What the cracks in the pavement mean for women

Image: @jaelinpalmer on Pinterest 

By the time you’re reading this, America will have long announced their new president. The person who will stand tall representing the nation, enforcing the laws, and communicating with the rest of the world.

Speaking as a young girl, living in a city in England, with limited interest in politics- my voice within this subject area will leave minimal impact. But, like always, I will speak, nonetheless.

Women’s rights have been gradually expanding since the last century. Advancements that free women of the shackles we have been living in, since the start of time. In a system, setup, ultimately, by men. These advancements include the right to vote, the right to education,the right for equal pay, so basically the right to live.

And it got me thinking…

We are currently living in a world, that was unimaginable not even 100 years ago. A world forged through the hardship of our great grandmothers. People like to think that we have reached ultimate freedom, that there is no work further left to do to reach equality amongst all people. But there are cracks in the pavement, we walk on every day, that go unnoticed.

And now is the time to notice them.

If Donald Trump is to be re- elected as president, women’s bodily rights across America will be threatened. This is the first presidential election since the supreme court decided to strike down the constitutional rights to abortion. That decision was credited by the very man that could be voted into power. Since this decision, 21 states have either tighter restrictions regarding abortion, or have banned it in almost all circumstances.

“Fuck anybody who tells us what to with our bodies.”

We all know that if Trump were to decide as president to enforce this act as a federal ban, this would not be an end to abortion, it would only be an end to legal abortion. Before the1970s, backstreet abortion statistics were detrimental to the health of over 100,000 women. They led to severe effects following the procedure, including sepsis and haemorrhages, and that is if they survived it at all.

But that’s not all the ban would cause. It would force women to go ahead with unwanted pregnancies. It is inhumane, it is merciless, and it is cruel. And this affects all women. It affects a rape victim, who wanted to go to college and now must conceive the child their rapist has created within them. It affects a 10-year-old, who has been stripped of her innocence due to abuse and now must grow a child within them when they are still a child themselves.

It affects a married woman, who has been told she has an ectopic pregnancy but must carry a foetus that could kill her along the way. It affects a mum to two children, who must suffer through her miscarriage with no end in sight for the pain.

These women are your daughters, your friends, your sisters, your wives, your nieces. They are people. Yet they are treated merely as objects, which only serve to procreate and bring a child into a world where they are no longer safe.

America is one of the world’s leading countries, working as inspiration for every other government to watch. So how do we watch when they are stripping women of the rights to their own body, and forcing them to endure a life they did not choose?

The days of living in fear as women are no longer over, and the work of our ancestors who fought for the world we live in is slowly being unravelled.

As woman, we understand this fear. But it should be understood by every single person who encompasses a heart and soul.

To reiterate, I am no politician, and whilst I share no part in offering my opinion, I would like to share this. Fuck anybody who tells us what to do with our own bodies.

Written by Ruby Waters

Edited by Isabel Butler