Woman Studies

I believe that women have the power to make decisions relating to their whole self which includes their mind, body and soul. I believe that women have the strength to go against the political movement in turn for their rights as a human being. I believe that women have the ability to determine their own reproductive destiny. Despite my beliefs and those of many others, many states have enactedrefusal clauses in response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe vs. Wade, which resulted in a severe limit in the state’s capability to prohibit abortion. These laws state that a physician has the ability to refuse to carry out an abortion, if the act goes against their religious beliefs. Somehow that message has transcended into the pharmacists actions. Contraceptives such as birth control,condoms, and Plan B have been held from distribution to the public. [ (Collective Voices, 2009) ]
Disregarding practices that the United States preach to their youth about safe sex and the formidable reality of sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS, by withholding contraceptives not only are pharmacists carrying out their right for religious freedom they are denying women their right tochoose whether to bear or not bear a child. Regulating reproductive choices of women is a central act of gender oppression in the United States resulting in many forms of exploitation in our society. The rights in our nation are undivided and as Jael Silliman states “ For women of color, resisting population control while simultaneously claiming their right to bodily self- determination, includingthe right to contraception and abortion or the right to have children, is at the heart of their struggle for reproductive control [ (Silliman, 2004, p. 7) ].” By creating these hurdles the state is jeopardizing the health of these women and furthermore continuing the practices of population control this country has seen for many years. In 1970 Frances Beal the coordinator of the Black Women’sLiberation Committee of SNCC stated “The lack of the availability of safe birth control methods, the forced sterilization practices, and the inability to obtain legal abortions are all…attempts to control the very life processes of human beings [ (Silliman, 2004, p. 9) ]”
Eugenics a form of population control translates to mean “good genes” and has become part of modern society as the study ofhereditary improvement by the human race by controlled selective breeding. In the past, the United States have taken part in reproduction control programs that dealt with forced sterilization of women of color, disease, disability and many other women with “non desirable traits”. When people hear eugenics many think of the Nazi’s and their obsession with improving the human race and the mass ofhuman exterminations that was necessary in order to achieve this goal. Eugenics is still occurring today and in fact people are coming to the United States specifically in order to carry out their needs. It makes one wonder, how is it that eugenics can occur in our society despite the many ethical disputes when an act such as buying contraceptives at a convenience store is viewed disapprovingly?The form of eugenics is no longer just general, it has been applied individually in our society and it goes by the name of Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD). This is a process commonly known as Invitro Fertilization and in the new millennium rather than developing laws against this process it is undoubtedly becoming more widespread [ (Silliman, 2004) ].
Choosing embryos with desiredtraits to selectively implant whatever the criteria, may it be the sex, hair color, or eye color of the unborn child is a eugenic activity. It is necessary to discuss processes such as PGD when talking about refusal clauses because it brings up the question behind the basis of the many religious claims that go against abortion and contraceptives. Is the problem more or less the fact that the...