A Wake Up Call to Women: We Cannot Compromise Roe v. Wade

Thirty eight years ago, women won a huge battle in their struggle for equality and respect of their privacy rights. Roe v. Wade allowed us the option to decide for ourselves whether we want to have a baby or be a mother. Today, we are witnessing the most sever attack on that right being launched by the conservatives who have since November gained much more control or our political system. Let's be clear, this is not just an opposition to our freedoms and rights, but it's also an attempt to shore up emotion and anger in order to win elections in 2012. I am here to tell you, my friends, my sisters, the fight is on again and if we don't speak up, if we don't work to keep that right intact, we will one day realize that we are again returned to being second class citizens.

We're seeing attempts at limiting our right to pay for our own abortion through our private insurance, people are trying to tell us that we have to have children even if we get pregnant as a result of being raped, or if having children puts our own lives at risk. This is no time to be sleeping. How many of us still hear people say, "well if she was smart enough she wouldn't have gotten pregnant," or "if she didn't want it, she wouldn't have dressed like that, or acted like that." We are still blamed for the actions of others and held accountable for their lack of ability to control themselves, or their incontrollable hunger to prove aggression and power over us. Why don't they ask, "if he wasn't an asshole, he would have stopped when she said no."?

It's not only about instances where we are raped. So what if we we made a mistake, what if the condom broke? Should we not get to decide whether we want to carry a person inside of us for 9 months? Should we not get to decide if we are ready to be a parent? I get it, men have rights too and they should have a say, and if possible these decisions should be made by both parents. But let's face it, it is women who deal with the repercussions of being pregnant and, basically, our body our right. Plain and simple.

It's time for the feminist movement to wake up. It's time for the spirit that got us the vote, and won us Roe v. Wade to arise once more. And it's up to every single one of us. Being a feminist is not about giving up our femininity or being manly. Being a feminist is about demanding and fighting for control of your own body and our own life. And in that space we can choose to be housewives or powerhouse career women, in that space we can choose to be more feminine or less so, in that space we can decide whether abortion is right for us as individuals or not, in that space we can truly be ourselves.