A Woman's Right

   In recent decades, there have been many debates in the United States regarding to women’s rights and abortions. After Roe v. Wade, abortions have been categorized as a private matter and are to be protected from state-scrutiny. The battle however has not ceased between pro-life and pro-choice factions. Pro-life activists including Callahan see abortion as murder while pro-choice activists believe that abortion should be exclusively decided by the women themselves. A private matter has again become political and the fight carried on to deciding when life actually begins inside the womb. Aside from all political and legalistic definitions, I believe that a life before being born is as much a part of itself as a part of its mother. Therefore, the mother ought to have the right in deciding how she treats her own body and what’s inside of her. Callahan sees abortion as “…selfishly exploiting natural resources and arrogantly destroying other forms of life” (48). A child is a part of his/her mother and his/her survival before birth absolutely depends on the mother. Unless the state can preserve the embryo after extraction, it should not remove a woman from rights to her own body. Since the state cannot provide unified education concerning sexual health and contraception without interfering with religious and local values, it should not regulate the consequences of its inactions. A woman living in the Bible-Belt and other Southern states may not have as much access to correct sexual education as women from other states due to local religious values. If she became pregnant due to an un-unified education system, then the fate of her body and what’s inside of it should not be decided by the state. It is unfortunate that life is cruel and unforgiving especially for those that do not have a voice. However, if the state fails to stop a wrongful birth from the beginning, then it should not try to intervene in the end.