Sperry: Keep your hands off women’s rights

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France has passed measures to allow abortion. We have a ruling in Alabama that designates the right to personhood to a cell in a petri dish.

I grew up in the ’60s, when abortion was illegal. The only birth control was a diaphragm, the rhythm method or sexual abstinence. The only recourse for women unready for motherhood, if one had some cash, was a trip to Mexico or to a doctor in a Pennsylvania back alley.

Then came Roe v. Wade, and women finally had some control over “motherhood.” Now, with its overturn, we women are no longer able to make the decision to carry or not. We no longer have control over our bodies and their most intimate functions. In many states, abortions are unavailable even before we know we are pregnant (the so-called six-week heartbeat law). Fetal abnormalities, a major reason behind abortions for women ready for children, do not show up until 20 weeks or after. And now, reproductive health in general is in danger, including contraception. Even the use of mifepristone is under fire.

This loss of control over our bodies returns us to a time over 50 years ago, when we, in our sexual lives, were virtual slaves to men. From there, it is only a few steps to removing all our hard-won gains of the last century, including our right to vote. The solution: Keep the Republicans out of power.

Julia Sperry

Hockessin

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