For those who never passed the US Government exam, be afraid. You can’t graduate high school. But don’t you worry, I’ll help you out with your next exam. Here is a super quick recap of one of the most vital Supreme Court Cases in women’s history in America: Roe v Wade. This case protected the right of a pregnant person to HAVE THE CHOICE of having an abortion without government restriction. 

Now, many of you might think, “Why do I need to know this? I don’t care about women.” And sure, you might have never felt the love of a mother or had a girlfriend, but if you care about having a future where you don’t find dead fetuses in the alley behind your house, or just graduating from high school, I recommend understanding why this is important.

Abortion is something that will happen no matter what laws are put in place. It will just happen in an environment that is unsafe and exploitative of people’s desperation. When people choose to have an abortion, it’s not with intention of killing. There are many reasons people seek out abortions. It might be because of an ectopic pregnancy—when a fertilized egg develops outside of a woman’s uterus—which causes severe bleeding and is incredibly life-threatening to the pregnant woman, if the embryo isn’t removed. Or it might be one of the 100,000+ reported cases of rape each year. Or maybe the person isn’t financially, mentally, or physically capable or ready to take care of children. Or maybe they just don’t want a baby. If you don’t care about what kind of environment the baby is growing up in after its birth, then you don’t care about life. In the end, it is up to no one else except the pregnant person to decide what to do with their body. 

In cases of miscarriages, there is a surgical procedure called dilation and evacuation which is used to remove the fetuses without heartbeats. Because this is the same medical procedure used for abortion, in states with restrictive abortion laws, it is almost impossible to find a doctor that will do it. So women either have to travel to a state with liberal abortion laws, or wait until they give birth to a lifeless baby. If the thought of not graduating high school doesn’t scare you, I hope this does. 

And for you folks who think abortion is murder, I think men with guns kill more than women with fetuses do, so why don’t we ban guns instead? Oh silly me! I forgot the old white men like that one. :/ 

Our elementary school teachers always reminded us to imagine ourselves in others’ shoes to understand their situations. So even if you don’t graduate high school, I ask you to absorb what your elementary school teacher told you and stand in women’s shoes before you side with the American government who stands in our uterus.