Kim Jong-un is the dictator of North Korea. In his county, citizens cannot have control over themselves because he decides everything and anything that happens and restricts all rights of the people. Contrarily, the United States of America is a democracy, so there is not an issue of that, however people cannot control their own bodies here as well. Many southern states have recently passed laws banning abortions during early pregnancy. An abortion is where doctors end a pregnancy due to many reasons being either rape, unwanted pregnancies, health conditions for the mother, and many more reasons that are truly none of our business. Therefore, abortion is the choice of the pregnant person to decide and not anyone else.
To start, there are going to be many pregnancies that were not intentionally planned, such as teen pregnancies. There has been a law passed in Florida that banned children from getting an abortion without parental consent. But not all parents are good, they can be abusive. Think of the children in foster care, and other caretaking facilities without the access to abortion. There are so many unfortunate people that don’t have good parental figures to make these decisions. Shannon Green says in “Teen Pregnancy, Abortion…Things Legislators Should NOT Decide”, “The vast majority of pregnant teens who have considered or obtained abortions already involve their parents in the decision-making process, according to a policy statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics and research by the National Institute of Health” (Green 2) Truly there should not be a law needing parental consent for abortion when it already happens regardless of the law being in place or not. Walking in the shoes of 17 year-old Stephanie Pineiro who filed paperwork for a judicial waiver, she received “...an ultrasound from the doctor’s office that she didn’t want, navigating court and healthcare systems - all while saving up tips from her waitress job so she could afford the abortion” (Green 3) Explaining the struggles of a teenager without a good parental figure really can put into place how people should view all people that might not have that ideal situation. And just the fact that “...young men face far less social pressure and judgment about abortion even though they are half of the equation 100% of the time.”(Green 2) These people need to be held accountable for their actions and the act that society blocks them out of the picture is sexist.
Furthermore, the fact that these people passing the laws are white supremacist Republicans does not help the cause because they are just abusing their power. They preach for “freedom” and “liberty” but yet restrict the bodies that are not even their own because of the way they feel. Even though these states promote hunting animals, but when it comes to the fact that Monica Hesse explains in “‘Pro-Life’? What about the life of the Woman?”. “... a six-week embryo is a cluster of cells that is the size of a lentil.”(Hesse 2) and “...Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed a state law banning abortions at the first sign of a heartbeat”(Hesse 2) yet all those animals you killed had heartbeats too. Think about it, the same state that legalizes civilians to have guns because of their “freedom” yet they cannot have the right to control their own body? Seems very hypocritical that these people who are so keen on having “liberty” but then as the New York Times state in “To Protect Abortion Rights, Turn to Elections” are “eliminating a constitutional right that tens of millions of women have counted on…”(New York Times 2) Taking away the freedom that Texas is supposed to be known for. Truthfully, it is just completely up to the pregnant person to decide whether or not to have an abortion because it is their body. People focus on the “life” of the tiny clump of cells more than the actual person going through all the struggles of pregnancy. Monica Hesse combined information from other sources and came to the conclusion that “...women’s physical and emotional lives were important - more important, in fact, than an unborn fetus.” (Hesse 1) This is true, because would you really value a full-grown person that can contribute to society over a “person” the size of a lentil? People need to realize that “... it is more dangerous to birth a child than to end a pregnancy.” (Hesse 4) We don’t even need more babies, the earth is already overpopulated, so a few unborn babies to protect a woman is worth it. Legalizing abortion “...should be centered on women’s equality and liberty, not on their privacy.”(New York Times 4)
Thus, republicans need to realize all sides of the argument and see how every person can be affected by these laws, because it really just restricts their freedom. Does America want to become like North Korea? That is why abortion is the choice of the pregnant person and no other people. We need to stand up against this whether it be protests, petitions, or other types of ways to persuade these white supremacists. We don’t live in 1960 anymore, women should have and deserve rights.