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Woman holding a sign “My Body, My Choice.” Photo found on iStock.

Women have never had completely equal rights, and more recently, women’s rights have been openly under attack. The phrase “your body, my choice” has become a familiar rallying cry from pro-life groups, and this stems from the phrase “my body, my choice” used during pro-choice protests when Roe v. Wade was first put before the Supreme Court. The most prominent argument about women’s rights is the current debate surrounding women’s reproductive rights. Should women be allowed to terminate a pregnancy? Is it really my body, my choice?

It’s time for women’s rights to be respected and in a manner that gives them control over their own bodies. It’s time for “my body, my choice” to be a way of life, not simply a familiar protest chant.

Roe v. Wade was always a hotly contested and politicized debate. In June 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, according to MSI, an organization for reproductive rights, “reversed decades of progress on reproductive rights in the US and has emboldened anti-choice movements worldwide.”

Now that Roe v. Wade is gone, states are allowed to decide whether they want to keep abortion legal or not. With Roe v. Wade gone, women in these states either no longer have the right to choose what happens with their bodies or may soon be stripped of that right.

Women who require abortions but cannot receive them in their state are either forced to relocate or travel to a state where abortion remains legal or continue on with the pregnancy. Forcing a woman to continue through a pregnancy against her will is fundamentally wrong.

On the opposing side of this debate, according to the Americans United for Life (AUL), “human life is a gift, and …we as a society have a responsibility to protect and cherish human life.”

I don’t disagree with that statement at face value. Human life is a gift that should be cherished and protected by society, yet I also believe that we, as a society, have failed. Instead of protecting women who may need to terminate their pregnancy for legitimate reasons, we are shaming them and leaving them no choice.

Many women have fled to ERs to receive medical care for their pregnancies. Unfortunately, they have been turned away or told to wait. According to Amanda Seitz, a writer for AP News, “Two women — one in Florida and one in Texas — were left to miscarry in public restrooms.”

In some cases miscarriages are abortions. Chrissy Teigen lost her son Jack in 2020 due to a partial placenta abruption. Chrissy was 20 weeks pregnant with Jack when she started miscarrying. Teigen realized that Jack was not going to survive. She also acknowledged that she wasn’t going to survive either without medical intervention. In 2022 when the Supreme court overturned Roe v Wade, Tiegen expressed her sorrows for those who were hurt by these laws. Her husband John Legend reminded her that she was one of those people who had an abortion.

She spoke at a social impact agency called Propper Daley’s “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation.”

“I fell silent, feeling weird that I hadn’t made sense of it that way,” Teigen said. “I told the world we had a miscarriage, the world agreed we had a miscarriage, all the headlines said it was a miscarriage.”

Teigen was mad that it had taken her this long to realize she had gotten an abortion. She felt had been lying to herself and others. At the summit, expressed that she did have an abortion.

“Let’s just call it what it was: It was an abortion,” Tiegen said. “An abortion to save my life for a baby that had absolutely no chance.”

In other cases, women are being turned away and having to return later when their life is on the line. Kyleigh Thurman went to Ascension Seton Williamson ER for bleeding and pain. According to AP News, the doctors told her “let nature take its course.” She was discharged with a pamphlet on miscarriage. She returned three days later for bleeding. The doctors finally agreed to give her an injection to end her pregnancy.

It was too late.

The baby had already started to grow on her fallopian tube. Since the baby had been growing on her fallopian tube, it destroyed parts of her reproductive system. According to MedLinePlus, “The possible health effects of reproductive hazards include infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, and developmental disabilities in children.” Thurman was sent home again. She returned a third time to Ascension Seton Williamson to visit her OB-GYN. At this appointment, her OB-GYN told her that she would need immediate surgery or she could face death. Thurman was shocked and panicked. The doctors could have prevented Thurman’s life being on the line if they were allowed to treat her in the first place. Thurman wouldn’t be facing death if her reproductive rights were protected.

Amber Nicole Thurman (no relation to Kyleigh Thurman), is another woman who had her whole life in front of her. A woman whose goal it was to get into nursing school. A woman who died because of her state’s abortion ban.

ProPublica stated that, “Amber Nicole Thurman suffered from a grave infection that her suburban Atlanta hospital was well-equipped to treat.”

Earlier, Thurman had taken an abortion pill. She ran into a complication. All the fetal tissue had not exited her body. According to ProPublica, Thurman went to “Piedmont Henry Hospital in need of a routine procedure to clear it from her uterus, called a dilation and curettage, or D&C.” That summer, Georgia, the state Thurman lived in, had banned abortion. This means that any doctor who would have performed the surgery on Thurman would have gone to jail. Thruman sat in a hospital bed for six hours in pain wondering what would happen to her six year old child. Her organs began to fail and her blood pressure began sinking. After 20 hours of waiting, the doctors finally decided to perform surgery on Thurman.

It was too late.

According to ProPublica, “Thurman’s case marks the first time an abortion-related death, officially deemed ‘preventable,’ is coming to public light. The doctors had warned the state legislators that if saving lives became illegal women would die.

The AUL also states that “All humans, including babies in the womb, deserve the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” This statement contradicts itself – saying that every human has the liberty to do what they want, but in reality there is now legislation stopping women from protecting themselves and doing what they choose to do with their bodies.

For many women, the decision to terminate a pregnancy centers around their health or their financial status. Giving birth is taxing to a woman’s body. A woman who has pre-existing health issues would be forced to give birth to a child that may place her or the child in medical danger or even worse during childbirth. Women should not be forced to face that risk against their will.

Another significant factor for women is the financial responsibility associated with raising a child. According to Business Insider, “Care for one child in the US in 2024 will be at least $25,714 (per year). That’s a 41.5% increase since 2016 and costs will likely continue to go up this year.” For many lower income families, having a baby would place a financial burden on them, ultimately leading to potential child neglect or other less than desirable outcomes. Children who grow up poor or under the federal income line are most likely to still be poor at the age of 30. Many Americans do not take financial situations into consideration when asked the question about the legality of abortion.

After years of fighting for equal rights, It’s time for a woman’s body to finally be her own. Now is the time “my body, my choice” becomes a reality. Now that the 2024 election is over, congress, house and president, will be mainly controlled by republicans. The federal government needs to create a system that not only protects women’s rights, but their reproductive rights.