Who do we trust to make decisions about pregnancy in 2022?
Why do we not trust women to make decisions about their own pregnancies? What would happen if we did trust women?
I wasn’t going to chime in publicly on the potential overturn of Roe v Wade.
There are many well-educated, articulate people saying many educated, articulate things. I wasn’t sure what I had to contribute to the conversation.
But I’ve changed my mind. I’ve decided to join the ranks of well-educated, articulate people weighing in.
And what is it I wish to say?
I’m not interested in talking about the ethicality of abortion. I know it’s a thorny, complicated issue. I’m not interested in debating the week or day when an embryo should be considered a baby. I’m not interested in going round and round defining the terms pro-life or pro-choice.
I’m interested in one thing: in the 21st century who are we trusting to make decisions about pregnancy?
I’m a visual learner. Let’s tell the story in pictures.
Here’s a picture of the signing of an executive order prohibiting our country’s support of international groups that perform or provide information on ending unwanted pregnancies:
Here are the senators of Alabama who passed a bill making abortion illegal in Alabama:
Here’s the Governor of Texas who recently signed a new law to ban abortions in Texas:
Notice any similarities in these pictures?
In rooms mandating pregnancy decisions, there is a noticeable lack in representation of bodies who can actually become pregnant.
In fact, there seems to be a correlation here- the more determined a country, state or religion is to control pregnancy decisions, the less likely they are to have women on the decision-making board.
Iraq, Egypt and Laos are three of the countries with the strictest abortion laws:1
Here are recent pictures of the governing bodies of those countries:
Iraq:
Egypt:
Laos:
The Catholic Church has been a major front-runner in the anti-abortion movement for decades.
Here is the leadership of the Catholic Church:
Overwhelmingly it’s men who comprise the leadership of anti-abortion movements.
Who do the law-makers trust?
Abortion is a complicated issue. To put it mildly. People have been debating it for centuries.
So who do the men in charge, particularly the men in charge of making laws for this country turn to when they hit rocky patches in decision-making? When things get complicated?
The whole question the Supreme Court is trying to answer in Roe v Wade is whether or not abortion is constitutional. In the leaked document Justice Alito writes, “The Constitution makes no express reference to a right to obtain an abortion, and therefore those who claim that it protects such a right must show that the right is somehow implicit in the constitutional text…”2
So, they are looking to the constitution as the source of moral authority. The constitution has the final say.
And the constitution was…. written entirely by men.
In other words, instead of turning to women to make decisions about women’s bodies in 2022, lawmakers are turning towards the white men of 1787 to make decisions about women’s bodies in 2022.
And how did these moral authorities- our founding fathers- view women?
Great question. Let’s start with Thomas Jefferson.
Here are some quotes from Thomas Jefferson articulating his thoughts on women:
In a letter to his daughter Thomas Jefferson wrote,
“A lady who has been seen as a sloven or slut in the morning will never efface the impression she has made, with all dress and pageantry she can afterwards involve herself in...I hope therefore, the moment you rise from bed, your first work will be to dress yourself in such style as that you may be seen by any gentleman without his being able to discover a pin amiss.”
While in Paris he wrote of his distaste of French women talking about politics and then said,
“But our good American ladies, I trust, have been too wise to wrinkle their foreheads with politics. They are contented to soothe and calm the minds of their husbands returning ruffled from political debate. They have the good sense to value domestic happiness above all other.”3
When his eldest daughter was to be married he advised her,
“The happiness of your life now depends on the continuing to please a single person. To this all other objects must be secondary.”
Thomas Jefferson believed intercourse was medically necessary for the good health of a man4. His trail of lovers confirms this belief. Most notably, he had six children with Sally Hemings - an enslaved woman he owned.
James Madison as well had children with at least one enslaved woman he owned. Both Madison and Jefferson kept their affairs with enslaved women a secret during their life times. Both have since been confirmed by DNA tests.5
And if you are wondering what the founding fathers specifically thought about including women in the constitution, wonder no longer! John Adams articulates their thoughts in a letter exchange to his wife Abigail. Abigail wanted the founding fathers to include women in the “new code of laws” they were writing. She wrote,
“…by the way in the new Code of Laws… I desire you would Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If perticuliar care and attention is not paid to the Laidies we are determined to foment a Rebelion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation……such of you as wish to be happy willingly give up the harsh title of Master for the more tender and endearing one of Friend.”
In response, John Adams laughed at her and wrote that he, nor any of the men creating the new laws would not be giving up the title of Master over women any time soon:
“As to your extraordinary Code of Laws, I cannot but laugh……We have only the Name of Masters, and rather than give up this, which would compleatly subject Us to the Despotism of the Peticoat, I hope General Washington, and all our brave Heroes would fight.”6
And now let’s talk about Benjamin Franklin.
Sigh.
Here are a few quotes demonstrating how highly he thought of women:
“He that displays too often his wife and his wallet is in danger of having both of them borrowed.”
“An undutiful daughter will prove an unmanageable wife.”
“Never take a wife till thou hast a house (and a fire) to put her in.”7
Historian Thomas Foster believes Franklin had at least 15 illegitimate children.8
And my least favorite quote comes from a letter Benjamin Franklin wrote entitled “Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of a Mistress” where he suggests that when selecting a woman to have an affair with, men should choose an older woman because this “prevents ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.”
He tried to convince the young man that even though older women are “lank and wrinkled” having sex with them wasn’t all that bad (especially if you have a basket lying around you could cover her face with),
“….. because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part. The Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing and plump as ever: so that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to tell an old one from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey”9
Oof.
Animals that walk upright. That is what this framer and ratifier of the constitution thought of women.
And the picture is far, FAR worse for women of color.
Yet these are the men we are looking to in order to decide what to do with women’s bodies in 2022?
The reason Justice Alito writes that the original Roe v Wade case should be overturned is that it was “remarkably loose in its treatment of the constitutional text.”
It’s insulting that lawmakers care more about the treatment of the constitution than the treatment of women.
It’s infuriating that the road we must walk to get lawmakers to trust women is to convince them that the constitution thinks women should be trusted.
It’s absurd that for the past 200 years in order for people of color to gain equality in our legal system, their task was to use the constitution to convince lawmakers they deserve equality.
The writers of the constitution didn’t in fact see either women or people of color as deserving of equality. So why must our task be to continually convince current lawmakers that they did?
What if Women were put in charge?
But if you care about keeping abortion rates low at all costs, perhaps you think we need men to be in charge? Because they are good at it?
False.
Not only are the countries and states with the strictest abortion laws more likely to be run by men, they are also the ones with the highest abortion rates.10
The Guttmacher Institute found that
“In countries that restrict abortion, the percentage of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion has increased during the past 30 years, from 36% in 1990–1994 to 50% in 2015–2019.”
By contrast, “Between 1990–94 and 2015–19, the average abortion rate in countries with generally legal abortion declined by 43 percent.”11
How interesting. There seems to be a correlation between countries and states where women are allowed a seat at the table and those with lower abortion rates.
According to the World Health Organization, Mexico is currently the country with the lowest abortion rate in the world with only .1 abortions per every 1000 women12. Mexico is also a world leader in gender equality in politics- a full half of their congress is female.13
South Africa similarly has one of the lowest abortion rates in the world - 4.5 for every 1000 women per year14. It is also one of the world’s leaders in female representation in government. 42% of South African delegates are female.15
For contrast, the US currently ranks 15th for highest abortion rates16 and ranks 77th in female representation in government with only 23% of government officials being female.17
And abortion rates aren’t the only thing that improve when women are allowed a seat at the decision-making table.
A recent report from the Westminster Foundation for Democracy found that female-led countries have faired better in tackling COVID-19, at counteracting corruption, were less likely to go to war, less likely to commit human rights abuse, worked harder to represent their constituencies and yes, even strengthened their economy.18
When women are given a seat at decision-making tables, they tend to lead in equality, not in hierarchies and subjugation.
So, John Adams’s fear that if men ceased to be masters over women, they would be subjected to the “despotism of the petticoat” was an uneducated fear.
Melinda Gates sums this up so well in Moment of Lift:
“Gender diversity is not just good for women; it’s good for anyone who wants results.”
“It's the mark of a backward society - or a society moving backward - when decisions are made for women by men.”
“If you want to lift up humanity, empower women. It is the most comprehensive, pervasive, high-leverage investment you can make in human beings.”19
Who am I?
At the start of this article I said I wasn’t going to chime in on the Roe v Wade overturn. What changed my mind?
Just this: realizing that I, as a person with the ability to be pregnant, as a person who doesn’t want to have another baby, as a person who would very much like a say in what happens to my own tissue in my own body, am in fact FAR more qualified to weigh in on this issue than the male law-makers in charge of these national decisions.
If the slow, slow march of progress negates the possibility of granting women jurisdiction over countries and churches, the least we can do is grant women jurisdiction over their own body tissue.
Because as history shows, when women are allowed to make decisions, everyone benefits.
Source: A Global Look at Abortion
Source: Justice Alito’s initial draft
Source: The Humanist
Source: Sex and the Founding Fathers
Source: The Guttmacher Institute
Source: The Guttmacher Institute
Source: Women in National Parliaments
Source: Women in National Parliaments
Source: Women in National Parliaments
Source: Moment of Lift
Thank you so much for writing this. I imagine the research took quite some time to put this all together and it is powerful, well done! Those photos and the quotes from the founding fathers at the beginning...it makes my heart hurt. I just hope my indignation can serve as fuel to do SOMETHING that pushes for positive change.
😮💨💯