When reading through the online module about the film Children of Men, the character of Kee, who’s personhood is ignored as everyone focuses solely on the child she is pregnant with, reminded me of a recent occurrence in Ireland. An immigrant woman found out she was pregnant (as a result of rape) upon entering the country, and wished to have an abortion for cultural reasons, which was denied to her by the state who proceeded to force feed her when she attempted suicide, keeping her in hospital against her will until her child was delivered by c-section. This was clearly, done only with thought of the fetus/child in mind, the woman in question was viewed simply as an incubator; her emotional distress ignored and her bodily autonomy violated horribly. This is in the present day too; Ireland isn’t some sort of post-apocalyptic infertile society. That I’m able to draw this comparison is a reflection of how much work we have left to do in the fight for Women’s reproductive rights.
On another tangent, though the work of Dr. Henry Morgentaler and others like him lead to the legalisation of abortion in Canada, the fight for women’s access to abortion services is still a pressing issue today. BC has only 7 practicing clinics, 4 of which are located in Vancouver, this poses a huge geographic barrier for women living in rural areas who need to access these services – factors like taking time off work to travel, spending money on gas, the procedure itself and possibly overnight accomodation in Vancouver add up, making accessing abortion difficult even in this day and age. Furthermore, in the USA there has been a recent surge in laws restricting clinics from practicing abortions and thus greatly reducing access. This is the new pro-life strategy – if they can’t make abortion illegal, at least they can make it all but inaccessible.
I thought the online module gave a good overall look into reproductive rights with some interesting discussion points, though the discussion of the book The Handmaiden’s Tale was confusing without having read it, and how the slideshows lined up with the links on connect was also a bit confusing.