It Has Been 49 Years Since Roe v. Wade. Why Are We Still Debating This?

Why is a woman’s right to decide for her own body even a political debate at all? And what, for that matter, about other rights that have been given to the people in the 49 years since?

Ironic that Lady Liberty is a symbol of the United States when our country may as well be represented by the same gender — masculine — that seeks to control everything anyway. | andreas1977eu on Pixabay

The singular upside to not having sex with my husband — because believe me, there’s only one upside — is that I can’t possibly get pregnant.

This is good for two reasons: first, we don’t want to have children, and second, my cardiologist finally put me on a statin for my high cholesterol, which he was reluctant to do for years because I’m “of child-bearing age,” and if I were to conceive, “they’d be deformed.” All things he pointed out to me in my early 20s; I already knew then I didn’t want to get pregnant, though at the time I still acknowledged that may change. By now, I believe that if it were going to, it would have.

This isn’t a criticism against my doctor, because I know he must consider all possibilities and risks involved before prescribing a medication, but I do have to wonder, when did the health of a hypothetical child — one that hasn’t been conceived yet, does not exist yet — become more important than my own?