About fifty-one years ago, American women were given the ability to control their own fertility. The first oral contraception was approved by the FDA, giving women the power to make decisions about their reproductive interests without relying on the compliance of their male sex partners. The pill has been credited with helping to pave the way for many aspects of women’s liberation. It is well documented that women without children have more success in their careers (receive more promotions, are paid better, are seen as more committed to their job) than their motherly counterparts (just how unfair that is will be a topic for another post), so being able to decide when to have children gave women an unprecedented power not just over their ability to get jiggy with it, but also considerable sway over their careers.
Now, these rights are being attacked, especially for poor women. Make no mistake about it, the Planned Parenthood defunding attacks in the recent budget battle are really outright attacks on women’s right to make decision for themselves about their reproductive health. The debate has been framed as one of abortion right advocates versus pro-life advocates. Except that Planned Parenthood cannot even use any of its federal funding for abortions thanks to the Hyde Amendment. And, oh yeah, abortions make up only 3 percent of the organization’s operations. The rest is made up by providing health care necessities to poor women such as STD screening, pap smears, providing contraception, etc.
No, the real issue goes beyond providing abortions. Because in actually, this tangential relationship between PP’s existence and abortion rates (a false accusation, as data has shown that in countries where abortion is illegal, rates don’t decrease, but many women die from back alley abortions) is just a cover. You could make wild connections between any organization and their relationship to abortion rates. It doesn’t make it valid. We wouldn’t shut down IKEA because they happen to sell hangers. The real issue underlying the attacks on Planned Parenthood comes back to slut shaming. Because sex outside of marriage or if you are unable to take care of children that may result from sex is something sluts do and we can’t have sluts thinking that their sexual choices are acceptable.
So much of the anti-choice side of the equation can be summed up with slut shaming and the refusal of allowing women to do what they want with their bodies. In fact, as a recent pro-choice campaign documented, 77 percent of anti-abortion activists are men. None of them will ever be pregnant.
But still anti-abortion groups, comprised primarily of men, think they have all the answers to keeping the sluts from needing an abortion. Don’t want to get pregnant? Don’t have sex. Don’t think you’re in a position to take care of a child? Too bad. You should have thought about the consequences of your actions before you decided to have sex. Even the argument against allowing rape victims to access abortions often falls under the slut shaming category. Too often when a woman is raped, the onus is not on the rapist. Instead, people inquire what the victim was wearing and what she may have said to “trick” her rapist into thinking sex was on the menu or that she had too much to drink and was “asking” for it (rape culture is also a topic for another post). For a disgusting bit of evidence in this area, look no further than the media’s handling of the gang rape of an 11 year old girl. Allegations were made that the girl dressed like a prostitute and caused her own rape. I wish I was kidding.
You might be wondering why all of this is important to note. I mean, Planned Parenthood won this round. President Obama declared to Speaker John Boehner that he would accept zero funding cuts to the non-profit. But this war on women is far from over. In fact, D.C. didn’t exactly emerge unscathed from the budget fight. They are no longer allowed to use their own funding (not federal, but their own) to help poor women get abortions. It is important for women to recognize that their reproductive rights are not absolute and that anti-abortion advocates are not interested in giving up so soon (Pence has been pushing his amendment to defund PP for years). But fortunately, many of us aren’t willing to give up our rights to anti-woman extremists either.