Reacting to a proposed law in Idaho that would prohibit minors from travelling out of state for abortions without parental consent, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren says the government is trying to do more than just legislate on abortion. Warren implies that the ultimate legislative aims are more Orwellian.
Warren shared a Huffington Post story about the so-called “abortion trafficking” legislation, writing: “First, Republicans stripped away the right to an abortion. Now, they’re trying to end Americans’ right to travel for care.”
Warren added: “This fight has never been just about abortion. It was always about ending women’s freedom to control their own bodies and futures.”
First, Republicans stripped away the right to an abortion. Now, they’re trying to end Americans’ right to travel for care.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) April 3, 2023
This fight has never been just about abortion. It was always about ending women’s freedom to control their own bodies and futures.https://t.co/kmKo0XYlVv
Warren’s commentary underscores the fundamental disagreement between pro-life and pro-choice advocates. Pro-life advocates will maintain that their fight is “just about abortion” — indeed, that their fight is exclusively about abortion, which the Idaho law will try to further restrict.
With the Supreme Court having, as Warren says, “stripped away the right to an abortion” in striking down Roe v. Wade, many pro-life advocates have sought to push into legal frameworks their belief that an embryo that becomes a fetus at ten weeks has a right to life, and commensurate protections, at the moment of conception.
Pro-choice advocates like Warren operate with an understanding that an embryo is part of a woman’s body and therefore subject solely to her decisions about her own health and future, not government intervention.
Warren sees the abortion fight — especially as contemplated by House Bill 242 in Idaho — as trying to upend that personal autonomy. The Senator claims that rather than being “just about abortion,” the fight is larger and more general. Warren says it is about “ending women’s freedom to control their own bodies and futures.”
