Our Severing Ways

last week i wrote about the birth of our granddaughter.  this week i want to write about the efforts of many to curtail the rights of women, especially their right to control their own bodies.  after the supreme court struck down the protection of reproductive rights based on the belief in a constitutional right to privacy, many state legislatures outlawed abortion.  we now have a patchwork of contradictory laws throughout our country.  in some states, abortion is forbidden after a certain point in pregnancy.  in others, abortion is allowed only in the case of rape, incest, or when the mother's life is in danger.  still others have made abortion illegal under any circumstances.  other states have maintained the right of women to control their bodies and left women's healthcare as a private matter between a woman and her doctor.

some of these laws make doctors criminally liable if they perform an abortion that the state determines violates the law.  many of these laws are unclear about when an abortion is or is not legal.  in many instances, the result is that doctors simply will not perform abortions under any conditions for fear of being jailed by the state.  women are dying and are being injured for life because of these laws.  poor women are forced to bear children that they cannot care for.  rape victims are forced to bear the children of their rapists, and many of these mothers are children themselves.  thousands of unwanted children will be born, and the states with the most draconian laws are the least supportive of mothers and children after babies are born.

the "fetal personhood" movement is pushing for laws that make a developing fetus equal in rights to a person who has been born.   rather than speaking of a fetus, the proponents of this perspective refer to the fetus as "unborn" or "preborn."  from this point of view, an "unborn person" is murdered if it is aborted.  the doctor who performed the abortion and the mother carrying the fetus are partners in murder and subject to criminal prosecution.  women have been prosecuted when a miscarriage has occured.  in several states, this legal theory is now enshrined in the legal code.

women must have control over their bodies.  it is not the business of the state to interfere in the health care of a woman.  women and their medical providers should be left alone to do what is in the best interest of the mother without intervention by the state.  may we stop treating women as little more than carriers of developing fetuses.  may we return to a belief in reproductive rights for women.  may we provide the support that mothers and their children need.  may we not impose our own religious beliefs on others.  may we remember that freedom of religion means freedom from religion in the public sector.  shalom.