Musings: choice is a human right

I feel angry this week.

It seems an overwhelming number of men (and a few women) in positions of power are existing in a time warp, stuck somewhere in the 1950s, while the rest of the world has hurtled into the 21st century.

The decision by the US Supreme Court to overturn a 50-year ruling giving American women a constitutional right to an abortion has reverberated around the world.

The country perceived as the leader of the free world just wound back the clock on what many countries, including Australia, now consider a basic healthcare right – access to safe abortions.

Here in Australia, although there is no concrete repercussion from the ruling, the news was greeted with applause from conservative politicians like Bernie Finn in Victoria and Matt Canavan in Queensland.

Last year, Australian women marched in the street calling for equality and justice, spurred on in part by lack of action on family violence, inequality in the workplace and the Federal government’s response to an alleged rape in Parliament House. The government’s reaction to the rally itself galvanised women further, and those women used their vote to dispatch a government they felt were out of touch with half the population.

While the world is facing a pandemic, there's a war in Ukraine, we're dealing with inflation and rising food costs among many other pressing issues, why is the highest court in America focused on a woman’s right to decide the best option for her own pregnancy?

If the same conservative forces were also in favour of increasing the single-mother’s pension, equal wages for women and improving childcare options, then you might believe it was an over-arching concern for the wellbeing of children and women.

But the move feels more like exercising power over women, part of a wish to reassert a world order where men ruled and women (and people of colour/migrants/poor etc) were subservient.

It’s hard not to feel angry that our daughters are now living in a world where, potentially, they could have less rights than we did.

The move to restrict abortion is punitive and I don’t believe it is about protecting the unborn as much it is about controlling the living. It’s devastating watching repressive regimes like the Taliban restrict women’s access to education and employment and reduce them to second class citizens. But when the world’s leading democracy starts stripping away women’s rights, it’s downright frightening.

And while the Supreme Court decision is an alarming example, every day in small ways, women deal with men who think they know better, are entitled to more, or have a right to make decisions about other people’s lives and wellbeing without their consent.

It’s not all men, I know, but still it is depressing, infuriating and exhausting.

Roe V Wade passed in 1973.

Back in 1973 David Bowie was singing about aliens and brave new worlds and the future seemed so bright.

So today I’m listening to Bowie and hoping there really are changes coming.