Abortion laws vary around the world in terms of availability and consequence. In some parts of the world, women face up to three years in prison for receiving an abortion. There is also growing evidence that prohibiting abortions is highly dangerous. It is important to point out that many of the countries that ban abortions do so base on religious beliefs, which is why, for most other things, there is a separation of church and state; keeping people objective is crucial to a high functioning society. So what exactly can happen to women who end a pregnancy?

In some more restrictive regions of the world, women can face up to thirty-five years if they are found to have had an abortion. Such is true in El Salvador where 27 women were found guilty and sentenced to 30 years.  Some women have even been found guilty and were sentenced for having a miscarriage, the longest sentence being three years. In El Salvador, a woman by the name of Maria Teresa Rivera was sentenced to jail time for having a miscarriage, a totally unplanned loss of the child she was carrying. (“Abortion laws around the world: from bans to easy access”)

It is becoming increasingly clear how dangerous it can be to deny these procedures to women. In the state of Texas between 100,000 and 240,000 women have had to perform dangerous, and in some cases deadly, home abortions. Every year 42 million women worldwide chose to abort and nearly half of these are unsafe. Some 68,000 women die annually due to complications from at home abortions,(“Abortion laws around the world: from bans to easy access”) with 97% of these at home abortion being performed in developing countries with strict abortion laws. (“Report finds nearly half of all abortions worldwide are unsafe”)

Most abortion laws are determined with religion in mind. They also happen to be put in place or voted in by men, this is true in the US where women only make up 24.5% of the state legislature (“Women in State Legislatures 2018”). Women rarely have the say over their own bodies, which violates bodily autonomy. Bodily autonomy means a person has control over who or what uses their body, for what, and for how long. It’s why you can’t be forced to donate blood, tissue, or organs, even after you have died. So when men are making laws in regards to women, even if it is based on religion, they are not only violating the separation of church and state, they are also affording women fewer rights than a dead body.

    In the world we live in today, so many things are temporary. Laws that we see today limiting people will change and evolve as society evolves. When faced with adversity people always find a way. With women being discriminated against in this way, their freedoms are being limited. They are being denied the right to make decisions for their own bodies. They can be punished for doing what they want with their own bodies and, if you look at all of the protests, they will not stand for it.