Abortion: It’s not nor should it ever have been a state’s right

Saying that abortion should be a state right is the same as saying slavery was a state right.

When slavery was a state right, what it meant was that a black person was only a person if he/she lived within a particular political/geographical border. One foot in one state, you were property, one foot in another state, you were a free citizen.

We have rightly determined that is wrong.

A woman is a woman no matter what state she resides in. Her biology does not change when she crosses the Texarkana line. Her rights over her body should not be determined based on geography.

I live in Washington State currently. There are all kinds of laws that are specific to Washington State. Like Port issues, or border issues, or how much the cost of gas is and how much it should be taxed. All these issues are driven by the geographical uniqueness of the state. When I lived in Florida, building codes were different than in Kansas because Florida gets hit by hurricanes. Kansas doesn’t. Whether to drill for oil in Florida is a state issue, because the ramifications are unique to Florida. If certain produce is not allowed through Washington State because it is prone to carry an insect specifically detrimental to the Washing State apple industry, that is an appropriate state right.

State rights should be issues that are unique to the state. Laws against murder are a state right. Does anyone honestly believe that if a state were to remove all its statutes against murder, that we would still consider it to be a state right? Hell no. We’d be passing a federal statute faster than Congress and the President passed the law for Terri Schiavo. The only reason we haven’t, is that no state has made it an issue for us to address.

I am a woman no matter which state I reside in. And my rights as a woman should not change depending on which state I happen to be in.

It is a no brainer in my mind that abortion is and should remain legal across the entire United States of America. It is no one’s business but my own what happens in my uterus. I am not going to say what I think of abortion. Because legally speaking, that doesn’t matter. Each time a woman decides to have an abortion, it is her life, her body, her choice. I may or may not agree with it. But laws are not (or should not be) made on the basis of my feelings. The instant someone says that a fetus has a right to life, you have taken away a woman’s rights. If the fetus has a right to life, the woman doesn’t. And if the fetus has a right to live, the woman is robbed of any right to make any choice that might imperil the potential of that fetus’s right to live. Because all fetuses are really only potential. Until they are birthed, they cannot be separated from the woman’s body.

Take the feelings out of it, and abortion becomes a question of rights only. I understand the feelings. I really do. But feelings don’t make laws. This country has felt so many things that we look back upon with revulsion or giggles. The human race has felt so many things we know are horrific or ridiculous. That’s why feelings have no place in this debate.

And to call abortion a state right is a smoke screen. Any pro-lifer who says abortion is a state right merely hopes that if they get their way, they can pressure most states to pass anti-abortion laws. Any pro-choicer who says abortion is a state right (and yes, I know some of these) are only doing so is because if the legal right to an abortion is overturned in SCOTUS, they want a safe haven for women somewhere.

But neither side really believes this is a state right. Can we drop this lie, please?