Let’s jump right into it ladies and gentlemen. As of Wednesday, May 15, Alabama and Georgia passed House Bills that make abortions illegal. In Alabama, HB314 would make abortions illegal at any point unless the mother’s life is in danger- with no exception to rape survivors and victims of incest. Georgia just became the fourth state (behind Kentucky, Ohio, and Mississippi) to instill a “heartbeat” ban with HB481, which bans abortions after a fetal “heartbeat” is heard at six weeks. You can read a little more about it here. FYI: most women don’t even know they’re pregnant at six weeks and the “heartbeat” heard at that point isn’t really a heartbeat, it’s fetal pole cardiac activity.  What the actual fuck is going on?

It’s 2019.

Never in a million years did I think that I’d be writing a post about this. The government is trying to control our rights as women and telling us what we can and can’t do with our bodies. Instead of moving forward, we are moving backwards. In 1973, Roe v. Wade was passed to give women the fundamental right to choose whether or not to have an abortion. How is it that 46 years later we’re moving backwards?

Against abortion? Good for you, don’t have one. Just because you have a personal opinion about something doesn’t mean everyone else has to follow that opinion. Your religion can tell you what you can and can’t do, but it can’t tell others what they can and can’t do. Being pro-choice doesn’t mean you’re pro-abortion, it means you’re pro giving women the choice to do whatever they want with their bodies, which is exactly how it should be.

Imagine we all of a sudden started mandating men to get vasectomies. They’re reversible, right? So get one until you’re ready to have a child! Do you have a problem with this? Of course you do- no one should regulate men’s bodies. Ah, see what I’m getting to? No one has the right to regulate a woman’s body- these abortion bans are unconstitutional. These bans (Alabama’s set to go into effect in November 2019 and Georgia’s in January 2020) are going to leave women with no other remedy but to leave the state to have an abortion, or have one illegally and unsafely. One of the main reasons for Roe v. Wade being enacted was to ensure the safety of women who chose to have abortions.

And let’s not get started with the legal consequences. If performed illegally, abortion providers in Alabama would face a sentence of up to 99 years in prison. In Georgia, it gets a little tricky. It’s still not clear whether the mother ending her pregnancy or the physician performing the procedure would be found guilty, since the law considers the fetus a person. Alabama’s abortion laws would be stricter than their rape laws, and the prison time has the potential to be greater for performing an abortion than raping someone.

Yes, it’s sad to think of a small fetus being terminated and not having the chance at life. Thankfully, no one is forcing you to have an abortion and you can choose to birth every child you get impregnated with. But realistically, it’s also sad to think of a child being born into a situation where they are not able to have adequate living conditions because a woman couldn’t choose what to do with her body. Yet another child being thrown into the foster care system, with no home structure or love. Living with an unfit mother and ultimately fucking that child up- for a lack of better words.

Moral of the story? We need to take a stand and defend our bodies, our rights, and our freedom. We need to fight the government on these regulations they’re trying to impose on us and our bodies as women. Men, you need to stand up for all the women in your lives- your moms, sisters, girlfriends, & best friends- because the more voices there are, the louder we are. I know it’s only a few states making these bans and strict laws, but this shouldn’t be happening anywhere. Roe v. Wade isn’t reversed yet, but that doesn’t mean we can sit around and watch it happen. We need to speak up. This is where feminism comes into play. Feminism isn’t about hating men and rubbing it in that women are superior (although we are), it’s about defending our fundamental and equal rights.

Here are 18 assholes who voted for these bans, in case you didn’t already assume they looked like this:

Get out of our uteruses. Enough is enough.

Xx,

Nicki G.

P.S. Does anyone else find it concerning that abortions (a regulation on a human body, in case you haven’t picked that up) got banned faster than assault rifles and mango Juul pods? Just throwing that out there.