This was originally written for a class about morality.
If we accept that women
have the inalienable human right to obtaining abortions, it follows that
nothing – including science – should be used to limit the scope of that right. Although
the law in the United States criminalizes abortion after the first trimester,
and many politicians seek to curtail even this short window of time, women have
the ultimate right to autonomy over their own bodies.
A fetus is only
potential life. Regardless of whether or not a fetus has personhood in any
sense doesn’t change the fact that one person has no right to use another
person’s body without his or her permission, as a fetus is doing in its
mother’s womb. Even if, for example, science makes it possible for a fetus to
be viable from inception, so long as it is part and parcel of the mother, she
holds the right to terminate or continue with the pregnancy.
As an Orthodox Jew, I
personally follow the halakha (Jewish law) that a woman may only have an
abortion if the fetus is posing a danger to her life or health. However, as a
feminist activist, I hold the belief that it is a woman’s right to have
abortion access without restrictions, regardless of how I would comport myself
in my personal life.
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