(originally posted as a note on my Facebook page)

A lot of people who claim the label ‘pro-life’ are also pro-war (which ends a lot of lives), pro-capital punishment (which ends a lot of lives), and anti-welfare (which improves the quality of life for millions of people). If someone is going to claim to be pro-life, they need to be consistent, and I’ve yet to see someone who is. The ‘pro-life’ movement has been co-opted by religious extremists for the purpose of regulating and controlling womens’ sexuality. It’s maddening bc they’ve managed to steer the conversation about women’s rights away from, well, women’s rights. They’ve tried to and succeeded in turning the conversation into “the rights of the unborn”, without successfully arguing for those rights. People have rights. Human persons. Personhood is not granted until a fetus is born. There are specific qualities that determine personhood, such as self awareness, the capacity to feel pain, agency, and the possession of rights and duties. These aren’t comprehensive qualities, and they aren’t all agreed upon, but human beings with personhood do possess them. Fetuses do not. More importantly though, the concept of bodily autonomy, which underlies our right to self defense, is overlooked or dismissed by anti-abortion proponents. Bodily autonomy is the right of all human persons to determine what happens to and with their bodies. Every single human has that right. This is a fundamental human right. To deny any human the right to bodily autonomy is to deny them their humanity. This is exactly what anti-abortion proponents do. No, they don’t word it that way, but that’s the end result of what they’re advocating for: women not being able to decide what to do with their bodies. That is not a right that ends when women get pregnant. Additionally, fetuses should not possess more rights than women. No human being can be forced to donate blood or give organs against their will. Our bodies. Our choice. That means even if it will save the life of another, no one can force us to donate our bodies. This is a right pregnant women have too, yet anti-abortion advocates say that women should be forced to donate the use of their bodies to a fetus, whether they want to or not. That is unethical and unconscionable.  I am passionate about women’s rights. Especially the right of all women to an abortion-with no restrictions.