When I read that the Supreme Court in the United States last month overturned a woman’s right to abortion, I had a familiar feeling in my stomach.
It’s one I’ve gotten used to processing things that happen in America over the last few years: a feeling of fear, discomfort, confusion, and fear. An unwanted seed of incomprehensible unbelief has been planted, which so many of us wish we could abort for countless reasons. But by law we can not.
‘De Fries Land’ no longer
I write about ‘The Danish way for parents and education’, and one of the main principles is to teach our children that they have the right to decide over their own body: they have the right to a voice; be aware when something feels wrong. You will be heard and respected.
As a mother raising children across multiple cultures, these values have been particularly important to me. I want both my children to know how to exercise their rights over their own body, no matter where they are.
And yet, in 2022, adult women in America who are brought up to be strong, to be respected, and to say no when something is not okay, will be forced into the back seat of their own body if they were to get in the difficult situation of an unwanted pregnancy.
Once upon a time, an impossible idea to get pregnant became a reality. The government now has the power to tell our girls that they must give birth to children, even if it is against their own wishes.
More backstreet abortions
Amnesty International sees this decision as a turning point after nearly 50 years of protecting women’s rights in the United States, endangering the lives and health of millions of girls and women.
In fact, we know that a ban on abortions does not abolish abortions. It only increases the demand for unsafe abortions, which in the worst case cost pregnant women their lives or can have catastrophic consequences for their health.
“Access to safe abortions is a human right,” states Simone Nørholm, policy officer for gender in Amnesty International’s Danish branch.
“Forcing someone to carry out a pregnancy against their will is grotesque.”
Free to carry weapons, forced to carry children
Camilla Semlov Andersson, a Danish family counselor, recently asked: “Why is there so much focus on protecting an unborn fetus in the United States, and no more on protecting the lives of kindergarten, elementary and high school children from gun violence?”
This is a question many Danes ask because they cannot comprehend it. Why in a country where citizens’ rights are so important – for example the right to bear arms – are women forced to give birth?
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions actually found that gun violence was the leading cause of death among U.S. children by 2020.
How can we remove 50 years of progress in women’s rights but do nothing about the real culprit that kills American children?
It’s hard to believe that the land of the fries is now a place where the right to bear arms is immovable, but a woman’s body is at stake.
Source: The Nordic Page