Roe v. Wade: the Supreme Court case legalizing a woman’s right to choose abortion has been around our entire lives. In 27 years, memories of back alley clinics have faded – the past is past, right? Wrong. It’s too soon to start taking reproductive freedoms for granted. The next president will appoint two or three Supreme Court justices, potentially changing the Court’s position on this pivotal case. George W. Bush supports the Republican call for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortions; do you think he, if elected, would appoint pro-choice justices?
And why is it that while the majority of Americans support choice, the majority of Congress votes anti-choice? Are we supposed to just stand by and watch as the government tries to legislate our bodies? We as students play an important role in this struggle, both as advocates for choice and as people deserving control of our futures and reproductive capacities. One million American teenagers become pregnant each year, and 78% of pregnancies in American women aged 18-19 are unintended.
Over one third of women said that their reason for having an abortion was that having a child would interfere with attendance at school; over a quarter said they could not afford to support a child because they were a student or about to become one. Studies also show that women over 25 earned on average $12,897 if they went to high school but had not graduated versus $31,071 if they had a bachelor’s degree.
The reality is clear: students need choice and women need education. (http://www. hoiceusa. org/facts03. html) And yes, you can do something: Your voice does count in the political process; you can affect social change. Anything you do will help: get informed, speak up about your pro-choice views, vote, fight the stigma on sexuality, write to elected officials, practice safer sex, work with Stanford Advocates for Children to obtain free child care for every Stanford student and employee, and join Students for Choice in our fight for reproductive freedom for all.
Freedom of choice means having power over when, whether, how and with whom you have sex; seeing the connections between misogyny, racism, class oppression, homophobia, HIV-related discrimination, and opposition to reproductive rights; and supporting everyone’s reproductive choices – nuclear families, alternative families, single parents, dual-income households – to make every child a wanted child.
