Viva logo

10 Ways to Protect Your Bodily Autonomy

If you're female, you need to protect your bodily autonomy from people who want to take it away.

By Katie MarchbankPublished 7 years ago 8 min read
Top Story - August 2017
Like

People seem to be obsessed with taking away a woman's bodily autonomy. It's why there's a war on abortion, why many pharmacists refuse to hand over birth control, and why doctors might even lie about services they perform.

Even other women try to tell one another that "your body isn't really your own," and that it's a woman's duty to prevent rape — rather than tell rapists to stop raping.

Make no mistake about this; women's bodily autonomy is under attack from all sides. If you want to keep other people's laws, concerns, and beliefs out of your body, you're going to need to fight to protect it.

Here are some of the best ways to protect your bodily autonomy.

Refuse to vote for a candidate that wants to take away abortion, birth control, or blames women's problems on "God."

Ladies, you guys need to become single-issue voters. Many of the people who are in power actively are passing laws that are hurting you, your friends, your mothers, your sisters, and your daughters.

Even if you don't agree with abortion, you need to realize that the organizations that provide abortions also provide other life-saving procedures. Getting rid of institutions like Planned Parenthood removes your access to affordable doctors.

Additionally, anti-abortion laws have been strongly linked to maternal death rate spikes, suicides, and other women's health issues. Is this really as "pro-life" as abortion opponents are saying?

Voting for someone who refuses to give money to women's health organizations, or worse, restricts access to birth control, is basically attacking your own body autonomy via voting.

One of the best ways to protect your bodily autonomy from people who want to take it away is to vote for candidates who support women's rights, and to make it known that you will not tolerate a candidate who won't.

Educate yourself and others about birth control.

If you are still young or have not had adequate sex ed at your school, one of the best ways to protect your bodily autonomy is to learn about the tools you can use to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

It's in your best interest to look for the most effective birth control out there for your particular needs. One of the best guides on birth control can be found via the Planned Parenthood website, via their birth control chart.

You also should learn about birth control myths being propagated by anti-choice groups and the truth behind their lies. This way, when people tell you lies about birth control, you will know the truth.

Educate yourself about patient rights, and about the sketchy things doctors can do.

Did you know doctors can lie to you about birth control they offer? Did you know they can deny you birth control you want, based on their "personal beliefs?" Did you know doctors may actually be legally bound to lie to you during abortion consults? Did you know Catholic hospitals will refuse to do abortions, even if the mother will die without one?

All of these things are true, and one of the ways to protect your bodily autonomy is to learn your patient rights before you walk into a doctor's office.

Do your research, and you'll find that refusing birth control is against the ACOG's recommendation — even if it's something like sterilization. You might also find that many things that doctors do that attack bodily autonomy can be reported to ACOG, the local medical board, and can cause investigation.

Doctors are not allowed to shame patients for having sex. Though doctors are allowed to deny birth control, giving the local medical board a heads up about their behavior may still spark an investigation based on discrimination.

If you have had your right to birth control attacked by a doctor, speak up.

Yelp is a beautiful, beautiful thing these days. So is ZocDoc. So is just about every other site that allows you to rate doctors. These sites make one of the easiest ways to protect your bodily autonomy from doctors who "help" women by taking away their choices.

If you got slut-shamed at a doctor's office, then let the world know what they did. Let them know how the doctor really "respects women," and that they will probably be denied birth control too.

Doctors need those reviews more and more often, primarily because other options are beginning to crop up in the form of telemedicine firms. This will hurt them right in the wallet, and right in the reputation.

If doctors are going to turn against their own patients, then you better remind them that you're hiring them.

Should this happen with a pharmacist who refuses to give you the prescription you got for birth control, escalate it until it reaches their manager, then corporate. This will most likely get the pharmacist in trouble.

Shame anti-choice protesters, and openly talk about how hypocritical they are.

One of the boldest ways to protect your bodily autonomy is to use the very tactics people use to take them away against them. Shame is one of the biggest tools they use to control women and warp public opinion.

If you hear them say they're "pro-life," then tell them, "Oh, you hate women and have sex issues. I see how it is."

Or, say, "Oh, so you're a hypocrite. You don't care if the mother dies."

More often than not, they will quiet down.

The problem with this, of course, is that it can escalate into something ugly. If you do this, it's important to realize that you need to do so at your own risk.

Don't date or associate with people who are "pro-life."

Want to know one of the easiest ways to cut down the number of times people shame you for choosing your own body over others? Don't date or associate with people who are pro-life.

It's not always easy to do this since many parts of the country are almost entirely pro-life. However, when you do cut ties and you do start to "snub" pro-lifers, you'll find that their words mean way less to you, and they can't shame you as often.

If you don't want to cut pro-life people out of your life entirely, you still need to avoid men who are pro-life on the dating scene. The reason for this is obvious — if you have the misfortune of getting pregnant with his child, he will make every effort for you to keep it, even if you don't want it.

Donate to women's health organizations and advocacy groups.

Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and other advocacy groups really do need your help. You can't really have ways to protect your bodily autonomy without their help.

Bigger groups, more talented lawyers, and more vocal outlets need to advocate for you and every other woman out there. They can't do that without money backing them.

If you have extra money, donate to them. Do so frequently, and urge others to do the same. In most cases, it's a tax deductible donation, and it can help you protect your own body.

Without the help of these feminist groups, there won't be many ways to protect body autonomy anymore.

Call people out on overly personal questions about you having kids.

Nothing quite irks some ladies more than hearing the question, "When are you having kids?" It's almost always followed by people asking why you don't have them, why you don't want them, or something else incredibly intrusive and personal.

It's not their business, and yes, them asking these questions is them judging you on reproductive choices. Yes, that's a subtle attack on your rights — in the sense that they are hinting that "you're supposed to" do stuff according to their wishes.

One of the easiest ways to protect your bodily autonomy from questioning is to turn it around on them.

"When are you having kids?" "That's a personal question."

"Why don't you want kids?""Why are you so invested in the contents of my uterus and my desire to have unprotected sex?"

Do not work for companies that have religious stances on birth control and women's rights.

Everyone remembers the Hobby Lobby fight which brought the "company's right" to refuse to insure women who need birth control. While you do need to pay the bills, you probably do not need to be with a company that is overtly anti-woman under the guise of religion.

Unless you can't find a job anywhere else in town, don't work for a company that would deny you a job due to birth control, sex outside of marriage, or other similar issues.

If your paycheck comes from a place like this, all the ways to protect your bodily autonomy discussed could lead to financial problems down the road.

Do not put yourself at the mercy of these people. Do not give them the blood, sweat, and tears you put into work. There's no price they could pay that is worth your body autonomy.

Call out catcallers.

Most catcallers are cowardly little twerps who basically do it just to make themselves feel macho. Nothing will cut them down to size like hearing someone ask them what makes them think they're appropriate.

This is one of the few ways to protect your bodily autonomy that doesn't involve politics or abortion. Catcalling is all about making a man feel tough by shouting at women about their bodies.

Take that away from them, and they'll soon realize they can't mess with women — or their rights to display their bodies as they see fit.

health
Like

About the Creator

Katie Marchbank

Just trying to take down the patriarchy while playing video games and eating too much pasta.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.