The horrific future of women’s reproductive rights in America

State by state, American legislators are on a rampage to take away a woman’s right to choose. Last week, Alabama passed a bill outlawing abortion even in cases of rape or incest, slated to take effect in just six months and making it one of the most restrictive bills of its kind. Georgia also passed similar legislation earlier this month in a ban that’s been dubbed the “heartbeat bill,” which will outlaw abortions after only six weeks of pregnancy — before many women know they’re even pregnant. (It is important to note that I am focusing on my perspective as a cis-het woman. However, fantastic articles with specific consideration towards trans and LGBTQ+ communities can be read on Buzzfeed and them.)

However, while these two bills have been receiving a great deal of coverage, they aren’t the only ones. Evidently part of an overall mission by the Republican Party  to overturn Roe vs. Wade (the landmark 1973 legal decision which effectively legalised abortion) nationwide, six other states have passed bills limiting abortions this year alone, including Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio and Utah. Each state has its own variation on restricting the procedure, with Ohio’s ban containing some particularly troublesome language that goes so far as to prohibit “drugs or devices used to prevent the implantation of a fertilised ovum,” giving it the potential to limit women’s access to birth control as well. First it’s abortions, then it’s forms of birth control such as the pill and IUDs, and it’s only a matter of time before our right to make any decision regarding reproductive health is taken away from us entirely.

Throughout all of the commotion to grant rights to a fertilised egg grown inside of a woman, the same cannot be said for an egg fertilised externally. Anti-abortion lawmakers a quick to defend the differences between an embryo conceived inside the uterus versus one conceived in a lab through in vitro fertilisation. Clyde Chambliss, a Republican State Senator in Alabama and one of the state’s top proponents for its anti-abortion bill, had this to say regarding the recent bill with regards to IVF: “The egg in the lab doesn’t apply. It’s not in a woman. She’s not pregnant.” If there was any ambiguity before, Chambliss’ remarks made it crystal clear for women everywhere – it was never about protecting the rights of a fertilised egg. Rather, it’s about the government’s sick obsession with controlling women.

Fearful over their future, American women took to the streets in a nationwide protest on 21 May, vocalising their disapproval over the policing of their bodies from a government run by elderly white men. And rightfully so. This flurry of misogynistic legislature is forcing women to ask themselves “what’s next?” in a nation afflicted by fear mongering and fake news.

Fans of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel-turned-Hulu series “The Handmaid’s Tale” are making terrifying parallels between these recent events and the work of fiction, which envisions a world in which women are systematically enslaved and raped based on their ability to conceive. What once seemed like mere exaggeration now feels like a not-so-distant look into our destiny. Unless these bills are overturned, many American women will be forced into a future riddled with potential murder convictions, unwanted pregnancies, and, most extreme of all, death as a result of lack of access to safe abortions.

This is no longer just a storyline created to boost ratings on televised dramas. Instead, it’s quickly becoming a reality that has exponentially greater implications on women’s lives than the actual abortion alone. Women caught undergoing an illegal abortion could potentially face felony charges for their actions. Felons are unable to vote in America, meaning these individuals will no longer have the opportunity to elect government officials into office that have their best interests in mind, thus creating a hellish future that refuses to look out for American women as a whole.

Another important aspect to look at in all of this is the correlation between the states in which these bills are passing and their access to education – including sex education. US News publishes a ranking of all 50 states, and it comes as no surprise that Alabama comes in last on its list of the Best States for Education.

As a fellow Bible Belter, I spent my formative years in the neighbouring state of Georgia and I can only imagine the approach to sexual education is the same in Alabama as it was for me: nary a mention of condoms or any other birth control methods to ensure safer sex. Instead, we were taught via a time-honoured tradition of scare tactics, disturbing images of STI horror cases, and forced pledges to maintain virginity until marriage. If public schools in the south continue to refuse comprehensive sex education and instead continue to rely on pro-life rhetoric, we are doomed to a future of continued misinformation on abortion that will only result in detrimental and seriously dangerous consequences for women’s rights.

In a time that feels so uncertain and frightening for women in America, it’s important to look at these future possibilities and allow them to fuel our activism rather than having it breed inactivity. As previously mentioned, Alabama’s bill isn’t set to start for another six months and Georgia’s ban doesn’t begin until January 2020. That means there is still time to overthrow these unconstitutional pieces of legislation. There are a myriad of ways in which we can fight this, whether through continued protesting, donating to organisations such as Planned Parenthood and other reproductive rights organisations, and most importantly, voting. Aside from the 2020 presidential election, local elections are equally as important in ensuring our rights are upheld. USA.gov is a useful tool for keeping track of upcoming local elections on a state-by-state basis. Voting pro-choice politicians into both local and nationwide office is one of the biggest ways to ensure women’s rights to choose are kept intact. Only then can we fight off a fictionalised future that should remain solely on TV.