Roe v. Wade, the legal decision that protects abortion federally in the United States, was overturned in the US on 24 June 2022. This means that states can now make abortion illegal, and this will happen in several states that wrote trigger laws to ban abortion in case Roe was knocked down. Now this may not have a legal effect on the UK like it does in America, but in my opinion it affects every woman in the world. The right to have control over our bodies is something that was addressed by Roe v. Wade debate.
In the UK, there is still the 1967 abortion law which says women can have an abortion up until the pregnancy reaches 23 weeks and 6 days. However, the laws in the US differ by state, where some have similar laws to the UK and some states such as Texas ban termination of pregnancies after six weeks.
Overturning Roe v. Wade is taking away a woman’s right to and control over her own body. Women may get abortions for many reasons and this is shown by how the law differs in different states in America. Each state has a different criteria in regards to having an abortion which shows how divisive the abortion debate can be. In Alabama, women can only have an abortion if there is a serious risk to the mother or if the mother has had an ectopic pregnancy. So if a woman has been raped and becomes pregnant, they cannot have an abortion.
Other states allow women to have an abortion if they have been raped or if the foetus is below a certain age. If each state in America can have different laws on abortion despite not actually having that child itself, then why can women not make that decision themselves?
At several points throughout the abortion debate, social media has been ablaze with women speaking out. Whether it is on Twitter or on talk shows, celebrities and women across the world are sharing their own experiences with abortion.
Busy Philipps, creator of the You Know Me campaign, is one of those women. She has publicly talked about her own experience with having an abortion.
Philipps tweeted back in 2019, “1 in 4 women have had an abortion. Many people think they don’t know someone who has, but #youknowme. So let’s do this: if you are also the 1 in 4, let’s share it and start to end the shame. Use #youknowme and share your truth.”
During this campaign it reached millions. The results show women’s experience and how important it is for women to not only have the right to control their own bodies but that they should be able to make their own choice instead of having someone else make that for them.
Image credits – Gayatri Malhotra via Unsplash
