The overturning of Roe V. Wade and the widespread rage over it has been all I see on my social media feeds since the news happened. Rightfully so. And I agree that it is horrible, and it will cause deaths and trauma, and that people who don’t deserve it will probably be charged with bogus penalties. I stand with the people protesting this decision, but I also can’t help but think that this is part of a bigger issue.

Remember the trucker convoy protesting mandatory vaccination? I wrote a piece about the similarities between the struggle for freedom being fought by the truckers over vaccinations and that of abortion activists. Unfortunately, nobody at the time seemed to make the same connection. In fact, I had someone get mad at me over it and call me pro-killing living, breathing human beings. They were an abortion activist. 

I think it is safe to say there are intolerant people in every group fighting for a cause. And I get it. When you get so dedicated to this one important issue to you, when that is your main goal and purpose, you kind of get tunnel vision. You don’t see how the fight to choose what substances get injected into your veins ties into the fight to choose who you have sex with and if and when to have a child. You start to lose sight of how effective we can fight injustices like tyrannical governments when we fight together, even if we don’t agree on everything. You stop listening to people around you with the slightest difference in opinion. And that’s understandable, but I don’t think I can accept it. 

I am going to list some important similarities between the two issues that occurred (unbelievably) just months apart, and I would like you to clear your mind of any assumptions you have before you read. 

1. They both emphasize and prioritize, and even sometimes disregard opinions or actions of those other than, the individual. Individual agency and freedom to choose is absolutely key to both arguments, which is supposed to be guaranteed by legislation in both Canada and the United States of America, but has lately been called into question.
2. Some people do not have the physical capability or health to go through with these types of vaccinations or a pregnancy, so it is crucial they have the freedom to continue life without shame, segregation, or the risk of death because of mandates. Since it is unjust to have mandatory pregnancy at the risk of the parent, then it is also unjust to have mandatory vaccinations at the risk of the receiver. 
3. How is it, by some people’s logic, okay to demand a vaccination for all people when it is not okay to mandate sex, a certain type of sex, or childbirth/parenthood? I think that I should have the same agency over my whole body health as I do over my reproductive health, and I expect that to be complete agency. 
4. If the reason to get vaccinated is to protect other people and that is acceptable, then why should we be enraged if someone says that you must have children because your parents want grandkids? If we are going so far for selflessness as to inject ourselves with one substance, why not do it for another? Selflessness is not human nature, and neither is it human nature to be controlled by an obscure entity of other humans. 

Now, why should one be allowed to decide whether they have a child but not be permitted to decide whether they receive a vaccination for something they may very well already have natural protection against? It would be just as unacceptable if this situation was reversed. But people don’t think of it like that. The main difference between the two groups was that one was represented in the media to mainly affect men, and the other mainly affects women. Even with feminism supposedly coming as far as it has, and with the supposed goal of becoming equal to men, many people could not care less if an issue affects a man. Even though the reality is that the vaccination mandates effect on our agency affects both men and women, people didn’t think of it like that because so many women were fine with rolling over and getting it in order to make life easier. And, better yet, all these feminists got vaccinated because a big powerful man said to.

So answer me this: Is there actually a difference between these two issues that does not lie in roots of sexism, discrimination, and fear? And if there is, why would the government care? COVID was a test of how far the government could go with controlling the population, even when not intended as such. Fear is the reason they got away with so much before people got tired of it, and false hope is how they got further after that. 

I have seen a couple of people now making videos calling out the pro-choice vaccination protesters in light of this whole abortion issue, but I made the connections before they did to the convoy. I understand where they are coming from, but at the same time I can see it from the other side too: Where were the abortion protesters during the convoy in January? Why weren’t they posting on social media to help us keep our agency too? Why did they give the government and inch with the vax mandates yet not see that they would take a mile five months later with the abortion ruling? Where were the signs with “Keep your laws off our bodies” and “My body, My choice” even if it was for men too? The two groups should have been working together the whole time, but unfortunately I cannot see a reality where either one will be the bigger person and make the first step. The division imposed by the government and society has never been more clear, and it won’t get better until people can listen long enough to team up against the real enemy instead of fighting each other. 

Maybe it will take protesters’ bank accounts getting frozen in the US for people to realize the connections I pointed out long ago. Maybe it will take their businesses being forced to shut down due to their opinions. I hope it doesn’t take hate comments and threats of violence for them to realize it. Another common denominator between the two: The government ignored the needs and beliefs of their people in order to spread hate and division, and they will continue to do so unless their people make them regret it. Don’t fall for their games and become another puppet. 

Until next time, keep thinking outside the box, and keep reading in between!