A slave’s condition – Dagsavisen

“The basis for all freedom is control over one’s own body and what is in it. The opposite is the condition of a slave.”

The words belong to our first and foremost abortion advocate Katti Anker Møller. On 18 January 1915 she gave the lecture The liberation of motherhoodwhich was about women having the right to have an abortion without being punished for it.

It was about freedom to choose how many children one wants. Freedom to decide over your own body.

Although Katti Anker Møller had her claim fulfilled in the end (it happened three decades after she died), this fight for freedom is by no means won forever.

Just ask American women. For 49 years, they had a constitutional right to self-determined abortion, through the Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade. True, many conservative states had done their part to make it difficult for women to get an abortion. But the right was there.

Now it’s gone. After Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022 by a Supreme Court consisting of a majority of pro-Trump justices, several states have introduced strict abortion laws.

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In Alabama, performing an illegal abortion is punishable by life in prison. The law, called the Human Life Protection Act, makes no exceptions for women who become pregnant after rape or incest. It applies from the moment of conception, and also states that frozen embryos are children. The law was passed in 2019, and was on hold until the repeal of Roe v. Wade. It is only if the fetus is not viable or if the woman’s life is in danger that abortion is legal.

It is frightening to read about the developments in the United States in the last couple of years. Fortunately, the situation is completely different here at home.

Similar laws have been introduced in several other states. In Ohio, a 10-year-old girl was denied an abortion after a rape. In Kentucky, a woman experienced the death of the fetus, but was unable to remove it. Both had to travel to states with more liberal abortion laws to get help.

In most states with abortion bans, it is those who perform the abortion, not the pregnant women, who are punished (some states punish both). This has led to uncertainty among health personnel about the definition of life being at risk – i.e. whether they are allowed to perform abortions in emergencies. If they interpret the law incorrectly, they risk several years in prison. Several media write about pregnant women who are denied healthcare.

In Idaho, the authorities believe that the abortion ban trumps a federal right to health care, and that consideration for the fetus outweighs the health of the pregnant woman. Thus, pregnant women are seen as “second-class citizens”, without the same right to emergency care as others, according to a spokesperson for the American Civil Liberties Union. The US Supreme Court was divided on this issue during a hearing last week.

To force women to bear children against their will is to make them slaves, Katti Anker Møller believed. In Hege Duckert’s biography of her – with the subtitle “To decide over life” – we can read about how the Swedish author and women’s activist Frida Stéenhoff pointed out that it would be particularly unpopular to fight for free abortion while the First World War was going on: “Now women give birth to as many children as possible, preferably boys, who can be sacrificed on the battlefield. ‘She will give birth to children without reasoning, he will die without reflecting.'”

Precisely this, believes the British journalist and author Angela Saini, is the very foundation of patriarchy, the social structure in which we live and which oppresses both women and men. The patriarchal society needs women who give birth to children, especially sons who will grow up to fight and defend the country, Saini points out in the book The Patriarchs. How Men Came to Rule. Abortion bans and restrictions are the patriarchy that tightens its grip on us.

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It is expected that right-wing populist parties will make a smashing success at the EU elections in June. Many of the parties want stricter abortion laws. Parties and groups on the left, on the other hand, emphasize the need to protect women’s rights. The abortion issue has become part of our time’s polarized political debate.

It is frightening to read about the developments in the United States in the last couple of years. Fortunately, the situation is completely different here at home. During the year, we will get a new abortion law in Norway. Most likely, the limit for self-determined abortion will be extended to 18 weeks. Half of the population agrees with that – the rest disagree or don’t know. An 18-week limit is still stricter than the WHO’s guidelines.

It is a good sign that far more young people than older people will raise the limit for self-determined abortion. At the same time, half of KrF’s voters (fortunately there are not that many) believe that abortion should only be legal when there is a danger to the life and health of the pregnant woman.

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Abortion bans have throughout history been used as a means of maintaining or increasing the population. We now live in a time where the world is preparing for war, while women are constantly told that we are giving birth to too few children.

Thus, it is appropriate to recall a famous quote by the French philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir: “Never forget that it only takes a political, economic or religious crisis before women’s rights are suddenly at stake.” Deciding over one’s own body – “and what is in it” – is one such right that is constantly at stake.

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