Reading “Getting Real About Women’s Health” by Melissa Murray and Jennifer Weiss-Wolf”

It is no secret that after the overturning of Roe vs. Wade on June 24, 2022, thousands of women were and still are denied the right to have agency over their own bodies and participate in a procedure that gives them the right to have an abortion. The 6-week ban, preventing women from having access to an abortion after 6 weeks of pregnancy, doesn’t actually give them 6 weeks to receive an abortion. Thats another common misconception many have about women’s bodies. Melissa Murray and Jennifer Weiss Wolf believe that the problem stems from not knowing enough about women’s bodies.

For instance, women are at least 4 weeks pregnant before even having a missed period in the first place. This limits their timeframe to get an abortion to not 6 weeks, but almost 2 weeks. Additionally, the period cycles of women vary greatly : from 21 days to 35 days. In the latter case, women only are alerted of a missed period a day before the right to get a procedure. In fact Texas Governor Greg Abbott even stated that the six week ban on abortion provides six weeks for a person to be able to get an abortion.The lack of information is the cause of stigma when it comes to women’s health and raising awareness for it. Issues such as miscarriage and menopause are being treated as it they don’t exist with immense stigma from society. For instance, President Michelle Obama said that the lack of systemic support for menopause came with immense obstacles for women going through it.

However, we can not only see this stigma during adulthood with regards to pregnancy, but also in adolescents where period and period health is heavily untalked about. While there are health programs at school to educate young girls, this doesn’t really do anything to reduce systemic constructs. Young girls often feel uncomfortable going to adults for help and seeking guidings due to a sense of shame. This is because our health and our bodies are perceived as messy and disorganized when we don’t shroud the biological processes our bodies go through. Thankfully, there are programs that offer support to women going through menopause, pregnancy and even just normal period health. Hopefully, with the rise of media prevalence and advocacy we can reach a space where everybody is comfortable talking about women’s health and make more informed decisions overall.