In the early 1900s, a number of American women wrote letters to the founder of Planned Parenthood asking for help with unwanted pregnancies. Now, a century later, women are sending similar messages to an international abortion-by-mail service.
Hundreds of women say that the prohibition of abortion is ineffective, dangerous, discriminates women in poverty and offers a great opportunity to unprofessional healers. While Ireland has decided by a referendum to abolish their strict abortion law and Brazil is also considering resetting theirs, in the United States there is a risk of taking back women’s hard-won reproduction rights.
Donald Trump has already taken action in his campaign in 2016 to take back women’s reproduction rights, and now he is trying to redeem his promise by nominating the Catholic-conservative Brett Kavanaugh for the post of chief magistrate. For this reason, on the evening of the announcement, on the 9th of July, hundreds of people protested at the White House, and two weeks later there was a protest in Manhattan, too. The Senate – with a Republican majority of 51 people – will decide about Kavanaugh’s nomination in September, 2018.
A journalist at Vice has compared the letters written in 1917 by desperate women to Planned Parenthood – which was founded by Margaret Sanger – with the emails women have sent in 2018 to the Women on Web Relief Society…
It can be read in the Vice article that there is only one “abortion clinic” in several states (mostly in the Midwestern and Southern parts of the country). Thus, women who need and abortion need to travel hundreds of miles.
This means that the rights set out in the law can only be used by those women who can take more days off at their workplace, and can also provide the necessary accommodation and travel costs in addition to the fees they are charged for the abortion. It means that reproductive justice does not apply in practice.
A strict abortion law can block women in their career and in their studies. It makes their livelihoods and financial independence impossible or very difficult, thus increasing the number of people who are in need of social benefits.
Sources: www.24.hu / www.boradly.vice.com
Photo: www.pixabay.com
