Our voice, our body, our choice.

By Audrey Hwang

When presidents debate on the big stage, in front of 67 million viewers, it's easy to forget that everything they say has deeper effects in real life. Unfortunately, this week our country has been faced with the reality that male politicians seem to shy away from: the repeated issues of abortion.

Let's go back to the beginning of the issue, in 1972. The United States Supreme Court ruled 7-2, declaring that restrictive state regulation of abortion is unconstitutional. And after this decision we saw a majority of benefits across the country, by making abortion care legal and safer for those who chose to undergo the operation. 

But in 2022, with a vote of 5-4, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and the constitutional right to abortion was ended. The reversal of this decades-old decision was only the start of the mess we’ve left ourselves in today. We saw abortions being banned in 14 states, anti-rights groups attempting to restrict sexual and reproductive rights and the advancements of taking away the rights to IVF treatments. The overturn of Roe v. Wade was the catalyst for movements to take away a woman's right to her own body. 

While a storm of issues has been brewing in the background for the last two years, every single topic in relation to reproductive rights has been brought up with the recent Presidential Debate. 

Kamala Harris strongly opened the debate by painting the scene for all the watchers. She talked about women bleeding out in parking lots and victims of incest or rape being forced to full term. Vice President Harris placed the entirety of the blame on former President Trump for the situation that women have found themselves to be stuck in. 

Donald Trump responded expectedly, crediting his administration for the repeal of Roe v. Wade by claiming that his decision brought the problem to the states and allowed for their citizens to choose the outcome. 

He refused the topic of a federal abortion ban and claimed it wasn’t an issue because Congress would never pass it. Trump has already appointed three of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices who had ruled in favor of overturning Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, critical decision which took away the constitutional right to abortion. His words may not say he would put a national abortion ban in place, but his words do. 

But it’s more than just words being thrown around. It’s lives on the line. For Amber Nicole Thurman, it was her taking abortion pills and encountering a complication that requires immediate attention to clear fetal tissue from her body. All her doctors could do was watch and wait as her infection spread and her body died before their eyes. Her death was preventable. 

The one thing everyone should have control over, their health, was taken away from women by the people who are supposed to advocate for what the people want. 

The voices of politicians shouldn't even be heard in discussions about what women are able to do with their own bodies. It’s not their choice to make, it's not their place to tell me what to do. It's my body. It's my choice.