Truly Owning Womanhood

The following blog post might appear more of like an essay on the outset, which it originally intended to be and in its original form still is, since it is a summative essay written for a Political Science class at my university. However, it does offer my own take on an issue I feel vehemently about and wanted to share with the world: Women's Right to Abortion or rather as I would like to rightfully refer to it as: Women's Right to Truly Own their Bodies.

The issue of women's right to abortion has been a bone of contention for decades. Over the years, it has gone from being a mere biological issue to an increasingly social and political one. According to me, I am strongly in favour of women's right to abortion. A major reason for this is that it gives women their rightful power and control over their own bodies and does not leave them at the mercy of the state or any other institution. I would like to introduce the doctrine of Liberalism here to further support and to be able to better expound on my views. According to Liberalism, individual freedom and liberty are at the core of political and social life and hence they are given supreme importance. In line with the principle of Individualism, women should be allowed to decide whatever happens with their bodies and not the state or any governmental laws since the right and autonomy of the individual is far more important and valuable than any other social or political body. It also aligns with the Liberalist concept of the individual having "free will" to choose their life's course of action which goes even beyond the ideals of equality or justice.

Moreover, when women are restricted from safe abortion facilities, this does not lessen the social and emotional trauma they go through as a result of the unwanted pregnancy and hence they often resort to unsafe means of abortion. This, far more than any political ideology is a violation of an individual's fundamental right to life and health. Additionally, the consequences of laws that obstruct abortion go far beyond those which are visible at the face value. When such laws are made and passed, often by a vast majority of male politicians as a result of the increasingly patriarchal society that we live in, they often fail to understand and acknowledge the needs and problems that women have to encounter, that men never have to. This translates to denying women access to certain procedures that only women need as a result of their biology and hence, does not place them on an equal footing with men. Liberalism strongly advocates for individual equality and states that individuals are born equal, at least in terms of their moral worth. And hence when women are prevented from having a say in what happens with their bodies, it fundamentally violates the principle of equality.

Here, I would also like to bring to light the Feminist theory of the Patriarchal State. Even though this is not a formally defined theory, the feminist perspective is nevertheless valued and discussed extensively. It argues for the recognition of women's rights and their special needs as a significant part of society as a response to the male-dominated view on social and political life. In accordance with this, any political restrictions on women's right to safe abortion serve the discriminatory purpose of preventing women from deciding the course of their life and denies them the right to their own biology. Liberalism is an ideology strongly focused on private freedom and individual wellbeing and according to me, the question of whether to culminate a pregnancy or bring it to term solely lies in the domain of women's individual freedom and should remain therein. Although the modern liberalist perspective takes a more flexible stance on state intervention, it does not refer to the state intervening in any and every aspect of an individual's life.

We cannot tolerate a perspective that is about going backwards and not understanding that women have agency. Women have value. Women have authority to make decisions about their own lives and their own bodies - Kamala Harris

Furthermore, there is also a tenet of consent when it comes to Liberalism. It maintains that authority and intervention should always be subjected to consent, without which it does not hold any value. Often when restrictive anti-abortion laws are formulated, these are done by a limited number of statesmen and often in assemblies that lack the adequate representation of all groups that form a society. There might not be enough women, particularly for this issue, and even lesser women from diverse regions who might have their own varied opinions. As a result, in my opinion, the very validity of laws such as these which affect a certain population, but lack their say while formulating them can be questioned. In conclusion, putting women at serious mental and emotional, and mainly health risks, albeit indirectly through faulty lawmaking is an unacceptable and unjust form of interference in an individual's life and should be avoided at all costs, both from a political and individual perspective.

-A.