The Declaration of Independence proclaims that we, as Americans, “are endowed by [our] Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Except for women, according to the battles raging in courtrooms and legislatures over the past year.
Many rights we have today are ones we take for granted, yet the blood, sweat and tears of thousands of people earned them. Now these people, who sacrificed to move women toward the rights of self-determination, safety and adequate healthcare, are witnessing a war to unravel their hard work.
Many say this war started with legislators attempting to redefine rape.
In early 2011, legislators tried to redefine rape to allow Medicaid to refuse paying for abortions of pregnancies resulting from rape. It’s an attempt to force women to carry the child of a rapist and endure the pain and dangers of childbirth if she doesn’t have the right number of bruises, or call the right person at the right time or if some jerk cop didn’t believe her.
I wish I could tell you these attempts have stopped after the huge uproar by U.S. citizens, but they haven’t.
With the attempts to redefine rape comes an added bonus – an increase shaming the victims of this horrible act.
By attempting to redefine rape, the victims are being told their trauma isn’t “real rape,” all for the sake of a budget. That’ll make everything better, Mr. Legislator. You don’t think it was “real,” so those women can just forget the resulting mental and physical anguish they experience.
In addition to wanting to decrease funding for abortions resulting from rape, many people are trying to make all, or at least most, abortions illegal.
The monumental court case Roe v. Wade, which allowed women the right to choose regarding abortions, has undergone numerous court challenges in the past year.
So now they want rape to be very narrowly defined and make abortions for all women – raped or not – illegal. We’re going for the gold on protecting women’s right to equality in our society.
Luckily, women do have some options to help protect from unexpected pregnancy with all the different forms of contraception available.
If they can afford them. Which made contraception the next battle.
President Obama’s health care reform made an amazing decision to mandate contraception care in insurance coverage.
In rebuttal, federal and state lawmakers seek to pass legislation defunding vital programs like Planned
Parenthood, which provide access to essential healthcare for women – not just contraception and abortion, but breast and cervical cancer screenings and treatment of potentially dangerous infections.
They have also tried to pass other bills making contraception illegal by giving “personhood” to a zygote.
If these people have their way, women can’t try to prevent pregnancy through contraception options and can’t get an abortion if she does get pregnant. And if she is the victim of rape, she now must live with whatever consequence her rapist may have caused.
You can’t tell me this isn’t a war against women.
This doesn’t even encompass other battles that are raging against women, like attempts to defund programs like WIC, the increasing wage gap and refusal to pass legislation protecting women and children victims of violence.
Accessible healthcare and equal pay is how I will maintain my life. I have the right to liberty in choosing what I put in my body and what I take out of my body without the government’s interference.
I can only pursue my happiness if I feel safe from violence and have the freedom to live as I see fit, not how anyone else thinks I should.
These are basic freedoms, and this war on women is trying to take them away from me. According to this war, I am not a citizen worthy of these unalienable rights.
All because I don’t have a penis.
 
Kristi Carnahan is a 25-year-old anthropology senior from West Monroe. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_KCarnahan.
____ Contact Kristi Carnahan at [email protected]