I am  tired of men trying to control women’s bodies and their choices.

A decade ago, men were working behind closed doors to defund the Women’s Health Organization, Planned Parenthood and then in 2017, Republicans worked to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

Now they are working to deprive women of their right to decide what is best for their well-being and their future. In Texas, they are effectively banning most abortions through this sort of “bounty system,” meaning the ones who are enforcing these laws are regular citizens, and even those out of the state can put forth a complaint.

Pro-lifers like to argue that they are saving a life, but then why not care about the children in foster care and fix the messed up system? They do not care about the wellbeing of children. If they did, foster care would be better, single parents would have more opportunities for work and better pay and women who have miscarriages would be able to take out a life insurance policy on the child since we are considering it to be a human life that just died. This is not about bettering the system or looking out for women and children, this is a way to hold power over women and to “keep them in their place.”

Women have the right to their bodies and to the decisions they make. If a woman is raped, she has the right to decide to get an abortion because having that child would be a constant reminder of what happened to her. If a woman gets pregnant and has minimal income and the father of the child does not wish to own up to his end of the responsibility, because it takes two people to get pregnant, she deserves the right to do what is best for her and the child by not bringing “it” into a world full of poverty and possibly pain.

How would guys like it if there was a room full of women deciding what they can and cannot do with their bodies? They would be angry, outraged and most likely call those women derogatory terms that we are so used to hearing.

People say, “Just go on birth control,” or, “abstain from sexual activity until marriage,” but they would never expect that of a man. There is the fact that birth control options can cause many side effects, and some women physically cannot go on birth control. There is also the possibility of getting pregnant while on birth control, which entails its own health risks to the mother. There need to be better options to prevent pregnancies, but also the ability for women to get an abortion if things do not go to plan, which happens. A lot.

For instance, according to The Washington Post, “45% of the 6 million pregnancies in the United States each year are unintended.”

As well as this, Pubmed.gov states, “among adult women an estimated 32,101 pregnancies result from rape each year.”

And finally, Livescience.com states, “In reality, about 1 out of 5 pregnancies, or between 750,000 and 1 million pregnancies yearly in the United States, end in miscarriage.”

Creating life is something that is incredibly powerful and beautiful that only women can do. However, that does not mean that all women wish to become mothers, and it cannot be expected of us.

Being a mother is not a woman’s purpose in the world, and if one becomes pregnant, she should be able to have the option to no longer be pregnant if it is not desired nor welcomed. Also, there are many women who should not become pregnant for the safety of themselves, because at the end of the day, women are people who are living their lives and holding value in this world.

So, for anyone who claims that any woman who wishes to get an abortion should die, then you are not pro-life becuase you are talking of killing an actual life.

Women everywhere need to stand up against Texas and their stupid laws, and rival against any other state that follows their lead. Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not fight for women’s rights for it then to be easily taken away after her death.