Introduction

What happens when a country built on the promise of freedom for all decides whose freedom really counts? In a world where bodily autonomy should be a basic human right, we currently live in a country that says otherwise. It leaves us with a frightening truth: Not all people are granted equal autonomy over their own bodies. The abortion bans sweeping across the United States are acts of control that deny individuals the fundamental right to decide what happens to their bodies. These bans disproportionately affect low-income communities and people of color. By stripping access to safe and legal abortion, lawmakers are putting lives at risk. I am left with one very fundamental question that lies at the heart of this violation: Who gets to decide what happens to a person’s body? Abortion bans and the lack of reproductive rights are clear violations of human rights, which are rooted in systemic oppression and the denial of bodily autonomy.

When Choice Becomes a Crime

On June 24, 2022, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court decided that abortion isn’t a constitutional right in the landmark decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Based on this decision, abortion is now either banned or severely restricted in 21 states in the U.S. This means those who can get pregnant, including women, girls, and transgender, intersex, and nonbinary people, aren’t allowed access to abortion care, even in cases of rape, incest or fetal complications. The overturning of Roe v. Wade has violated the fundamental right to bodily autonomy. Without access to abortion care, people with wombs are forced into pregnancies that can jeopardize their education, health, and lives. They risk being criminalized for miscarriages, denied life-saving care, and locked into motherhood before they are ready. One person who sought an abortion in Texas said, “The fearmongering in Texas after Dobbs has a real impact on me. The case of a Texas woman being arrested and jailed for taking medication abortion pills was fresh in my mind… I was scared to call my doctor in case there was mandatory reporting. I was not sure what the law meant.”

The right to make decisions about one’s body is a cornerstone of human dignity. While many in the U.S. think otherwise, The United Nations Human Rights Committee has asserted that access to abortion is a human right. By denying individuals access to safe and legal abortion services, states are infringing upon their rights to health, privacy, and freedom from cruel treatment. If freedom is truly a right, then why is it rationed like a luxury good - granted to some, but denied to the rest? This is not justice. It’s selective autonomy. And if only some bodies are free, then freedom is just a facade this country wears as it pleases. This deterioration of rights does not land evenly. Some feel tremors, while others are swallowed by the quake. To understand the full harm of these bans, we need to look at who is being buried under the rubble.

Some Bodies Bear More of the Burden

Abortion bans do not affect all communities equally. They disproportionately harm low income individuals, people of color, and those living in rural areas. The American Psychological Association explains that according to the Guttmacher Institute, “More than 60% of those who seek abortions are people of color and about half live below the federal poverty line.” For these communities, the barriers to healthcare are already stacked high - limited access to providers, lack of transportation, fear of criminalization, on top of a history of medical racism. By blocking access to reproductive care, these bans cement cycles of poverty and generational trauma. They weaponize motherhood by forcing it on those without resources to survive it. This country expects Women of Color to nurture life in a world that offers them so little care in return. Meanwhile, cisgender men walk freely through reproductive choices that are never politicized. Why is it that the body that creates life is the one most criminalized for it? Despite these challenges, there’s still hope. Where rights are taken, communities rise to reclaim them.

The Hands That Hold Us Up

Advocacy groups continue to fight for reproductive justice. Organizations like Global Rights for Women and the Center for Reproductive Rights are fighting to protect and advance abortion rights globally. Their legal work challenges bans in courtrooms, while grassroots movements support those affected by these bans by funding travel for out of state procedures, offering aftercare, and educating communities about their options. These movements are about survival. They are built on the belief that nobody should suffer alone, in silence or shame. The awareness brought by these groups turns into pressure, and a drive to be better. Pressure is what moves lawmakers to systemically confront the issues that people really care about. A judge in Idaho recently ruled to loosen the state’s strict abortion ban by clarifying the scope of its medical exemptions for medical emergencies. These small victories remind us that even when institutions fail, people do not stop fighting. Resistance grows from the pain of injustice and becomes something unbreakable. For every door that has been slammed shut, there is someone demolishing a wall to build a window.

Conclusion

Abortion bans are not only political issues, they are profoundly unjust. They violate basic human rights by denying people the power to make choices about their own bodies and futures. If we believe in freedom, dignity and justice, we cannot turn away from this. We must challenge the systems that want to control and punish the people around us. Bodily autonomy is not a privilege, it's a birthright. And it's time we defended it like one.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog are the author’s only and do not reflect an official position of the University of Minnesota, the Human Rights Program, or the College of Liberal Arts. As an institution of higher education that values and promotes free speech, civil discourse, and human rights we welcome a variety of perspectives and opinions from our student contributors that are consistent with these values.