Abortion Isn't A Woman's Issue

“Abortion is a human rights issue,” says Fearless Foundry CEO Madeline Reeves

I want to talk about abortion, which is a topic that is known to get a fair amount of folks to flee from this blog.  

That’s okay with me, as I’d rather our readers know exactly where I and my company stand on the issues that matter most, but before you type out a response or race to unsubscribe, I encourage you to keep reading.

Abortion is an issue that affects all of us.

Because if you are a living, breathing human here on earth at this very moment, it means that you had a mother who made a choice, willingly or otherwise, to birth you into being.

Even if she didn’t want to. Even if she couldn’t afford to. Even if she was afraid to.

For decades, we have been debating and deliberating over the issue of abortion as if it is a woman’s rights issue. 

It isn’t.

It is a human rights issue.

As we race toward a summer where it is becoming increasingly apparent that abortion will not be a right that people with uteruses can choose to exercise freely in the United States, it is time that we address the issue as such.

Choosing whether or not to have a baby, become a parent, or spend the rest of your life, your time, and your energy toward the enormous responsibility of raising a child—should always be a choice.

There are plenty of men who choose daily to pass on parenthood, simply by not showing up for the job. Yet, you don’t see this country bombarding those men with picket lines, public messaging deeming them eternally damned, or enacting legislation to force them into fatherhood.

In our seemingly modern society, where the majority of Americans do believe that abortion should be a fundamental right of those whose bodies can carry babies to term, we are still undoing laws that protect those same people and in turn forcing them into the labor and life consequences of a pregnancy that they cannot create on their own.

It was not a matter of if Roe v. Wade would fall, but when. 

Anyone who has delved deep into this issue knows that the ruling was predicated on a piece of legal precedent that was flimsy in a normal civil society, but even more dubious and feeble in a patriarchal culture where the lives of women are valued so very little.

Where do we go from here?

Luckily for those of us that feel so very lost, and frustrated, and heartbroken in this very moment that many of our mothers and grandmothers fought so valiantly to avoid, there are legal scholars who have been working hard behind the scenes to prepare for this time that they knew would come.

A time in which they now can fight to solidify the right to choosing to become a parent or not. The right to decide what to do with a pregnancy based on how their life experiences, culture, and religion, guide them. These rights can be solidified not as a “woman’s” right, but rather as the right of all humans.

For those of us that worry that this approach can not be passed, I implore you to do a little reading and look closely at the model that was passed in one of the most Catholic countries in our world: Ireland.

There, legal scholars and activists from the county and around the world banded together to form a brilliant coalition that fought for abortion rights under one united front.

By taking up the mantle of choosing to participate in parenthood as the fundamental right of ALL human beings, they were able to break through to create laws that protect everyone and validate what we all know at our core is true:

What we do with our own bodies, is for our own choosing.

Whether you were born in a female body or a male body or anywhere in between, your gender should not determine your life outcomes unless you so choose it.

So if you are a human that fundamentally shares this belief, I encourage you to take a stand.

Make it known that you believe that abortion rights are a fundamental human right, and encourage others to do the same.

Help this opinion be enacted into law by supporting the activists and scholars here at home, who have been hard at work for years, preparing to put forth legislation that would protect this right for all of us.

There is not a whole lot that we Americans can get behind in unison, but if there is one belief that many of us brought up in this country tend to share, it is a belief in our own autonomy.

And whether you were born here or sought your way here in search of something more, you are a part of a complex country that is only just beginning to understand what we all stand for.

We can sit back and let someone else that we didn’t even elect decide what laws we all must abide by…

Or we can stand up and fight for something better.

I implore you to look within, decide what you believe is just, and take action.

I’ll be seeing you in the streets.

~ Madeline