On the 24th of June, the law of Roe v Wade got overturned. If you don’t know what the law is, Roe v Wade is a landmark decision of the U.S Supreme Court that ruled that women can have an abortion. Since the overturn of Roe v Wade, these abortion laws will now affect women in the future. Even though I am only 14 years old and live in a state where abortions are legal, I am still angry this law got overturned.
One way the overturn of this law will affect women is that it takes away their autonomy over their bodies. Women have lost the right to make a decision based on their lives and experiences. Everyone had the right to their body, however,this law changed that for women. Another way these abortion laws affect women is the people who are struggling in survival. For example, women have to provide the common necessities for not only themselves but now another human. Not everyone has the greatest support system around them. These laws force women to keep a child that they probably didn’t even want due to the financial situation that they are dealing with. There’s a possibility that women might act a certain way merely because they have to take care of a child that they didn’t want. Pregnancy can have a lot of risks. Since women aren’t able to have abortions in some states. What happens if the woman’s life is in danger? What if she can’t carry the baby to full term because she’s at risk? What happens then? There are a lot of incidents that can happen where abortion is needed to save a life.
The majority of people think of abortion as murder. I’m going to tell you why some people don’t agree with that. Not everyone is going to agree or have the same beliefs as you. Most people in America think that the world should be in black and white when it isn’t like that anymore. As I stated in the beginning, I am 14 years old. I have a certain set of beliefs one in which I think that abortions should be legal because I was taught to believe that everyone has rights including women. My beliefs form thoughts on these abortion laws because my voice can change this law. The voice is a powerful way of expressing yourself and how you feel. Overall, this makes me mad because as a young black woman growing up in America, it’s disheartening to see people vote to eliminate a woman’s right to their body. The world is supposed to be setting an example for young people and building the future to improve as a whole. How is a person in the world supposed to believe in a system that doesn’t allow women to do what they want with their body?
Jameela Lewis – De La Salle Institute – DMSF Class of 2026
Image credit: Gayatri Malhotra. https://unsplash.com/photos/onNeaouJ7hU