States are beginning to charge pregnant women with crimes for getting an abortion as more and more laws treat a fetus as a living human being and women as less of one. Additionally, a Supreme Court draft was recently leaked, revealing that Roe v. Wade may be overturned, meaning abortion would no longer be protected by the federal government.

The debate on abortion has long separated our country. Those who consider themselves “pro-life” believe the government is obligated to protect all human life and that even a nonviable human life is sacred. On the other hand, “pro-choice” supporters favor keeping abortion legal and accessible, claiming that the government should not interfere with an individual’s decision to terminate a pregnancy before viability.

The Supreme Court’s landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 protects abortion from excessive state restrictions, which was supposed to be just the beginning of the fight for women’s autonomy. Instead, women are forced to fight for their autonomy time and time again as anti-choice politicians and institutions chip away at abortion rights.

Today, women are protesting throughout the country after a Supreme Court draft that would overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked. In the event that the draft is finalized, abortion rights may no longer be protected by the federal government, which would enable states to create stricter abortion laws.

We are living in the 21st century and yet, a panel of predominantly white males, who are among the people least impacted by abortion laws, are deciding what women get to do with their bodies. Men have no right to police women’s bodies. We are supposed to be progressing and becoming more open-minded as a society, so shouldn’t women be receiving rights and not losing them?

In 2021, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill that would prohibit abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy — a time when most women don’t realize that they are pregnant. Additionally, starting on July 1, Florida will ban all abortions after 15 weeks, with no exceptions for incest, rape or human trafficking.

These laws are cruel and heartless measures that strip women and girls of their constitutional right to privacy, autonomy and proper reproductive healthcare. Moreover, those who support abortion only in cases of sexual assault, such as proponents of the Florida bill, are reinforcing that in order for a woman to have any rights regarding her body, someone must violate it first.

There is absolutely nothing “pro-life” about forcing people to give birth against their will. It is emblematic of an extremist patriarchal ideology where women are deemed too inferior to make decisions for themselves.

Abortion isn’t a privilege; it’s a right. Abortion shouldn’t be a political matter; it’s a private matter and should be a decision solely for the person carrying the child to make. Women are humans, and like other beings, women should have the right to bodily autonomy. The right to a legal abortion means recognizing a woman is a person and that she belongs solely to herself. By prohibiting abortion, the government not only robs her of her ability to make her own choices in regards to her body and her family, but also strips her rights as a human and lowers her value in the eyes of the legal system. A woman can never be considered equal if she is denied the basic human right to make decisions about her own body.

Additionally, criminalizing abortions doesn’t achieve its primary goal of stopping abortions. It simply makes abortions riskier. In contrast to abortions carried out by a medical professional, unsafe abortions have fatal consequences. According to the World Health Organization and Guttmacher Institute, unsafe abortions are responsible for 13% of maternal deaths worldwide and lead to millions of women being hospitalized for otherwise preventable disabilities. That’s not saving anybody’s life. The Supreme Court potentially overturning Roe v. Wade shows that the government is attempting to normalize a society where women have no rights or proper reproductive healthcare.

If the abortion bans are “pro-life” as they say they are, they also need to consider the life of the mothers and countless women being robbed of their right to make their own decisions. These women include those who don’t have the financial resources to give birth to a child, who want to prioritize their education or careers before having a child or who simply aren’t ready to care for and support another human being. If Roe v. Wade is overturned, the federal government will no longer protect women, and for the first time in history, our generation will have fewer reproductive rights than our mothers or grandmothers did under Roe v. Wade.

These are our rights, and nobody has the right to tell women what they get to do with their bodies — now, or in the future.