GUEST COLUMN: "A Choice Anniversary"

Today, January 22, marks the 19th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed women the fundamental right to safe, legal and accessible abortion. The Supreme Court's legalization of abortion in 1973 affirmed reproductive rights and reproductive freedom for all women. But in 1992, this fundamental right is in jeopardy, for there is little chance that Roe v. Wade will survive the current make-up of the Rehnquist court. The restrictions the court will review -- a mandatory 24-hour delay, mandated state-scripted propaganda, and subjecting a woman's decision to the will of her huspband, are clearly an undue burden on women. If the Supreme Court upholds these restrictions it will weaken -- if not eliminate for all practical purposes -- the reproductive rights put forth in Roe v. Wade. Before 1973, an estimated 1,000,000 American women risked their health and lives resorting to illegal abortions each year. In 1969, approximately 5,000 American women died from illegal abortions. It is clear that women will continue to have abortions, whether legal or not; the real question is one of abortion being medically safe. Safe, accessible, legal abortion in the United States has saved thousands of women from back-alley butchers, infection, mutilation and death. In fact, a medically performed abortion is safer and has a lower health risk rate than pregnancy and childbirth. The current dangers of illegal abortion to women are clearly evident: an estimated 200,000 women worldwide die annually from illegal, botched abortions -- one woman every three minutes. Women have a natural right to control their own bodies. Moreover, they are entitled to make any personal decision concerning abortion without government interference. The choice to have an abortion is one that must be made by the woman; it is not a choice that should be made by government officials, who neither have to carry a fetus to full term nor assume responsibility once it is born. Supporting a woman's right to choose is just that -- supporting a choice. Being pro-choice does not mean one advocates or mandates abortion; it simply means women are able to exercise their reproductive freedom. Indeed, there are other issues of reproductive rights that need to be addressed, both in the United States and around the world. Among these are better methods of birth control and more contraceptive research, greater access to family planning programs and better day care service. These also include increased sexual health education in schools, since over half of the United States' school systems do not have classes in basic reproduction and contraception facts. We must all act together -- young and old, gay and straight, women and men of all colors -- to insure the right to safe, legal and accessible abortion. A national March for Women's Lives will take place on April 5 in Washington D.C. to let our government finally see and hear the pro-choice majority. In this presidential election year, your vote can make a difference, so vote pro-choice in November. And today, to demonstrate support for reproductive rights, wear a purple ribbon. Don't let this be the last Roe v. Wade anniversary. Raji Jagadeesan is a junior American History major from Massillon, Ohio. Cynthia Brown is a first-year graduate student in the School of Social Work from Norway, Michigan.

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