Roe vs Wade Turning Back the Clock

American women are not taking any chances. They regard the attempt to overturn Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling affirming a woman’s right to access safe abortion, as a declaration of war. 

Why now? A Supreme Court opinion that it might overturn Roe vs Wade was leaked. Is it possible that in the year 2022, certain states in the U.S. still regard women as property?  

They are men’s property if they have no say in what goes in and out of their bodies. It is deja vu, when women could not open a bank account without male permission.

However,  the right to abortion is not a banking matter. It is a right men can relate to. Vasectomy for example. A man’s decision not to have kids is his decision. It is not criminalized. States that vote Republican cannot stop him. Indeed, he doesn’t have to wait years for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the matter.

An attempt to overturn Roe vs Wade demonstrates remnants of hypocrisy. What took maybe 30 seconds for the sperm to land, is the woman’s hand luggage for nine months. Through vasectomy, some men take the option not to have any landed sperms. Equally, women have a right not to carry them, based on their circumstances and their circumstances alone.

The first circumstance is society and attitude towards ‘second class citizens’. Women must stay home and raise kids. They must raise them after divorce. Women become poorer after divorce. Women must leave work and stay home with kids when they are sick. Women in Canada and U.S. raise kids in a society where ‘no kids allowed’ in weddings and other events is becoming popular.

Hypocrisy goes up a notch when religion is used as an excuse. Women in America are taking the threat to Roe vs Wade seriously. It’s a possibility. They see what southern states like Georgia and Texas are doing to voting rights.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.