without consent just last year. 

So how do we stop this injustice? How do we stop women from being treated like second class citizens? It is essential to start with more women in positions  positions of power in government. Though democratic women tend to be more feminist in their thinking, women to the right, including 2008 GOP Vice President candidate Sarah Palin, believe in the legitimacy of women's rights. If more women are represented in Washington, more women are represented around the country. Women's issues that are put to the side in many cases could potentially become to the forefront. 

As presidential nominee (!!) Hillary Clinton has said time and time again, "Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights."

Works Cited:
Gay, Roxane. Bad Feminist: Essays. New York: Harper Perennial, 2014. Print.
Miss Representation. Virgil Films, 2012. Film.
Nelson, Jennifer. Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York: New York UP, 2003. Print.