POSTED AT 12:00 AM ON Jan. 16, 2008 | PRINT | Email | SHARE | COMMENTS (3)

For a young feminist like me, a few dates are committed to memory and are almost biblical in their enormity. January 22 is one of those dates. On this day, the U.S. Supreme Court guaranteed the right to bodily integrity, as determined by Roe v. Wade. As we celebrate 35 years of reproductive justice and face its shaky future, I find myself revisiting my past, thanks to a recent letter to the editor in the Bloomington Herald-Times. It encouraged anti-choicers to attend a Rally for Life this Sunday. The writer went on to describe the “abortion industry,” reserving special scorn for Planned Parenthood. There is no doubt that such individuals truly believe these radical things. I should know – I used to be one of them.

For the better part of five years, I was strongly anti-choice. While there were several turning points in my political ideology, the false reasoning and utterly deluded notions of so called “pro-lifers” ultimately convinced me to bid goodbye to my past.

Take, for example, the dictum, “abortion is murder,” parroted by anti-choicers. Assume, for a second, that this is true. What kind of punishment, then, should a woman receive for having an abortion? Since murder is often a capital crime, should having an abortion warrant the death penalty? What about the doctors performing the abortions? What penalties should they receive?

The premise underlying the “abortion equals murder” equation is that a fetus has life, just like you and me. While it would be impossible to establish the logical fallacies of such an argument in less than 500 words, there is a significant difference between potential life and actual life. Consider the analogy put forth by Michael J. Sandel, a philosopher at Harvard: Although every oak tree was once an acorn, it does not follow that acorns are oak trees.

In a similar vein, it now strikes me as patently unjust that a woman should have to “rent” out her womb for a fetus she cannot carry, especially in cases involving rape or incest. What would stop the government from forcing people to rent out other parts of their bodies, such as livers, in order to advance someone else’s life?

Ultimately, while anti-choicers might claim they respect the “culture of life,” their ideas prove otherwise. In 2006, Nicaragua declared all abortions illegal. Since the law was instituted, at least 82 women have died from pregnancy complications. Alternatively, in countries where abortion is legal, abortion rates are extremely low. You see, unlike anti-choicers, we actually support policies that decrease abortions by emphasizing comprehensive sex education and the use of contraception.

So, the next time the so-called “pro-lifers” peddle their nonsense about preserving the culture of life, remember the 82 women who have lost their lives in Nicaragua. Remember the women who died from self-induced abortions using a coat hanger. Remember that a living, breathing woman is more valuable than a few cells. Remember this as we celebrate 35 years of reproductive justice, and know that we can never go back.