Freedom Lost

 This week's quotation, by Heinrich Böll, reads, "Freedom is never given, only gained."

And that is true. But very sadly, freedom can also be taken away. As we have seen this week, when the Supreme Court in the United States ruled to overturn the 1973 case Roe v Wade, which granted women in the US the hard-won freedom to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.

Like many others, I find this a shocking decision. An article in The Guardian on 24th June stated, "A reversal of this magnitude is almost unprecedented... The extraordinarily rare move will allow more than half of states to ban abortion, with an immediate and enduring impact on tens of millions of Americans."

Which will severely restrict the freedom and personal autonomy of very many American women. I find it mindboggling that the law should be able to dictate whether or not a woman can choose to terminate a pregnancy. Surely it is her body, and therefore her right to choose? The case will be implemented state by state and, according to The Guardian article, twenty six of the fifty US states are expected to implement the changes more or less immediately. Meaning that the women who live in those states will either have to travel hundreds of miles in order to have a legal abortion or, in a terrifyingly retrograde situation, try to "self-manage" an abortion.

I pray that that this awful decision may soon be overturned, and for all women affected by it in the meantime.