Ban on abortion procedure violates women's rights

By: Jonathan Steed

Posted: 11/3/03

On April 25, 2004, thousands around America will merge in Washington D.C. to rally for something that hangs in serious jeopardy: women's reproductive rights. Many abortion rights activists feel that 2004 may be the last opportunity Americans have to repel the vicious attack on women's health choices by the radical religious right. With the Senate's passage of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, which bans the procedure known as intact dilation and extraction, people across the United States are beginning to wake up and realize that a woman's right to choose when and where to start a family is something that cannot be taken for granted.

President George W. Bush and his Republican rubber-stamp Congress have not only waged war on Iraq, but also on American women and their basic rights. The right for an individual woman to control her body is something religious fundamentalists have never supported, and if they get their way, will abolish in the near future. According to The Nation, the recent ban on late term abortions is the first federal ban on an abortion method since the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which granted women a constitutional right to have an abortion.

The issue of late term abortions has itself been distorted with half-truths and falsehoods. Most of the anti-abortion propaganda floating around about late term abortions refers to them as "partial birth" abortions. Yet this term itself is not medically accurate. Partial birth abortions are not mentioned in any medical textbooks. The term is nothing more than political jargon aimed at making the procedure seem cruel and deserving of a ban. The anti-abortion movement has been effective in misleading the public on issues such as the late term abortion procedure.

Late term abortions make up a small percentage of the overall abortion procedures practiced in the United States. They are often done when medical information about the fetus or its affect on the mother's health becomes fully realized. Expectant mothers whose fetuses have physical deformities are often left with no other option than the late term abortion.
The pain and possible damage to the mother due to this type of circumstance would be enough of a reason, to many women, to terminate the pregnancy early rather than go through with childbirth. However, the new law would make this type of medical procedure illegal, even in cases where the mother's health could be in jeopardy.

The battle between abortion rights supporters and anti-abortion activists has grown over the past 20 years and has led to the latest ban. People around the United States, especially women, need to realize their rights to decide when to bring children into this world are being jeopardized to the point that many abortion rights activists are afraid abortion could be made illegal soon.

The current apathy over the issue, where the right to reproductive freedom is simply taken for granted by many young college women, is apparent in political control in Washington. America now has the most anti-abortion Congress and White House since Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973. According to C-Span, the Senate vote in favor of the ban was 64-34, which is hardly along party lines. Nearly one-third of Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-South Dakota, voted for the measure.

This represents a group of people who lack the courage to stand up for their convictions, fearing instead of possible political retribution. They failed to be the true opposition party in this vote and instead helped to pass it.

The truth about the new ban on late term abortions is that it is nothing more than control over women's choices. Whether legal or illegal, abortions will always happen. If they are made illegal by the government, women will merely turn to desperate means of having an abortion, much like they did before Roe vs. Wade.

If women cannot seek a safe and legal abortion in a clinic with trained, certified staff, they may seek one in back alleys or with the help of a coat hanger. That is the blunt reality of the issue.

Next year's elections may very well determine the future of women's reproductive rights. When entering the voting booth, Americans should ask themselves if they want to return to the days of the coat hanger or back alley abortions. The latest ban on late term abortions is nothing more than the beginning of major setbacks for women in controlling their own bodies. Americans must wake up and understand the real threat posed by anti-abortion legislation. Liberty demands freedom of choice.