Sarah Morra (12) | STAFF REPORTER
Imagine a young girl, a poverty entrenched woman, a victim of assault, who is now having all previous identity stripped from her just to be replaced with the title of “mother.” She is not allowed to carry out her desired, ideal future for the sole fact that someone else believes her reproductive cells will turn into a human being, when they are not yet one. That is now all that society sees for her, a future that is being foretold. It is one that has not occurred yet, but throughout history has been forced onto millions of women and girls.
Abortion has been considered a privilege up until this point, one that can be taken away at any moment. Without considering the wellbeing of the woman herself, what is being taken into account is merely the opinion of the men in power and the status quo they are upholding. The state of a woman’s bodily autonomy is regressing in many countries such as the United States, though some women are fortunate enough to experience the progression of this matter in countries such as France.
Monday, March 4th, 2024 marks a day that grants women the constitutional right to abortion in France. France is the first state in the world to enshrine abortion within their constitution, taking the first step to bending the will of old cisgender white men who are still trying to encroach on women’s autonomous decisions. Against the wants of politicians across Europe and every other continent, France will, as it always has, take a stand for liberty and equality.
The Eiffel tower was illuminated with the letters “MON CORPS MON CHOIX.” (my body my choice). Politicians in France viewed this constitutionalization as in a way indebted to all the women who have had to suffer the consequences of the illegality of abortions, such as death, injury, and misconduct of illegal abortions. They are hereby presenting women of French society with the fundamental idea that “your body belongs to you,” as spoken by Gabriel Attal, France’s Prime Minister.
Some took the overturning of Roe v. Wade in the United States as momentum to light their hatred and contempt for women, allowing the shrapnel of this reaction to degrade any and all women around them. Many went along with this notion that just any person may dictate the actions and decisions regarding a woman’s body. Yet, France took this as an opportunity to go against exactly what was being proposed in America.
It is the hope of many that France, similarly to the United States, will spark an initiative for change across the world. However, unlike the U.S., it will elicit change that will grant women everywhere the right to an adequate quality of life, basic features of bodily autonomy, and freedom from the imposition of judgment. May we all work to allow women to maintain their identity and not be reduced to another’s choice.
