Feminism and Women’s Reproductive Rights

[POV 1: Pregnant Teen Girls]

“Overturning of Dobbs VS Jackson, almost all abortions are banned” - the bolded heading of the Texas newspaper, The Texas Tribune, triggered ripples of anxiety through Mia’s mind on the morning of August 25th. Born and raised in Texas, Mia is a 17 year old teenager who excels academically in school and has a bright future ahead of her in the field of science. However, an overdose of alcohol, diminished sense of clarity and the right person at the wrong time on a weekend led to an accidental pregnancy.

“Termination of pregnancy is only condoned within 20 weeks of pregnancy” the doctor muttered

coldly, with an expressionless face. Approximately 14 kilometres away, on the shores of New Delhi India, fresh tears cascaded down 17 year-old Diya's face as she stared at her mobile phone in ultimate horror. Diya had been pregnant with her lover’s child, relishing in the sense of security as she was reassured by him that he will take full responsibility. However, her life took a sharp turn upon the abrupt realisation that he took off without a word. To add fuel to the fire, her family is deeply struck with poverty, bringing up a child seems like an impossible feat. Both her parents were very traditional, frowning upon anything that is not in alignment with their deeply rooted beliefs. If they knew about the pregnancy…

With shaking fingers, Diya counted her period of pregnancy once again.

24 weeks.

3 hours? 4? Maybe even 6? Mia was hunched over her laptop, her mind a frenzy mess, her hands clammy and cold, her heart knotted with a combination of fear and hopelessness. With a weakening sense of faith, she has navigated the labyrinth of the internet, scanning a throng of articles related to abortion.

“Abortion is prohibited, unless the pregnant woman has a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy that places her at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function” she swallowed. “First degree felony” her breathing was heavy. “That statute prohibits essentially all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected” she slammed her laptop close, fist clenched with agony, desperation coursing through her veins. What was she going to do? She felt her dream of being a successful scientist shatterly instantly, all her cumulative hard work disappearing with a snap of a finger. The challenges of raising a child, the emotional turmoil, the condescending whispers of her relatives, the loneliness she will feel - they all came crashing down on her like a tidal wave, overwhelming the poor teenager.

Mia left her house and raced through the streets. She found out that the dozens of abortion clinics in the country had shut down due to fears of being sued in court. After a quick search, she managed to locate an illegal underground abortion clinics located at a obsolete alley down the road. She knew the risk, but she had no choice…

“It is still illegal. Only a raped or widowed woman can abort after 20 weeks, with a case-by-case analysis”. This sentence stabbed her right in the heart, she felt a torrent of misery and hopelessness wash over her, utterly wrecking her apart. At her wits end, Diya rushed to the nearest governor's office in her town area, pounding the door while sobbing endlessly.

“But he left me..he promised me…I wouldn’t have done so if he didn’t leave! My parents are poor farmers, we can’t even feed ourselves! How do you expect- “

“You are killing the child. Murder is not allowed here!” Her pain-laced and feeble attempt of persuasion was hastily interrupted by a curd tone. His eyes tinged with indifference, sharp with a look of judgement.

A dam of tears broke free, streaming down her face uncontrollably as she felt a panic attack growing within her trembling body. With her last ounce of strength, she dragged herself out of the room.

How can I afford milk powder and education? Will my parents kick me out in anger? How do I survive alone?

Upon leaving the room, her eyes faltered as she felt bleakness for her future.

Although both characters are fictional, their stories have proliferated in society. According to a paper produced by Clinic fellow in Obstetrics, approximately 42 million women with unintended pregnancies choose to abort on a yearly basis. Out of this number, 20 million engage in underground abortion clinics with around 68,000 women dying annually and 5 million of the surviving ones experiencing long-term health problems. With a tighter ban on legal abortion practices, there will be an increase in women undergoing unsafe abortion procedures, thereby increasing the risk of caualties.

According to a paper "Poverty during pregnancy: its effects on child health outcomes" in the National Library of Medicine, it is stated that poor mothers can experience several stressful events such as isolation, unemployment and extreme burn out. Moreover, poverty pregnancy can result in health problems and delayed cognitive development of the child. As such, it is shown that the pregnancy can sometimes result in detrimental effects given the situation, which will be further exacerbated by the banning of abortions. [POV 2: Female Lawyer Against Abortion]

Approximately ten years ago, a conversation between two close friends unfolds as follows:

“I heard. I’m sorry.”

Her friend doesn’t respond; she stares down at her book, as she’s always had ever since they’d met earlier afternoon.

“...I know sorry won’t quite cut it, but-”

“Tragic, isn’t it. Bad, disastrous things happen to the people around us and we get the urge to say something, but ‘sorry’ alone seems so callous and distasteful, even though sorrow is all you feel and you don’t mean to sound so…distanced from the depths of what they feel.” Her gaze remains focused on the page before her.

“I…”

“I know. But considering that I know your stance on it too, I’d rather not hear anything remotely close to an apology from you.”

She closes her eyes; it had gone exactly as she had imagined and as she’d ruminated over the past few days. “I understand that I’m not exactly the biggest advocate for abortion, that I’ve expressedly stated my disagreement with it in the past, but that doesn’t mean I can’t feel angered about what happened to your sister.” Across the table, her friend stiffened in her chair. She continues, regardless. “No one deserves to get assaulted as she did. No one deserves to conceive a baby out of rape. But neither does an unknowing, innocent child deserve to be killed.”

Ire washes over her friend’s eyes, so intense that she surmises she must’ve been holding back the entire time. “Even if her biological father (spat, like a curse) is a rapist?”

“A rapist he is. The law will do him justice; he will be locked behind bars as he deserves to be for his contempt against human rights.”

“And yet you disregard the rights of the victim.”

“And yet if we take into consideration the rights of the victim, we simultaneously disregard the rights of the baby.”

“A baby is a half-formed thing. It is barely a life, if you can even call it a life. Isn’t that so lawful of you- to put something that’s not even in existence yet above a living, breathing woman who has to live with what happened to her?”

“I know,” she admits, near tears. She doesn’t know why, or when, tears began building up in her eyes. “It f*cking hurts. It’s a f*cking dilemma. I think all of this would’ve been easier if that bastard hadn’t done what he’d done.”

“But it happened, and now here we are. It’s time to face the music, my friend. There you go spouting the need for human rights to always be upheld, then here you are, disagreeing with a victim’s rightful choice to abort the baby of a monster. Why?”

“I don’t know. It’s going against all that I believe in…I believe that every living thing should be recognised for its right to its own life. That’s always been my primary reasoning for not condoning abortion - you can’t just decide to rip away someone else’s chance at life.”

Silence envelopes them then- the cruel kind that seems so scathingly empty, ringing in your ears so loud you want nothing more than for it to end. Her friend nods imperceptibly, slowly, as if she’d come to a secret conclusion that she’d yet to get to.

“I have nothing else to say to you, except that we clearly have opposing views on this. We both knew that-”

“...-” she moves to say something, but her friend holds her hand up.

“When it comes to things like these, it’s better if you don’t comment at all, regardless of whatever you think. I shouldn’t have gotten riled up, and I shouldn’t have egged you on when it was evident how it would end.” She inhales, slowly. “So I’ll leave you be for now, yes? I think we both need space.”

She stands up, gathers her things, then leaves. The door closes behind her with a soft click.

Left behind, she stares at the wall, wondering how it all came to this. When she attempts to get back to her work after, the laptop screen blurs and melds before her. She slams it shut.

Some time in 2022:

Halfway through clearing her inbox, her screen flashes with a text. Typically, her phone would be on mute at this hour, but she supposes she’d forgotten to turn notifications off, and for some reason, something compels her to look at whatever she’d gotten. So she reaches for it and swipes her screen up, letting the text wash over her as it materialises before her eyes.

Guess u’re happy now, it reads. Below, in hyperlink, an article titled, “Special Edition: Roe v Wade is Overturned.”

Her fingers reach for the keyboard, and her thumbs twiddle in the air as she grasps at something to say. She pauses.

Whatever does she say? The last time they’d spoken, they had an argument on this precise subject matter. And they hadn’t known then that that would be their last conversation.

Before she can retract it, she sends a quick I guess in response, then puts her phone on mute and shoves it away to the furthest edge of the table.

Late into the evening, as she stares into the chasm of her laptop screen, typing away an email to a client, she finds her mind still fixated on earlier. From the depths of her memory too, surface that couple minutes in her room ten years ago.

Indeed, she supposed some part of her was happy, whatever happy meant. But as soon as she’s hit sent, catapulting the email into the void, a feeling she can’t quite place beats on in some corner of her heart.

She dismisses it, and heads to bed.

-

Monumental, pivotal knickpoints in the history of the struggle for the recognition of women’s rights like the overturning of Roe v Wade linger with us, incite horror even, once the reality of societal regression hits us. The overturning of Roe v Wade symbolises the lack of regard of women’s - human’s - intrinsic rights as individuals with agency and ability to decide what is best for themselves, to choose which course of action is best to take. At its core, the debacle over abortion is nothing to do with whether abortion is constituted as murder, but everything to do with the fact that pregnancy and the events that follow, i.e. raising a child, a human being, thereafter demand great responsibility. Women should have the ability to decide if they are fit to raise their child.

But nothing hurts more than when women are the ones standing against women. Nothing hurts more than their failure to recognise and acknowledge the pains and struggles millions of women around the world endure as the entire world debates about what they should do with their lives.

What’s most important to recognise, however, is that the contention with abortion is such a complex, muddled issue that concerns so many lives, that makes and breaks so many relatioships. It is oh-so-easy to discuss abortion, whether it’s right or wrong, whether you condone it or are repulsed by it, worlds away from streets brimming with protestors and abortion clinics filled with girls and women so fraught with anxiety they could just implode into a thousand different shards, but at the end of the day, we should never forget the humane element to it – that this is a living, breathing thing that colours millions if not billions of lives.

Somewhere out there, a girl is crying for help.

[POV 3: Woman Who Experienced A Miscarriage]

“Yi Xuan…Yi Xuan!” Her friend desperately called her name, trying to get her attention.

Yi Xuan snapped out of her trance. She did not remember what she had been doing. All she knew was that she was drawn to the cutest little pair of baby boots in her favourite colour, purple. Holding the boot in her hand, she admired its impossibly small size, and the all-too-familiar feeling of sorrow crept in. Hastily, she placed down the boot and joined her friends who were looking at her with sympathy in their eyes.

Although it had been months since the accident happened, she still felt an overwhelming sense of shame, guilt and loss.

7 months ago

In her mid-30s, she had been elated when she saw 2 clear pink lines appear on her pregnancy test. She had been trying for months to no avail and was on the brink of giving up. After getting what she had been desperately praying for, she was in relief. So when she went for her regular check-up, excited at the prospect of seeing her child again, she was devastated by the news she had received - that her foetus had no detectable heart activity.

When she returned home that day, she was faced with the sight of the many gifts she had received from her friends and family for her baby. A handmade baby blanket, adorable stuffed toys and a cradle she once felt such excitement over only made her want to curl up in a ball in despair. All she wanted to do was to feel the kick of her baby in her tummy again. As she sat collapsed onto the floor of the room that was supposed to belong to her child, quietly mourning, her phone rang. The caller ID: Mom 💕.

“Hello? Xuan, how was your doctor's appointment? Do you need me to get those donuts you’ve been craving?”

“Uh…no thanks Ma. Actually, I just found out that my baby doesn’t have a heartbeat anymore. I haven’t even told James yet…I feel so lost and I miss my baby so much.”

“What? What does that mean?”

“It means that my baby is gone.”

“How is that possible? It’s already been 22 weeks and you’re well past the danger stage! What did you do?”

Her mother’s words, although not ill-intentioned, cracked her heart open a little more. At 22 weeks, she was in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy where it was rare to have a miscarriage. However, she still lost her child. Was she a lesser woman for not being able to maintain her pregnancy? What did she do wrong? If she had tried harder to be a good mother, would her baby have survived? These questions stayed at the forefront of her mind for hours.

“I’m sorry.”

Yi Xuan hung up abruptly while breaking into sputtering sobs. She sat on the floor listlessly, thinking again and again about her mother’s words and what she had lost until her husband arrived home, where they found comfort in each other.

Present day

Superficially, her mom appeared kind, encouraging and empathetic. However, it was the little comments that really got to her. “It’s okay, you can always have another one!” “Don’t feel bad, it wasn’t even a baby yet!” And worst of all, “When are you going to start trying for another one?”, just weeks after her miscarriage.

It felt like all that her mother truly cared about was the baby. Yi Xian’s feelings were utterly disregarded and ripped apart in the process. Every time she thought she had accepted her miscarriage a little more, her mom would drop a cutting comment and she would be right back at square one. Her mother, who had been her comfort person all along, became her worst adversary in her battle to come to terms with her miscarriage.

Sometimes, in the midst of the discourse between pro-life and pro-choice, the feelings of those caught in the middle are forgotten. Globally, an estimated 23 million miscarriages occur per year. People who have miscarried often feel a great deal of remorse and culpability over something that was, most of the time, not their fault. Let’s remember that before being a mother, they are people too, and the loss of their baby is the most harrowing to them. Being empathetic and understanding will go a long way in aiding their healing process.

Written by: Chiang Xin Ni, Nicole (22S73), Foo Wei Ting Ember (22A15), Kyi Mon Mon Shein (22A12)

Edited by: Yu Yao Chen (22S78)