You My Trapped Queen
Growing up with a single mother in a household with strong Mexican values, the fear of an unwanted pregnancy was real. I could still hear my mom saying “imagine if you or one of your sisters were to come out pregnant. People would say I knew they would come out pregnant because they don’t have a dad.” She feared the cycle, she witnessed growing up. The never ending cycle of children born to young mothers end up being young mothers themselves. She always lectured us about unwanted pregnancies, as if it was a life or death matter, as if we had no options. At the time, I didn’t believe her, but now I understand that she was right. Women are trapped. Not only are they ostracized socially and culturally, but their government is against them too.
In Dawn Porters short film, The Racial Politics of Abortion, we get to see firsthand how the infamous TRAP laws are affecting the lives of woman of color around the country. The Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers is making it impossible for doctors to practice. As seen in the docu-series, reproductive healthcare providers are at the frontlines of the controversy. In the film, we see protesters verbally harassing Dr. Parker a …. Physician, that travels around the South to provide woman with reproductive health services. There is a lack of physicians that are trained to perform abortions and those that do have the training are unwilling to travel or move to areas that need them. This is ironic because according to the Center of Disease Control, black woman have abortion at a 5 times higher rate than white women. And well, there is an endless amount of reasons this is occurring, the Center of Disease Control attributes it to black women having less access to reproductive healthcare, lack of education, and income disparity. To think, that if woman of color had more access to reproductive healthcare there would be less of a need for physicians to perform abortions. And if the Center of Disease Control has identified the factors that are influencing the demand for abortions then why further perpetuate the issues.
That is exactly what the TRAP laws have done. They have made the circumstances harsher for woman of color. If the issue is income disparity then why is the government banning State funds, employees, and facilities for abortions, deepening the financial burden for woman. As witnessed in The Racial Politics of Abortion, a young woman of color traveled 10 hours from Mississippi; she is already struggling living on government assistance. She paid $600 dollars out of pocket to have her abortion. If one of the factors is access to reproductive healthcare services then why is it that in a State as large as Texas there are only 19 out of the 40 clinics that existed prior to the Texas HB2, that offer abortions. The real issue here is apparent. Women are trapped by the government. It creates the problems for young women of color to fall into and then when they try to find a solution those same regulations limits their power.
Is this straight out of a dystopian novel, well that’s exactly what it is. We can see our ridiculous laws play out in The Hand Maid’s Tale. In the series, we see a society much like ours, where woman are less than second class citizens, a slave to society and government. Small populations, of women are selected to be nothing more than procreation machines. Much like poor woman in our society that have no voice and are victims of the laws set in place to control them. In The Hand Maid’s Tale, we see powerless, voiceless woman afraid to have an opinion because of fear of judgment from others in their society. This can be comparable; to the fear a woman faces, when speaking up about the need or the want to have an abortion. In Dawn Porters docu-series, we see a young woman in tears as she talks about her shame, and how she believes that she isn’t a good person because of her need of an abortion. If the topic of abortion wasn’t so controversial, it would open up the lines for communication about the subject. Woman would be able to see that abortions are more common than we are lead to believe. About 1 in 3 women will have had an abortion by the age of 45. 59% of those women are already mothers.
This is the reality that we are living in, comparable to a dystopian series, real enough to affect woman’s lives. Are we forever subjective to the pressures of society or are we willing to change the way we think about women’s reproductive healthcare to save women’s lives and change things for the future generations of women. Why should white males tell women of color what to do with their body? That is the question that we will keep having to ask ourselves until women are free.
