Written by Chiara Gentile, she/her
In the year 2020, it may seem odd that there is a pro-choice society at the University of Glasgow. In Scotland, abortion is legal, contraception is free if you want it and the idea of having choice is a pretty well-acknowledged one. Ah, if only it were that simple.
Abortion stigma is still HUGE in society, making it even harder to discuss the ways in which services could be improved.
The reality is we are still quite far from that ideal society. It’s the classic situation where it isn’t simply about having choice, it’s about the quality of that choice. When we think of contraception we can immediately think of the drawbacks. Studies keep coming out about the effects of the pill on mental health, the issue with taking hormones, the pain that often comes with fitting in a more long-term contraceptive option such as the coil. If you have a penis, you have one option: condoms. Isn’t it fantastic that your one option is made of plastic and can break easily? No. Medicine can definitely hustle a little harder when it comes to sexual healthcare.
What about the options if you are pregnant? Abortion stigma is still HUGE in society, making it even harder to discuss the ways in which services could be improved. In the UK, you still need two doctors to approve the abortion. The experience one has when getting an abortion can be negative, with judgemental doctors and nurses and very little follow-up. Once we factor in the protests that can occur outside abortion clinics, that idea that we live in a pro-choice society seems quite abstract.
And that’s the case for white cisgender able women. Once we break down the discrepancies in service when it comes to people of colour, lgbtqia+ and disabled people, the issues simply amplify. Let’s add in citizenship status and wealth and we really can’t say that we live in a society where everyone has the same access to sexual and reproductive healthcare.
If you think we live in a society where it’s easy to have children, you are wrong. Not only is being pregnant a huge emotional and physical ordeal, it can be very expensive. The costs of having and raising a child are immense. In the capitalist nightmare we are living in where it’s profit over people, all the things that would make it easier to have children are just not feasible. Taking time off, getting full-pay when you are home, costs of nursery and day-care are just some of the hurdles. My dream essentially is to see a society that is centred around family planning- whether that involves choosing not to parent or choosing to parent.
Don’t even get me started on the recent waves of anti-choice propaganda. It really can feel like our reproductive rights are being threatened. Pro-life societies are popping up here and there at universities and with folk like Trump in the US and the abortion bans that happened last year, it feels a bit like the start of the Handmaid’s Tale.
The reality is, only 63 countries in the world (out of 196) have laws where abortion is legal. This is an issue that is massively stigmatised and it’s so important that we keep on talking about it. It is important that we have open-minded, non-judgemental conversations about the choices that are available. We need to keep campaigning to make changes so that we can strive for that ideal we take for granted.
We are excited at Glasgow Students for Choice to discuss these issues and to hear what you have to say on how things can be improved. We have so many exciting things planned, and we are really hoping we will smash some of that oh-so-tricky stigma at Glasgow Uni! And what better time to get going than in a global pandemic?
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