Abortion Policies in Texas Affecting Areas Across the Border
I listened to "Cross-Border Abortion Care" from Latino USA. The program was hosted by Maria Hinojosa and featured co-host Jamilah King. This segment also featured Lina-Maria Murillo, an assistant professor in Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies and History at the University of Iowa, and Veronica Martinez, a journalist covering gender and immigration. This program aired on September 28, 2021 but I am listening to it on October 25, 2021. While listening to this program I learned about the policies on abortion that were made in Texas as well as how Americans and Mexicans are reacting. Some things I liked about the program were that the women in this podcast did not really hold back how they felt about the injustices that they face as a result of these laws. They exercised their right to free speech to speak on a controversial topic. One thing I did not like about the program was the part where they said that "Anti-abortion laws are increasingly becoming critical to white supremacists' movements in the United States"(Latino 17:24-17:34). I did not like this part because of the fact that it feels like the United States is moving backwards by taking away rights for women.
 |
| A sign seen during a women's rights protest |
An article I read that I thought related to this segment was titled "Reproductive Rights or Reproductive Justice? Lessons From Argentina" by Lynn M. Morgan. This article covered some of the same topics discussed in the podcast. In the article, Morgan talks about how Argentina's history with women's reproductive rights and how they have been approached by Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and her administration. Though they had made plenty of other reforms in terms of reproductive and sexual rights, abortion had become a problem for both the administration and feminists. In Morgan's eyes, "Their inability to achieve this one important policy change was especially frustrating given that reproductive and sexual rights movements had achieved an impressive list of other reforms"(Morgan 139). I thought this connected to the segment because Argentina could be seen as similar to Texas in a way. Something different that I will point out is that Texas took away a woman's right to abortion whereas Argentina at the time was not giving them the right to abortion to begin with. However, both the article and the podcast show how women fought or are currently fighting for their rights in hopes to gain their right to choice.
 |
| The last abortion clinic in Missouri |
Overall, some key things that I found were that the ongoing fight for equality, for both gender and racial equality, is beginning to look like a struggle. For example, in the article an "angle used by the Argentine National Academy of Medicine in a 1994 national news advertisement stated 'Any legislation that permits abortion violates basic human rights'"(Morgan 140). If that was a stance taken in 1994, and there are still people who think this way today, then I feel like this ongoing debate over the right to have an abortion will cease to end. However, I think it is possible for women to achieve these equalities when they speak out as a group. Though Texas has made abortions illegal past a certain stage in the pregnancy, it could be argued that the law only really stopped safe abortions. Somewhat like how criminals find a way to get away with breaking the law, women will still find a way to get an abortion whether it is legal or not. For example, Maria Hinojosa stated in the segment that she lived through a time where women"would go to Mexico to get an abortion when abortion was illegal in the United States"(Latino 25:00-25:09). Though I am not in a position to make laws, I am a United States citizen so I will exercise my right to free speech to say that women deserve the right to choose whether or not they get an abortion at any time during their pregnancy.
Works Cited
"Cross-Border Abortion Care." PRX, Latino USA, https://beta.prx.org/stories/353402.
Comments
Post a Comment