my body | my choice

Once again, it's not politics, it's personal. My body, my choice. 

In the wake of the US Supreme Court leak of a draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade - the 1973 Roe decision legalizing abortion nationwide - many express doubts about whether the justices are guided by the law rather than by their political beliefs. 

© Kenny Holston for The New York Times

Protestors react outside the U.S. Supreme Court to the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito preparing for a majority of the court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision later this year, in Washington, Politico reports | Reuters

© Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times

Seeing the court as an increasingly political actor as they are losing touch with the real America and the real issues of Americans.

Scholars and political experts have regularly debated whether the court’s steady march to the right, exacerbated by increasingly contentious confirmation fights and disputes is draining public faith in the court as fundamentally a legal forum. 

anti abortionist standoff against abortion rights

Even straining that faith further is the ritual of conservative nominees professing their view of Roe as settled law and their respect for precedent - then apparently voting to overturn it the first chance they get. 

poet activist Amanda Gorman

Listen to Amanda Gorman demonstrate her commitment to poetry as activism in a video from NowThis News. Where she addresses the importance of keeping abortion legal and stated eight reasons why we should “stand up … against abortion bans in the United States.”

1. “When the penalty for rape is less than the penalty for abortion after the rape, you know this isn’t about caring for women and girls. It’s about controlling them.”
2. “Through forcing them into motherhood before they’re ready, these bans steadily sustain the patriarchy, but also chain families in poverty and maintain economic inequality.”
3. “Pregnancy is a private and personal decision and should not require the permission of any politician.”
4. “For all time, regardless of whether it’s a crime, women have and will always seek their own reproductive destinies. All these penalties do is subdue women’s freedom to get healthy, safe services when they most need them.”
5. “Fight to keep Roe v. Wade alive. By the term ‘overturn Roe v. Wade‘, the main concern is that the Supreme Court will let states thwart a woman’s path to abortion with undue burdens.”
6. “One thing is true and certain: These predictions aren’t a distortion, hypothetical, or theoretical. Women already face their disproportion of undue burdens when seeking abortions. If the sexes and all people are to be equal, abortion has to be actually accessible and not just technically legal.”
7. “Despite what you might hear, this right here isn’t only about women and girls. This fight is about about fundamental civil rights. Women are a big part of it, but at the heart of it are freedom over how fast our families grow goes farther and larger than any one of us. It’s about every single one of us.”
8. “This change can’t wait. We’ve got the energy, the moment, the movement, and the thundering numbers.”

“The alt-right’s biggest blunder is that most Americans aren’t under their impression that a woman’s body is up to them to decide. So when you’re outraged, these lawmakers are terrified. They want our tide to lose hope, to back up, pack up, and go home, so don’t. We won’t. We are never alone when we fight fire with feminism.

“So go, be unafraid. We will not be delayed, we will not be masquerade to the tale of a handmaid. We will not let Roe v. Wade slowly fade because when we show up today, we’re already standing up with the tomorrow we made.”