Why Women Are More Important

How pro-life and pro-choice advocates are missing the central point in the reproductive rights conversation

The recent passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has opened up another seat on the Supreme Court that the Trump administration is eager to fill. This potential rightward tilt to the Supreme Court has pro-choice advocates worried about the future of Roe v. Wade and access to safe and legal abortions in the United States.

The debate for reproductive rights is a hodgepodge of moral relativism, scientific speculation, and religious intervention. Our country recognizes the rights of mentally fit adults to make their own decisions about their bodies and their healthcare.

While the decision to have an abortion is a medical decision, the ambiguity of where life begins has pro-life advocates conveying personhood to everything from a zygote to a fetus, while pro-choice advocates are focusing on fighting in the medically ambiguous trenches. The conversation needs to shift away from pontificating on when life begins and focus on the rights of women to manage and choose their own medical care.

The baseline measure of a woman’s rights in this country is the right to individual autonomy in making medical decisions, including reproductive ones. Before any discussions on morality or ethics come into play, there has to be an acceptance of this premise. It is frustrating to hear the debate over the personhood of a fetus because, amidst the rhetoric, the personhood of the woman is lost.

When the government steps in and abridge’s a woman’s access to safe choices relating to her reproductive rights, it is the most intimate infringement. The impact of giving birth is a physical, emotional, and economic occurrence in a woman’s life. When there is intervention by an outside party, the woman and her family are the ones that must manage the outcome.

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