The Guardian on 25th June posts on its headline ‘Covid cases on the rise across UK as Newer variants dominate’. COVID is back again. Not that it ever left, but the numbers are big enough to get attention and to deepen our furrows in an anticipation of what it might result to. Like a bad juju. I don’t even allow myself to entertain the thought of going back to lockdown anymore.
It seems to be driven by BA.4 and BA.5 variants of omicron. The cases are mix. They might be quadruple, triple, double, single vaccinated or none at all. Still not as unwell as they were in first wave. Hence the behaviour of general public, ‘not a damn given’. Which is kind of good. Last thing we need is panic driven public in our road to slow steady recovery.
Not surprisingly The Guardian mentions ‘levels are highest in London and among those aged 25-34′. Work and social life isn’t it? Both my brother and sister have tested positive this week too. After all this time since COVID began for the first time. I know many people who have had now by 3-4 times already. My brother is fine, sister is down with terrible flu symptoms; is slowly recovering.
But, moving on from COVID, my attention this time is more focused on page 12th and the 13th of paper. As soon as I saw the headlines, it felt as though someone had slapped me across my face. ‘Biden warns of lives in danger as supreme court overturns Roe V Wade’, ‘Blood in their hands’ Doctors hit out at abortion decision.
There is a lot to follow in the news. For those who are having difficult time to grasp the head end or the tail end of it, I will just copy past a few lines I have been reading through from the same pages.
‘The US supreme court has overturned the landmark the Roe V Wade case, which granted women in the US the right to terminate a pregnancy.’
‘The court decided there is no constitutional right to abortion in a case called Dobbs V Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In reaching that decision the conservative-majority court overturned Roe V Wade, from 1973′.
‘As a result states will ban or severely restrict abortion.’
‘Twenty six states are expected to do so immediately, or as soon as practicable. This will make abortion illegal across most of the south and Midwest’.
Every women worldwide must have felt that. The slap, I mean. A force across her soft cheek by a sturdy rough hand with a brute force, aimed precisely to cover most of her face and with no doubt with an aim to disfigure her beautiful features. Including the queen.
It comes as shock even to us as health professionals. How a country like USA that is always on the lime light; a country of dreamers, forward thinkers, world leaders and entrepreneurs; that is an image of pinnacle of social acceptance, equality, diversity and freedom to the rest of the world, can make a decision like that. Like the British prime minister Boris Johnson says, ‘a big step backwards’.
In the UK , ‘abortion act 1967’ allows medical termination of pregnancy less than 24 weeks if continuation of pregnancy possess risk of injury to physical or mental health of pregnant woman or any existing children of her family, continuation would involve risk to her life and, there is a serious risk that if the child were to born it would suffer from such physical and mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped. Beyond 24 week, there are only limited and specific circumstances justifying it.
None of my male colleagues seem to welcome the idea either. So I am guessing the problem is not with gender bias or hatred of some form for opposite sexes. Yet why does it feel like the punishment was only to us? ‘Has anyone thought about teenage boys not ready to become fathers yet?‘ like my colleague rightly asks.
I hope women advocating for pro-life have strong reasons to stand their grounds because losing this battle is losing basic rights of freedom for all womenkind. Standing at this pivotal time, celebrating victory while marching a movement that will imprison and incarcerate us, our daughters and granddaughter and generations to come; let us pray that they have enough will to forgive themselves when the consequences of it, if not directly but eventually will find its way to them. Those eyes that are too full of self righteousness at present time, that refuses to see the tears and hear screams of underprivileged girls and women, while sitting behind white picket fences while enchanting lord’s name 20 times a day; feels traitorous to look at now.
A decision like that, made by a country like USA has a big impact in the world. It indeed has ripple effect. I cannot even imagine what dreadful events it will trigger in a cascade now, in countries where society is religiously and culturally male dominated. Where parents sell their daughters like goods to pay off debts, where marrying off your daughter is good riddance but with a big cost in the form of dowry to her husband, where women can’t drive, can’t pray in the same hall as men, where women have no right to decision who they can marry or can refuse, where rapes are happening everyday accepted culturally and religiously, and even if they are not; where women don’t have a voice, can’t stand their trial because society won’t let them- without hanging themselves down the ceiling motionless, cold and frozen before her perpetrator. Could be stranger, could be a friend, could be a father. Who cares. With decisions like this, they are the end results. These victims will never be able to run, never be able to ask for help again. As sad as it is, then, it wouldn’t be wrong to say, dogs are better treated than humans even in USA. Classed as second class citizens, women no longer have their basic right to their own body and to their own wombs. Somebody please reassure me that, there will still be access to contraception right?
Are we even allowed to chose our own mates then? That is one big question. Like some villages in Nepal, girls will be openly kidnapped, the acts will be romanticized by men, by society; they will raped openly on the streets. Men and boys will fight amongst themselves to decide who gets to force himself on her first to plant his seed. They know, she will bear him children. Abortion is illegal, what choice will she have. At least justice is done there with blood for vengeance if the intention was not to marry the woman?
What about mothers with babies with severe birth anomalies? No mother should be forced to watch their new-borns struggle for life whether it is just for few mins, hours, days or months. Definitely not to adulthood, completely helpless and dependent on her to sustain breath, suffering every moment of it, hating themselves and her for bringing them to the world in their cruel faith. What about those with still births?
Such a primitive mindset. You’d think with so much scientific developments, technologies, increased literacy rates – world would only move forward. No. Like my friend says agreeing to Boris. ‘We are going back’. ‘Back to no abortions, back to wars and back to plaques’. What is next, will every boys and men who have sired a certain number of children be nipped off?
Its outrageous how a group of bad politicians and their decisions can outstrip humans of their basic right of autonomy of their own bodies. How many among those decisionmakers were ones with uterus and fallopian tubes? If there were any, I am sure they would have considered that there will be rise in crime rates, consequently in girls seeking abortions in black markets, in dingy rooms with unsterilized equipment risking their lives. That mothers will once again grieve at birth of their daughters. And our tomorrows will be on hands of a generation who we’d have failed to protect from physical abuse, emotional abuse and life long neglect from their own mothers right? Is it so hard to see, what the result of their action will lead to? This is not just opinion we are talking about. We are talking about enforcing laws and affecting lives.
PS- Its a 100th post. I had set out that day– with an aim that I’ll stop once I post my 100th. One of those things i had to do from my ’things to do’. I had drafted when I was going through a little difficult time during COVID. And here it is! Any extra I write from here onwards will be a bonus work for myself. I congratulate myself for commitment. Thank you for being a part of this journey. 😁
Beautifulminds 