On November 7, the people of Ohio, like many other American states, were invited to vote in a referendum on the inclusion in the state constitution of an individual’s right to self-determination. its decisions on medical matters, including abortion. This comes more than a year after the setback at the Supreme Court over the ruling Roe v. Wadethus reviving a debate that many thought closed in North America.
I therefore wish to address all those who say that feminism, an ideological movement which by definition defends equality between men and women, no longer has any reason to exist. Although victory was won by the free-choice camp in Ohio, as in other states where such a referendum was held, it is still a debate that should not take place.
Here we are not referring to the question of the right to give life or not to give birth. It is about the right to have control over one’s body, to be autonomous. It’s about being able to make decisions for yourself and by yourself, as an individual, as a human being. It is the right to choose and decide. This is what feminism stands for: true freedom. This is not what the so-called freest country in the world does.
In the United States, the only freedom that the Supreme Court seems to defend is that of committing killings through the still permitted sale of semi-automatic weapons, despite the growing number of shootings in schools or in public spaces. You know, when women now go to Mexico to have an abortion (a country known for its conservatism for years), there is something wrong.
It is high time to stop taking for granted the rights we have, as women, but also as a society. Because today it is about abortion, but another day it could be about contraception or about freedom of expression itself.
Contrary to what many think, feminism is not there to ensure some sort of superiority of women over men, but to prevent our contemporary societies from transforming into a real Gilead, Margaret Atwood’s fictional society.