In 1848 women were first given their basic human rights. This included the right to live free from violence, the right to vote, and the right to own their own property (and many more). Since then, We have been given more rights such as our reproductive freedom. This allowed women to make choices on their own behalf regarding their body and their choice. However, recently there have been attacks against our reproductive rights by many who feel that we shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions on our own regarding our bodies.

   As a woman myself, I feel as though not only should we fight this and take back control, But with this new issue we should be given way more resources that can help us without being shoved the other way, or not given any choice at all.

    The fight for reproductive rights originated in 1960. During this, a woman named Margaret Sanger fought for the use of contraceptives. This was made to protect women from unwanted pregnancies, etc. to keep them safe and to also just give them that choice. However, It wasn’t an easy road. “The fight for reproductive freedoms was intense. Organized religions such as the Roman Catholic Church stood firm on their principles that artificial contraceptives were sinful. Many states in the early 1960s prohibited the sale of contraceptives — even to married couples.” Article . This shows to us that even though we fought for our rights there have been many attacks to stop this from the start. To add to this, “This discrimination and violence against women and girls, deeply rooted in the fabric of societies, is persistent and systematic. And in recent years, there has been a recurrence of skepticism against and denial of international standards concerning women’s human rights, gender equality and gender-based violence, while women and girls are increasingly raising voices to demand equality, including through feminist movements.” 1

    As a result of this fight back against Women’s reproductive rights, there have been many groups/ organizations created to help stand together and give us the choices we need. The United Nations Human Rights organization has been helping to put together a number of programs and campaigns to help with this issue; “Promoting women’s human rights and achieving gender equality are core commitments of the UN Human Rights Office. We promote women and girls’ equal enjoyment of all human rights, including freedom from violence, sexual and reproductive rights, access to justice, socio-economic equality, and participation in decision-making. We do this by monitoring and advocating for women’s rights, building capacity of stakeholders, and providing technical advice. We promote gender integration within the UN. We also support UN mechanisms and treaty bodies working to promote gender equality.”. Their current focus right now is “helping to reform discriminatory laws and policies”, “eliminate gender based violence”, and many more.

   As I draw to a close, Women’s rights overall is a huge issue that we face nowadays. More specifically Reproductive Rights. As we get older as a society I feel as though we should be making more of a stand to get more resources out just like the United Nations of Human Rights (and many other organizations) have been doing. From my point, even just allowing schools to better educate young women on their rights and making it less of a weird topic. We should be normalizing women to taking a stand for their bodies and making their own choices to help benefit them. Lastly, Think about how it would help our future. Not only would we create a better environment all around but also normalize this topic.