Controlling Women: What We Must Do Now to Save Reproductive Freedom

by Kathryn Kolbert

The reproductive justice movement has grown significantly in the past twenty years and linked systemic racism to the denial of reproductive freedom for women of color who had been left behind by the traditional pro-choice movement.

The availability of more effective and safer contraceptive methods and the morning-after pill, now over the counter, also dramatically decreased the rate of unintended pregnancy and

we have an opportunity to redefine our big asks, expand our demands to include a broader concept of reproductive freedom and justice for all, and set in motion affirmative, human rights–based strategies that will unify abortion rights supporters, and the broader women’s and LGBTQ+ movements to guarantee equality in a range of arenas. We have an opportunity to ensure that everyone, not just the most elite or those who live in majority-Democratic states, has access to essential reproductive health care.

six states actually mandate abortion coverage in their health insurance marketplaces and in private health plans. These leading states—California, Illinois, Maine, New York, Oregon, and Washington—

states wrongly adopt a shut-it-down approach toward teenage sexuality and unintended pregnancy.

first, deny the fact that many teens are going to be sexually active and that many are unable to discuss sexuality with their parents; next, fail to address the lack of reproductive health education and reproductive health services for teens; and finally, penalize the teens who face an unintended pregnancy and any sympathetic adult like Hartford who is willing to help.

in 2016, the pregnancy rate among teens ages fifteen to nineteen was the lowest it had been since Roe and has fallen in all fifty states. Many attribute the decline to better access to more effective and longer-lasting contraceptives such as a new type of IUD, the birth control shot (Depo-Provera), and long-lasting implants as well as legalization of the morning-after pill.

“My hope for the next phase of the movement for procreative and sexual rights is that we not limit ourselves simply to winning back what we have lost, but rather set our sights on winning what we need: recognition of an affirmative right of self-determination.”

Ireland’s abortion rate when accurately calculated remained similar to that of countries with legal abortion. The ban did not prevent the majority of women from obtaining abortion; it just made it more difficult, risky, and shameful.

The human rights approach focuses on protecting those who are most marginalized, excluded, or discriminated against, often requiring an investigation of gender stereotypes and then mandating government interventions to alleviate them. The human rights framework has intersectionality in its DNA.

For this reason, not only does a human rights approach have the potential to provide additional support for abortion access, but it prioritizes increased access to health care and socioeconomic benefits and seeks to make rights more accessible to those at the margins

rights protected by the Gender Equity Amendment would be vested in individuals who could make decisions without consulting with or obtaining permission from spouses, partners, parents, or medical professionals. Moreover, an individual’s autonomy, bodily integrity, and equality would not be sacrificed to the state’s interest in promoting motherhood; the government’s goal could be pursued only by affirmative family-friendly policies like universal child care and family leave.

would permanently prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, and LGBTQ+ status in a host of arenas from education to employment to governmental contracting to fair credit. It would usher in equal pay and equal access to government benefits far more effectively than is possible under current law. The amendment would prohibit not just acts that are intended to discriminate but also those policies that apply to everyone yet have a disproportionate harmful effect on a protected group such as women and LGBTQ+ folks.

Equity is based on the recognition that our social, economic, political, and cultural systems historically have been designed and implemented to favor specific groups and individuals at the expense of others and are so deeply rooted in discriminatory practices and beliefs that the resulting inequalities appear natural or inevitable.

Vermont Constitution: “An individual’s right to personal reproductive autonomy is central to the liberty and dignity to determine one’s own life course and shall not be denied or infringed unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”

Constitution Drafting Project includes potential language striving for gender equality: The right of persons in the United States shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex, sexual orientation, performance of sexual or gender identity, sexual preference, or pregnancy, childbirth, and all attendant conditions, including the decision to become pregnant or terminate a pregnancy.

Young women need to know that abortion rights and abortion access are not presents bestowed or retracted by powerful men (or women)—Presidents, Supreme Court justices, legislators—but freedoms won, as freedom always is, by people struggling on their own behalf. KATHA POLLITT, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR

bringing criminal charges against those who have abortions serves zero public health benefit and is unlikely to deter anyone from turning to medication abortions or other methods.

The US health care system remains among the most inequitable worldwide, reflecting structural racism and gender inequality in cruel ways. Disparities also occur across socioeconomic status, age, geography, language, disability status, citizenship, immigration, and LGBTQ+ status.