What a woman decides to do with her body is her choice and her choice alone.

Conservative lawmakers constantly try to control women’s reproductive rights. But the right to a safe and legal abortion transcends even politics — it represents women having agency over their own bodies.

After years of politicians fighting about abortion at the state level, the debate now looms on a national scale.

Last Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) introduced a bill to limit abortions across the country. His explanation mirrored the attempt of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act that Republicans pushed in June. The legislation would ban abortions after 20 weeks, based on the disputed belief that a fetus can feel pain at that time period.

Dozens of states have passed laws on this premise that are usually challenged — but that’s the point, according to a 2011 Mother Jones article. Republican lawmakers want the country to get on board with this “fetal pain” concept so that some day, it could make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Passage of such a bill would be devastating for women in the United States.

Currently, almost half of pregnancies among American women are unintended, and about 4 in 10 of these are terminated by abortion, according to an October report by the Guttmacher Institute. Women in their 20s account for more than half of all abortions.

While there is no substantial scientific evidence that a fetus can feel pain at the 20-week mark, there is plenty of evidence that women who are denied abortions are often left helpless. For example, they are three times more likely to end up below the federal poverty line, according to a report by The New York Times. Many women opt for abortions when they cannot financially support a child.

With this in mind, it is important to support certain politicians who are leading the fight for women’s reproductive rights, especially in states with a traditionally oppressive administration.

During the summer, Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Texas) dominated media headlines. In June, she held an 11-hourlong filibuster to block Senate Bill 5, which would create new abortion regulations in Texas. The filibuster encouraged Senate Democrats to delay passage of the bill beyond the midnight deadline for the end of the legislative session.

Davis’ effort was an inspiration. It proved there is ample support for an equal system in which women have the right to their own bodies.

Gov. Rick Perry, however, set efforts back in the following days when he scheduled the bill to be debated again. The bill was later passed in July.

It is especially troublesome when male political leaders, such as Perry, feel the need to control women’s reproductive organs.

Men cannot get pregnant. They do not understand what comes with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, and they never will. They cannot relate to the internal struggle a woman faces when considering an abortion, and they do not understand the importance of having options.

It is not any man or any government official’s right to make such a personal choice for a woman.

To challenge women’s access to abortion characterizes their struggle for equality. Women’s right to an abortion has been in effect since the monumental Supreme Court decision in 1973, Roe v. Wade. The court ruled that under the 14th Amendment, it was a woman’s decision to have an abortion.

Limiting or banning abortions is a denial of a woman’s constitutional rights. To deny a woman the right to choose is to deny her control of her own body — and the right to choose is the right to live freely.

Laura Cohen is a junior magazine journalism and women’s and gender studies major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected].

Published on November 13, 2013 at 1:14 am