Greetings, Senator X,
I urge you to support legislation that seeks to expand and protect reproductive rights and access to abortion in Nebraska and to vote against those laws meant to restrict women's reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.
Please Support:
LB 715: Ensure abortion care covered under health insurance
LB 716: Allow qualified practitioners to perform abortions
OPPOSE:
LB 781: Ban on abortion at 6 weeks
Bans against abortion belong in the Dark Ages. It is not the 'protection of innocent lives' that it claims to be but a mix of enforcing religious beliefs, punishing women for intercourse, and the overreach of trying to control others.
The idea of a fetal heartbeat at 6 weeks isn't medically accurate either. And women don't often know they are pregnant at that time, nor would it be easy to get an appointment when needed, because, hi, life has complications of work, travel, childcare etc to arrange.
A fetus/baby cannot live outside the womb at 6 weeks, so this ban is more of a "gotcha! You're pregnant and now you're trapped and have to give birth, whether you want to or not, because some stranger thinks you should!"
Bans against abortions do not prevent abortions. They endanger women's lives and needlessly create barriers to their lives and health when women should be empowered to make their own choices. Having children isn't something to take lightly and everyone should take all factors into consideration. It shouldn't be forced upon a person against their will. That's a violation of human rights and ludicrous.
I have no interest in what my rural neighbors (or anyone else) think about my decision to have or not have children.
I am concerned about the billboards I see around me that promote both religion and lies.
One says "Serve God - Ban All Abortions" which is a clear defiance of separation of Church and State and shows the anti-choice issue is tied to religion. We have freedom of religion in this country. If someone doesn't want an abortion, no one can force them to. But they can't force women to give birth because of their own religion. It's an absurd overreach.
Another billboard says something like "Birth Control Causes Breast Cancer" or some such fallacy. It's medically incorrect and inappropriate to advertise a lie meant to shame people who use birth control, which is used for much more than preventing pregnancy.
It's frightening and annoying to live where people spread lies and push their religion onto others' bodies. Nebraska shouldn't be stuck in the Dark Ages. People shouldn't be proud to flout their ignorance and subjugation of women.
Banning abortion endangers women. Banning abortion is forcing pregnancies upon women and can be a death sentence. Some women choose abortions for children they wanted so they can have chemotherapy for cancer and possibly stay alive for their other children. A ban on abortion means that the woman is less important in the eyes of others than the fetus she carries. But it isn't up to "others". It's each woman's choice. Period.
I'm so sick of having to defend bodily autonomy against people who don't care for children that exist once they are born. We don't have guaranteed maternity leave, like all other developed nations. We don't have universal health care, like all other developed nations and the cost of childbirth is astronomical, even with health insurance. We don't have universal child care, and child care is often more expensive than the income a woman makes because the minimum wage is abysmal. Even if we had all those things.... a woman still has the final say.
Banning abortions is a violation of human rights. Being forced to endure a pregnancy against one's wishes is criminal.
If a person doesn't want to donate organs after death, their organs cannot be harvested. So why should a woman be forced to give of her body against her will? Pregnancies carry their own short-term and long-term dangers and complications, including death. I honestly don't understand the entitlement people have when they try to force their beliefs upon others. Let others live their own lives and make their own choices.
This is supposed to be a 'free country,' so let women maintain the very basic right as to whether or not they continue a pregnancy.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. You can sense my frustration; protecting women's bodily autonomy should be a very easy concept and is all too often in danger from those who have no right to an opinion in the matter, due to their own misconceptions and it not being their body.
Sincerely,
X
