US recently made abortion illegal. Overturning Roe V Wade historic decision of 1973 regarding abortion, the new law has removed the constitutional right of American women to abort. Many have opined against the new law. Miss World Bulgaria 2019 Margo Cooper too shares her opinion.
“It's absolutely devastating that women don’t have the right to make decisions about reproduction. The law has its variations depending on the state and it can take so many lives because they are no longer taking decisions about their own body, health and future. At first I thought this law was for victims of rape and sex abuse. It’s only after some time that I got to know what it really meant. Why would someone even think that the decision as to whether to keep or abort the pregnancy is not a woman’s decision but someone else’s? It’s horrifying that in such a developed country, women still have to fight for basic human rights,” she says.
Indian abortion laws are also strict but are not something that shackles women when it comes to abortion. Margo, at the same time, also adds that India has many traditional communities and conservative views.
“There are a lot of organizations in India for family planning aiming to educate people about the timing to have children and more. These kinds of organizations reach out to traditional communities to spread awareness and also provide medical help, contraceptives, vaccines etc. These kinds of organizations are crucial in big countries like India because the knowledge of planning a family is a base of a healthy nation. For me an eye opener was a book by Melinda Gates ‘The moment of lift’ where Melinda describes her experience of working on her foundation which aims to provide all the possible support to women across the world. She also mentioned the difficulty of standing against traditional communities with archaic views and religious institutions,” shares Margo, who aspires to work in Bollywood.
Abortion is a taboo subject in India, even in Pakistan. “To have a positive change and open conversations are important. First of all, people have to understand the reason why giving women needs to have their rights in place as in the long run it will be beneficial to the family. Female lives matter. It’s a life saving issue and can’t be considered a taboo topic. Going back to the new US abortion law, it is like taking a huge step back,” she ends.
