Anna Cox is a first-year English major from Paragould

On Jan 1. 2023, Arkansas House of Representatives first proposed bill 1174. This bill is just another nail in the coffin for women in Arkansas, as we could potentially lose what little is left of our right to abortion. 

The bill describes new rules on abortion, effectively banning all abortions, with women risking a homicide charge if they were to seek one out. 

It also creates new definitions such as “Unborn Child,” which according to the bill “ means offspring of human beings from conception fertilization until birth.”

However to fully understand the bill, one must first understand what an abortion is and why it might be done. According to Mount Sinai Health System, an abortion could be performed for any number of reasons, such as not wanting to go forward with your pregnancy, the baby has a genetic or birth defect, the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest or the prenancy is harmful to your health.  

Mount Sinai then describes what some of the risks are from having an abortion: infection, damage to womb or cervix, uterine perforation, excessive bleeding, scarring and many more possible complications. For the pill, much of the same symptoms apply. 

All of the risks are only a risk to people with uteri. A person without one cannot have an abortion; they cannot take on these risks, and so they should not make rules that determine whether a woman can go through with this procedure. 

Honestly, if they would like to patrol the right to children, they should handle it on their end and require mandatory vasectomies. 

Arkansas legislation makes an abortion seem like it is not a hard experience that women go through. It is not about protecting unborn children but rather controlling women’s bodies. The bill purposely uses confusing terms so it is harder for anyone who wants to oppose it to do so. 

The bill also refers to human life being created in the image of God, which many citizens, not believing in the Christian God, may not agree with. Do we not live in a country where there is a separation of the church and the state?

Women deserve the right to make their own medical decisions. When a woman goes through her period, is that killing a child? According to Peace Health, women can shed a fertilized egg if it does not implant, starting her period.  

It is concerning how the three main sponsors of this bill are men. Men who do not bleed every month, have never had a uterus and who were not raised to, at all cost, act like they are not in extreme pain each month.  

Additionally, men do not suffer from the same sexual violence statistics that women do. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said “One in 4 women and about 1 in 26 men have experienced completed or attempted rape. About 1 in 9 men were made to penetrate someone during his lifetime. Additionally, 1 in 3 women and about 1 in 9 men experienced sexual harassment in a public place.” 

While boys and men do suffer from sexual assaults, they do not experience it to the same degree girls and women do. It is not only wrong but simply ignorant to make an abortion harder when women suffer so much already. 

If someone were to get raped and then told they couldn’t get an abortion because they waited too long while processing trauma, that is simply unacceptable. 

On Jan. 31 the Judiciary House Committee plans to meet. Their meeting would include the conversation about whether or not to pass this bill, however, due to inclement weather this date could change. 

Lawmakers are not in their position to make people suffer. They should be focusing on the bigger struggles in our state such as homelessness, education, the foster care system and teen pregnancy. Instead of focusing on sperm, lawmakers should focus on the living, breathing, suffering children and keep their grimy hands off of womens bodies.

Categories: Opinion