OPINION-- Abortion rights: The new American crisis

Matt Manning
·4 min read
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“These are the times that try [womens’ bodies in the courts of public opinion.]”

The promise of America and the reality of America have never matched up to the extent we’ve deluded ourselves that they have. Since the founding of this nation, we’ve exalted life while extinguishing the lives of those standing in the way of Manifest Destiny. We’ve shouted “Liberty!” while trafficking and commodifying kidnapped peoples. We’ve trumpeted the pursuit of happiness to the world while muting the cries of the downtrodden within our own borders. We have not been who we say we are.

Abortion rights activists dressed as characters from "The Handmaid's Tale" protest the anti-abortion bills in the rotunda of the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, in May. AP File Photo/Austin American-Statesman, RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL
Abortion rights activists dressed as characters from "The Handmaid's Tale" protest the anti-abortion bills in the rotunda of the Texas State Capitol in Austin, Texas, in May. AP File Photo/Austin American-Statesman, RICARDO B. BRAZZIELL

And yet again, we find ourselves in unnecessary Paine (à la Thomas), amidst another American crisis. A crisis that once again tells women they are not full, autonomous citizens imbued by their Creator with the unalienable right to control their own lives and decisions. This, of course, is nothing new; but it’s exceedingly hypocritical and all the more disgusting the longer time marches on.

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You really mean to tell me that in 2022 we STILL think we can tell anyone, let alone over 50% of the population, what they can do with their bodies, especially when, as Forbes reported in May of 2021, 80% of Americans support abortion in “all or most cases?!” The myriad of medical arguments notwithstanding, who on Earth do we think we are to tell women they cannot make the most intimate decisions about their own lives and families?

Your beliefs on life, when it begins, and who creates it, do not give you license to determine the decisions others will make in theirs or the options available to facilitate such decisions. The fact that Roe is rooted in the right of privacy is merely a judicial acknowledgment of the spirit of the iconic Gadsen flag, exhorted since our nation’s infancy: “DON’T TREAD ON ME.” Medical decisions are the sole choice of the woman involved. Not you or anyone else.

Beyond this indisputable truth, we cannot allow the notion of “choice” to be both a barrier and battering ram at the same time. We cannot be in favor of “choice” when it comes to where we send our kids to school; what they’re taught at school; whether we follow scientific principles in the midst of a pandemic and follow best practices; or decide to call an insurrection an “insurrection,” and then full-throatedly divest women of the right to choose what to do with their bodies.

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Two things can be true at the same time. Abortion is and can be a more difficult ethical and philosophical debate to have than with respect to other choices and we can also respect that no matter where we fall on the issue, we have no right to decide such important matters for others.

Most importantly, we can understand that even if we don’t agree with another person’s choice, WE CAN AGREE THAT THEY HAVE A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO MAKE IT, AND THAT WE DON’T HAVE A DUTY TO MAKE THE SAME CHOICE. That’s what infuriates me most about the entire debate: the idea that a medical procedure available to someone else somehow materially affects your life. Well, it doesn’t. Full stop.

We need to stop the madness and remember that politicians and Supreme Court justices WORK FOR US. WE DO NOT WORK FOR THEM. When over 50% of the nation believes this is a right women should have, we should be offended when our political processes deny women that right.

Women have the sole right to make their own medical decisions. Not because they’re your wife, sister, mother, daughter, friend, etc.— or some other way you convince yourself that their proximity to you, rather than them being living, breathing human beings with the natural right to control their own destinies, should afford them the right to choose what happens with their bodies. No, it’s because they exist and their bodies are theirs, not yours.

Matt Manning is a lawyer and true believer that Constitutional protections must be fought for with ceaseless vigor. He can be reached at matt@wcctxlaw.com.

This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: OPINION-- Abortion rights: The new American crisis