I Want Separation of Church and State

Today was supposed to be a good day. I was supposed to go to Cracker Barrel with some of my friends for dinner (because they just started serving alcohol and what sounds better than getting drunk at a cracker barrell) and then in the evening I was going to go out to the bars with some other friends. I’ve worked hard all week, including an 18 hour work day at two different hospitals, specifically so that I could have my entire weekend to myself to relax and be young. But, as I said, that’s how today was supposed to go– not how it went. Amy Coney Barrett wanted to make sure I didn’t get a chance to hit up Cracker Barrel today.

What actually happened: my friend Irene spent the night last night, so she yelled out of the bathroom this morning “the Supreme Court just overturned Roe V. Wade”. It was a lovely wakeup experience. I sat right up and she came running and we looked at each other in disbelief. Immediately we are searching for news online, calling our friends, and talking about the very serious implications of this decision. Irene found out about a rally in Seneca Falls in the evening, and so me and my friend Hannah decided to forego the Cracker Barrel mimosas and drive out to Seneca Falls. Did I want to spend my evening driving an hour away to attend a protest for something that used to be a constitutional right? Absolutely not. Did I have to? Yes.

Millions of Americans lost access to proper healthcare today. This undeniable stripping of rights will affect marginalized groups of people the most. The rich will continue to get abortions by being able to afford travel or costly illegal access to the medical procedure. The rich will continue to have the best insurance and therefore access to contraceptives, and they will continue to be the best educated on how to avoid unwanted pregnancies. Poor individuals will either access unsafe abortions and be injured, or will be forced deeper into a cycle of poverty with children they never wanted. And guess what; speaking of education, many of the Southern states that are now banning abortion are the same states with some of the worst examples of sex education. There will be women that die in our country now solely because their government elected not to provide them with the medical care that they easily could. I don't think any God would ever advocate for the anticipated killing of any women.

I may be smiling in pictures from the rally— but I am not happy. I’m devastated, appalled, and horrified. It is still absurd to me that there are people out there that feel such a sense of entitlement to other people’s bodies. I can now say I live in a place where a woman will be forced to have a child, but I’ll be rationing her formula at the hospital when she delivers because we don’t have enough to feed everyone. I remember when Donald Trump stacked the Supreme Court with conservative judges– I said this would happen. Everyone told me I was being dramatic and that this could never happen. SCOTUS wouldn’t take away rights, right? Wrong. And here we are.

But, I’ve already talked about how I feel about abortion. Several times, so I won’t sit here and bore you with more of that. However, I do want to talk about something that is inherently linked with the topic and often overlooked. The separation of church and state. Any argument based in religion is automatically invalidated due to the established and purposeful separation of church and state. We live in America. We are not Bible Baptist, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, or anything in between. To hold others to your own religious standards is probably one of the most un American things you could do. What happened to small government with limited regulations? Apparently that doesn't apply when talking about women's bodies.

There is this weird attitude in America and in some religious individuals that they assume the Christian anti-abortion mindset and morals are the status quo. The baseline, or default if you will. And anyone who doesn’t fit inside of that is the problem. It’s entitlement, and it’s entitlement to women's bodies, and it has no place in our government. I've never understood it, and I've been complaining about it since I was in high school-- just ask my mom. But here we are. I actually go to church quite often, but I’m fully aware that my own personal beliefs on abortion are just that. Mine. And they are fully irrelevant to anyone else, and I would never hold anyone to the same principles as I do myself because that would be ridiculous.

Thomas Jefferson said “Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. Erecting a wall of separation between church and state is absolutely essential in a free society”. And unfortunately, that appears to be a lost art form nowadays.

If you’re pro-life because of your religious beliefs, I hope you think about how the church and the state were never meant to come together. And I hope you know that your beliefs are not based in science. It is absolutely okay to have your beliefs— but never okay to impose them on other people.

As a society, we must demand our rights and increase accessibility and education surrounding abortion, birth control, and general sex education. I’m passionate about reproductive health on a professional and personal level. We still have access to abortion in New York, but an estimated 26 states already have or will likely ban abortion for women in the United States. Yes, over half. So while this may not affect you directly (yet), it will likely affect someone you care about. Think about how different your life may feel if you lived in a different state right now.

Use your vote wisely, educate yourself, and vote with your dollar. Be active in declaring that you want your rights back-- because if we give the patriarchy an inch they will take a mile. One must be a constant voice and weapon of powerful and determined femininity. And NOT femininity in the sense that they think of it. Femininity in your strength and resilience-- not your silence.

In the wise words of Rage Against The Machine (who I’ve listened to a lot of today, if you would believe it) if we don’t take action now, we’ll settle for nothing later.