Day 3 - Women and Reproductive Rights and Motherhood
Since 2006, 14 Valentines has striven to both celebrate how far women have come, and to increase awareness for how far we still have to go for full equality, autonomy, and inclusion.
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TW Abortion, TW Reproductive Rights, TW Rape
Forty years after the victor of the Roe decision, women in America are once again fighting for bodily and reproductive autonomy as our right to chose has become more and more eroded. Currently, there’s only one state left that doesn’t impose and restrictions on abortion. Reproductive rights are worse for women in other, less developed areas of the world.
But reproductive rights and motherhood isn’t just about the right to choose whether to remain pregnant. They involve the right to choose whether or not to become pregnant at all, a choice which involves self-determination, education on family planning and contraceptives, access to reliable and safe birth control, and safety from forced sexual acts.
Women require the sanctity and health of body to prevent medical issues that could negatively affect their reproductive health. Furthermore, they involve autonomy and choice that extends beyond pregnancy. Women require the right to healthcare to insure safe pregnancies and deliveries, and the right to exercise bodily rights regarding their own lives as well as the lives of their fetuses.
Unfortunately, despite how long this battle has been raging, our rights are not fully our own in far too many ways.
The Center for Reproductive Rights is an advocacy and policy organization focusing on extending and protecting reproductive rights of women worldwide, and the National Women’s Law Center “champions laws and policies that work for women and families.”