In the early days of feminism, a movement for women’s equality was necessary. For too long, females in the United States had been relegated to second-class citizens. Over time, because of that initial, first-wave push, women were granted voting and property rights. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 made it illegal to pay female employees less than their male counterparts simply because of gender. These gains were needed to ensure basic rights were both legally established and protected.
The push for so-called reproductive rights, culminating in the legalization of abortion in January 1973 thanks to Roe v. Wade, was celebrated as a new era of freedom for women. In reality, the opposite was true. Allowing for females to select their unborn children for death was nothing more than barbaric regression masquerading as progress. Since then, life-affirming legislation has been treated as subduing basic rights rather than returning society to a balance where those inside the womb are protected in equal measure.
The recently passed heartbeat bill in Alabama and similar measures in other states are seen as part of an overall war on women. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Over the weekend, on the decidedly unfunny Saturday Night Live, comedian Leslie Jones hit back against anti-abortion lawmakers.
Let’s be very clear: Expanding the inherent right to life for females (and males) within the womb does not constitute a “war on women.” That’s actually the opposite of oppression. Still, feminists in America, the most privileged nation on the planet, insist that their rights are vanishing.
If these women would like to see actual examples of a war on women, they should look outside the United States. In other countries, female oppression looks quite different. Beyond our shores, not every woman has the right to vote. In Saudi Arabia, women didn’t regain the right to drive until June 2018. Around the world, women are sold into sexual slavery and treated as nothing more than moneymaking objects of male lust. In countries such as Nigeria (and elsewhere), a husband is allowed to beat his wife if she is in “need” of rectification. Female genital mutilation and child marriage are common in many parts of the world. According to UNICEF, “Some 650 million girls and women … have been married as children, and over 200 million girls and women in more than 30 countries have undergone [female genital mutilation].”
To add American females to this list of emotionally and physically maltreated is an egregious error befitting a privileged class of first-world women. But this is the hold that abortion “rights” has on our country.
The state of Alabama has three abortion clinics. Women who reside there, and who seek an abortion, will have to look elsewhere if the law successfully goes into effect this November. Unfortunately, given the accessibility of abortion in the United States, their search won’t last long. Ideally, abortion would be unthinkable in a society that lists “life” before liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Abortion will most likely never disappear. Despite the restrictions that may be passed at the state level, a nationwide decision via the Supreme Court is difficult to imagine.
No matter what occurs in legislatures and courts, it seems that pro-abortion feminists will cling to the idea that returning to true equality, where the unborn are also protected, means a war of sorts has been launched. Meanwhile, true gender-related hardship can be seen beyond our borders. Somehow, I doubt that American feminists, who have so much, will regain any sort of useful clarity where this is concerned.
Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner‘s Beltway Confidential blog and a columnist at Arc Digital.
