A word that elicits a range of emotions and responses, both negative and positive. It has also been the talk of the town since the controversial announcement of the overturning of Roe vs Wade in the US.
The significance of this decision not only had an impact on the US but also raised questions for developing countries striving to have such laws amended. With NGOs and women’s rights activists in Lesotho advocating for the decriminalization of abortion to protect the lives of women and girls who often undergo unsafe back doors abortions, the decision to overturn Roe Vs Wade is surely going to have spillover effects in smaller nations like ourselves. The message it sends home is not a positive one for women’s rights activists. BY: ’MANTSEBENG MAEPE
However, this is not an argument about Team Pro-life or Team Pro-choice. It is about the implication of these decisions on women’s rights. The overturning of Roe Vs Wade means that individual states are now free to make abortion illegal. This new development removed the (legal) shield that had prevented states from making ‘abortion’ illegal. Does this raise the question of whether women’s rights are regressing? Instead of progressing and attaining autonomy of the female body, we are going back to the pre-feminist era, where women were still fighting for their sexual and reproductive health rights.
