New Hampshire is the only New England state without a law protecting a woman’s right to choose how to deal with her pregnancy.
Women have valued the right to make reproductive choices since 1973 when Roe v Wade left decisions about reproduction to women themselves. This changed earlier this year when the Supreme Court made the Dobbs decision, leaving abortion regulations to the states. Women in many states are now in a position where they do not have the ability to make their own medical decisions concerning childbirth.
Why is this the case? The reason most frequently given for limiting or completely outlawing abortion is a religious belief that life begins at some point in utero. Abortion is therefore only permitted before that point, depending on one’s particular religion.
Many of the people making this statement are men, none of whom will ever be in a position to have to decide whether to terminate a pregnancy inside their own bodies. On the other hand, consider vasectomies. These health procedures lead to men being unable to impregnate women, preventing pregnancies, and ultimately not allowing a child to be born. If a pro-life law was proposed that said that a man who wanted a vasectomy had to go to two doctors, have a prostate exam, or get permission from his wife to have the procedure done, the outrage would be enormous. Men would wonder why their personal decisions had become government business. They would forcefully state that their wives shouldn’t have a say over their bodies. And they would righteously complain that prostate exams have nothing to do with vasectomies. These are all reasonable objections, yes?
Yet there doesn’t seem to be much outrage among men when women are told the same things. Women’s personal decisions become government business when abortion is outlawed. Some laws propose that the biological father should have the right to determine whether the mother must bear the fetus. Required ultrasound exams prior to abortions, which are on the books now in some states, have absolutely nothing to do with abortions. Why is there a double standard?
Nobody I know is pro-abortion. Nobody is telling pregnant women, “Why not have an abortion today?” The point is that women, just like men, deserve the right to autonomy over what happens to their own bodies. Let’s leave it to each woman to make her own medical decisions without government involvement.
