The vesselisation of the body for life

The issue surrounding abortion or terminating pregnancy has become news again now Trump and his party of senators filed a legislation that eliminated funding for planned parenthood. This move withdraws state funding of abortion clinics and makes it a state decision to even allow abortion clinics to run.

So if the state you live in says no, you'll have to jump on a bus or a plane to a state that'll have you. A little like what people with unwanted pregnancies have had to do in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Ardent pro-lifers believe this ban/elimination of abortion clinics will make egg bearers think twice before they... have sex? And If they do get pregnant and are beyond the pill's reach, the pro-lifers expect this ban to make them come to realise that the sanctity of life carries more weight than freedom of choice and quality of life. That in the end once the baby is born, all will work out well.

The sanctity of life campaigners and the act of banning abortion turns those who can give birth into mere "vessels" for which life form must pass through at all cost. Yes, there are rules stipulating when abortions are allowed such as physical or mental stress to body or in the traumatic incidents of incest or rape...

Imagine having been raped and then having to report it to the police, then having to report it to the clinic before they can terminate the pregnancy for you. Imagine the extended trauma it'll take to confirm the minutia.

Being a vessel deletes all experiences, social status, self-awareness and self-care. As if pregnancy wasn't public enough, banning abortion literally gives a person's body up to the state. It's like a very very intrusive version of Theresa May's spy laws. In any pro-life belt there are pro-life stazi ready to report wanna be aborters or those who have done already. Because serving time is what they deserve and because, after travelling to another country and going through such an invasive procedure, they owe the world absolute silence when dealing with the stigma.

Now if they had had the child, the sea of pro-lifers would've provided a steady bed of support and love and aid and...

would they?

The pockets of pro-lifers do not fill with cash once abortion is abolished. Most will have to continue with their own struggles and leave the struggling parents to deal with this new life all by themselves.

Pro-lifers have this maniacal suspicion that scores of carefree people would callously jump at the chance of having an abortion once it is provided for by the state. Some might argue that such a scenario is better than having scores of people giving birth in the most undesirable situations where the future seems very bleak.

Perhaps pro-lifers need to research the times when child birth was a huge killer of women and there was little to no contraception or medical advances to deal with the complications of birth. How life-saving would it have been for the technology of family planning to have existed for that generations?

The idea that potential parents should continue making life threatening sacrifices to preserve the sanctity of life is tantamount to sending fields of soldiers to die for a sovereign state. 'Taking one for the team' as it were. There are countries that look upon people who want to terminate their pregnancy the same way deserters were once looked upon at a time when conscription wasn't an option.

Struggle and die at childbirth or struggle to raise the child and have the world award you with the badge of parenthood. And your son, if you have one of those, would get suspended from school for fighting someone who mentioned – not your real name – but your generic nom de guerre.

Those who can give birth have been given many super hero qualities. Such as innate maternity, innate survival instincts, innate ability to stay at home day in and day out raising the child mostly alone. But nobody speaks of abortion as a human instinct that has been aided by the advent of modern technology. The world has struggled to gift that kind of power to those who can give birth. We'd rather gift those who can't give birth the safe spaces to order wars and build walls.

And whilst the leader of the free world is shabby, inexperienced and childish in every way, pro-lifers demand that every person with the potential to bare a child must be extremely organised, intelligent, moral, unstressed and have or grow a deep will to have the child.

This fails to surprise when history books and monotheistic religions are full of bloody wars between a specific gender, but very brief or miss out on the other type of bloodshed amongst the lives of those who carry 'sacred life'.

The right to a state-funded abortion is as necessary a human right as the right to a free education. Because we exist in a world of near misses and uncertainties and having such institutes available is the least our community can provide. Contraception isn't yet 100%. here's a list of 24 reasons for the 24 week's abortion period. Facts rarely mentioned by the pro-lifers who prefer to send their message across using emotive statements and joining together contradictory words such as 'unborn' and 'child'. (the age of early childhood is 3 to 8 and early infancy is from birth to two years old).

Would it be unfair to compare the campaigners and law makers who take away the rights of child bearers with people from indigenous villages who are pro-FGM? Another routine that vesselises the human body. Would it be mad to compare pro-lifers to people who arrange for their young daughters to marry an older man? Making them vessels for a business transaction.

The well attuned NHS 'Choices' page on abortion describes the level of autonomy 'vessel' need to be given worldwide regardless of religion or morals;

Soon, I hope, there will come a time when abortion is talked about as freely as other political issues, without the burden of shame already present because of our ability to bring life to the world, but exacerbated by the current narrative of world psyche. And abortion clinics will be designed in the same considered manner as ante-natal clinics. And it'll be a criminal offence to camp outside these clinics whilst child poverty is on the rise. 

Written by
Chima Nsoedo