The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade is a travesty. A woman’s right to choose, her right to decide what happens to her own body, should be hers and hers alone. Regardless of the reason a woman makes the choice she does, the government should have no say in it. We do not live in The Handmaid’s Tale. Not yet.

A Woman Speaks Out

As a woman, I am outraged. In a country supposedly founded on religious freedom, six religious zealots have told women how to live their lives. To them, I am a vessel. Women are a lot more than that. We meaningfully contribute to the world in ways that go far beyond bearing children. We should be able to decide what happens to our bodies, just as a man does.

As a mother of a daughter, it crushes me that I had more freedoms than she will have growing up. I should spend my time encouraging my daughter to develop her talents and helping her build a life that makes her happy. We should look toward the future. Only now, I have to worry about a future where she has no control, a future where she does not have a right to choose if she is ever sexually assaulted or has an unexpected pregnancy.

As a physician, I fear for all women. So many will be at risk for health crises, both physical and emotional. Those without the means to travel to a state where abortions are legal will be forced to carry a child or could turn to desperate measures. Back-alley abortions may no longer be a thing of the past. The increase in maternal complications, and deaths too, will rise, and let’s face it, the United States already has a poor track record for that. If you didn’t know, the U.S. has a maternal mortality rate more than twice that of other developed nations. Yet, somehow, no funds have been put towards maternal care in light of the SCOTUS decision. Interesting, don’t you think? It’s almost as if women don’t matter at all.

10 Quotes About a Woman’s Right to Choose

Anyone outraged be these legal changes can relate to these 10 quotes. Yes, they add fuel to the fire but if that’s what I need to do to get people to the polls in November, that is what I need to do. Women’s rights depend on it.

1 — By Definition

Abortion is legal all over the world because a fetus without a cerebral cortex cannot think or feel before the 27th week. According to the CDC almost all abortions happen before the 13th week.

Oliver Markus Malloy

2 — Feminism

I believe feminism is grounded in supporting the choices of women even if we wouldn’t make certain choices for ourselves.

Roxanne Gay

3 — Fight Back

No woman should be told she can’t make decisions about her own body. When women’s rights are under attack, we fight back.

Kamala Harris

4 — Freedom

No woman can call herself free who does not control her own body.

Margaret Sanger

5 — Like a Man

You’re not really mad that I’m not having children.
In fact, I would probably love to one day.
You’re mad that I’m expressing autonomy of choice.
You’re mad that I’m considering other options.
You’re mad that I don’t view that as my ultimate potential.
You’re mad that I dare be selfish enough to make choices based on my best interest, something women are not supposed to do.
You’re mad that I consider it a choice, and that I, a woman, am exercising choice.
You’re not mad that I’m not having babies.
You’re mad because I’m acting like a man.

Alice Minium

6 — Maternal Health

You cannot have maternal health without reproductive health. And reproductive health includes contraception and family planning and access to legal, safe abortion.

Hillary Clinton

7 — Patriarchy

It’s the mark of a backward society – or a society moving backward – when decisions are made for women by men.

Melinda Gates

8 — Reproductive Control

The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

9 — Right to Choose

Women are not an interest group. They are mothers and daughters, and sisters and wives. They are half of this country and they are perfectly capable of making their own choices about their health.

Barack Obama

10 — Right to Privacy

If the right to privacy means anything, it is the right of the individual, married or single, to be free from unwanted government intrusion into matters so fundamentally affecting a person as the decision to bear or beget a child.

William Brennan

Share your favorite quotes about women’s rights.