Abortion, Birth Control and the Draft: Who Owns Your Body?

Easily available contraception and over the counter emergency contraception are vital, in my not so humble opinion, because they do so many good things for women. And mainly because they prevent abortions. If the Christian right were truly opposed to abortion they would be fighting along side us for those things. They would not be pulling out all stops hoping to make contraception illegal and unavailable. Freedom and equality for women is not their goal. Their goal is not even fewer abortions–if it were, their behavior would reflect it. Their true agenda is social control and that comes before everything else.

Male and female our bodies don’t belong to the government or to a bunch of right wing whackos. We each own our body. The only thing that set my on-line opponent back was when I brought up the draft. The universal draft ended in 1973. In this country, thirty-two years ago, no man owned his own body. His body was owned by the government who could dispose of it at will, and dispose of it they certainly did–by the thousands in Vietnam and Korea and by the millions in World Wars 1 and 2.

In 1973 the end of the draft placed ownership of men’s bodies back into their own hands. The same year, 1973, ownership of women’s bodies was placed into the hands of women themselves. For the segment of our society hell bent on destroying freedom–other people’s freedom, not their own, of course–this was a major setback. The right wing did not celebrate the end of the draft and right-wing politicians voted against ending it. But for right wing fundamentalists, when women were given complete control over their own bodies it was a disaster. They have been in disaster mode ever since fighting to regain that control.

Abortion is one of the very hardest moral choices. Even so, it must remain legal. The government cannot take that moral decision from me or from any other woman. We own ourselves, and our own bodies. Pat Robertson does not own my body. Neither does Phyllis Schlafly. Or any of the others who hate personal freedom and think they have a right to my life and my body. That moral choice is mine to make and I must make it alone. I’m pretty sure–almost sure–how I would choose if the situation could arise again at my time of life. I can’t be too hard on people who do choose abortion because I am not certain what I would choose. I know in a perfect world what I would do, but whatever this world is, it is NOT perfect. Each of you own your body. You have to make your own tough decisions. I know how I would like others to choose, what decision I would like them to make, but I know I can’t take that tough moral choice for anyone but myself.

And neither can you.