Column: This Side of The Fence; Alito’s confirmation cause for concern among U.S. women
With Samuel Alito’s confirmation to the Supreme Court all but guaranteed it’s time for the women of the world to start worrying … and I mean a lot.
The battle on abortion rights has stepped beyond the fight between conservatives and liberals, beyond Democrats and Republicans, and beyond anti-abortion and abortion rights activists. It is something that could reverse all the progress women have made in becoming equals.
The reversal of Roe v. Wade would be the death of feminism and it’s a painful one.
Whether you agree with abortion or not is not really the issue here. Abortion is a moral dilemma. It is something each person must decide for themselves by whatever means they see fit. In most cases, this is where religion comes into play.
Religion is a freedom provided to the people to assist them in making these kinds of choices. Every religion, no matter the denomination, develops a moral code of conduct detailing which actions are good and which are sinful, and the people are free to choose and practice whatever religion’s code best fits their standards and beliefs. That is the purpose of religion, but not the purpose of government.
Government cannot dictate which choice should be made, but, instead, must protect the choice itself. Government cannot play God.
It’s understood there is fine line here. Laws must be created and enforced in order to protect the country, the people, and to maintain order. Murder, theft, rape, etc. must be illegal to keep the people’s inalienable rights safe and allow government to have a role in our lives.
Government provides a basic and very reasonable set of rules the entire country can follow with little complaint – meaning you won’t find many people who think rape should be legal. Even though some of these issues could cross over into moral reasoning, they still fall into reasonable areas government can restrict.
In fact, abortion is much the same. Roe v. Wade doesn’t allow free range abortion. It sets forth a reasonable guideline for the people to follow. Stepping out of those guidelines makes the act illegal, but choices within them are subject strictly to the moral code.
The precedent does not question the goodness or rightness abortion. It simply protects the choice up to point where it starts invading on the rights of others.
This is the role government should be playing: protect the freedom of the individual until it starts to affect the freedom of the people or other individuals. Outside of this role government stops being effective and starts being restrictive.
The battle for abortion should be especially concerning for women, and not only for the obvious reasons. Women have had the right to vote for less than a century. They have had equality in the workplace for even less time. Feminism is a new thing in this country.
Though there are very few women alive today, if any, that can remember when women were completely dominated and had no choices, it is important for all women to realize there was a time when that truly was the case. There was a time when women had to fight for fairness, for equality, and for the right to choose what was best for them without being shunned or ridiculed, persecuted and abused without any protection from the government.
It’s stunning that women are at all willing to give it back.
It’s easy to understand an aversion to getting involved in a moral debate. Sometimes it’s hard to determine the right answer and even harder to settle on it. But this is not a moral debate. This is one of the largest political debates in history. Politicians have taken women’s right to choose and are playing catch, batting it around like cat’s do with trapped mice.
But politicians have forgotten their place. They are not the hunters, seeking to eliminate immorality from the country. They are the protectors, there to keep morality from crossing into the extreme, like with Hitler and the Christian Crusades, when it starts to infringe on others rights.
As hard as it is sometimes, the people must have the right to choose – that includes women and abortion. Even though some may hate it, in order to protect their right to not participate, they must also being willing to protect the right to participate, whether we think it’s morally sound or not. As long as it doesn’t cross the line of reasonability, we must let God be the judge as to whether it’s wrong or not. Government cannot take his place, and it shouldn’t be allowed to try.
Mikaylie Kartchner is a senior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to mikayliek@cc.usu.edu.