The Right to Choose: What Women Need to Know By Aimee_Belgard

As a woman, a health advocate, an attorney and as a candidate for U.S. Congress, I am proud to support a woman’s right to choose.

One year before I was born, in 1973, the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling affirmed the constitutionally guaranteed right to choose. However, fast-forward 41 years and reproductive rights have been exponentially eroded by elected officials who seek to impose their personal views on those they claim to represent.

Image Credit: Steve Rhodes, via Flickr

Ever since the right to choose became constitutionally protected, it has faced a multi-front assault. Today, outside groups, political pundits and, most disturbingly, elected officials, are going to great lengths to force their personal agendas onto women, in many cases, without regard to women's health or economic well-being.

Just this year, the House passed a 20-week abortion ban, while state legislatures throughout the country passed laws making it increasingly difficult - if not nearly impossible - to safely access an abortion, and anti-choice groups poured money into political campaigns, supporting candidates whose goals revolved around restricting access to abortion.

A study by the Brookings Institute found that taxpayers spend roughly “$12 billion annually on medical care for women who experience unintended pregnancies.” The same study found that high incidences of unintended pregnancies “impose costs on

American society that range from increased rates of crime and welfare participation to reduced levels of high school completion.”

Nonetheless, political extremism rages on. From touting falsehoods like “legitimate rape” to fanaticism so out-of-touch so as to deny a woman an abortion even in cases of rape and incest, it is clear that these politicians and their agenda are misguided.

With important midterm elections just around the corner the heated debate about restricting women’s reproductive rights forges ahead, propelled to a large extent by men elected on the claimed premise that government should play a smaller role in our personal lives. These politicians either don’t understand or don’t care how their own intellectual dishonesty affects women and their families. Either way, change is needed in Congress.

Adding insult to injury, these politicians have been aided by nonprofit groups posing as legitimate medical organizations – like so-called "crisis pregnancy centers" – who deliberately mislead women and who according to Planned Parenthood “have a history of giving women wrong, biased information to scare them into not having abortions.” 

When these outside groups and politics meld together, they present an unyielding threat to women’s health. This threat revealed itself recently when it was discovered that my opponent donated $24,000 to an organization known for utilizing psychological scare tactics against vulnerable pregnant women seeking medical advice. These lies are not just anti-choice, they are anti-woman.

Instead of denying women constitutionally-protected medical procedures, we must ensurethat women receive access to women’s healthcare services, including birth control, life saving cancer screenings and mammograms. Instead of risking women’s health, we shouldempower women to get the health care they need. Instead of limiting women’s rights, we must protect women’s rights. And that’s why it’s more important than ever that women get out to the polls in November to elect voices that will fight for them in Congress. In New Jersey's Third District, a district that has never been represented by a woman, I will be that voice.

http://www.blogher.com/right-choose-what-women-need-know?from=bhspinner