My goal in this column is not to dispute the usual arguments. I refuse to do that, because everyone has heard both sides of the argument again and again.

The anti-abortion supporters focus most of their arguments on the biology of when life begins. Most of these arguments are driven by religion. Pro-choice activists argue on behalf of the woman.

They also focus on preventing abortions through education of contraceptives, family planning, improving the welfare system and many other things.

I would like to instead focus on some of the history of abortion and the present day activism that is occurring on our campus.

Abortion is not some new “terror” but one that has been around for many decades.

In the early 1800s the law read under Commonwealth v. Bangs that until quickening had occurred, abortion was legal. Midwives, or the woman herself, performed most early abortions.

The doctors of the 1830s deemed abortion morally unacceptable. The hidden agenda was to push midwives out of mainstream medicine and replace them with upper-class white men. Midwives handled most of the gynecological services that are performed today.

Around the mid-1830’s, states started to pass statutes that prohibited abortion at any stage of development.

By the 1900s, abortion had been outlawed by every state in the country.

This was the result of the powerful American Medical Association’s further push toward a male- dominated profession. This early movement to make abortion illegal was because of doctors and not anti-abortion supporters.

Abortion remained illegal until the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which under the idea of privacy and involuntary servitude made abortion a medical decision between a woman and her doctor through the seventh month of pregnancy.

Whether illegal or not, abortion will always exist. Pre-Roe stories are real-life events, and although called “pre-Roe,” they are still occurring today all over the world.

These are stories of our mothers and grandmothers. Coat hangers, knitting needles, and other sharp objects were inserted into the cervixes of pregnant women.

Some women would douche with poisonous liquids, ingest toxins and swallow sharp objects such as glass. Many women lost their own lives, all this in order to receive what is now a safer medical procedure than childbirth.

With all realities of what could happen if Bush is re-elected aside, women and men are not backing down.

We need to be focusing on things that we as students can do in order to protect women’s freedom to choose.

Thursday, March 11, there will be panels to raise awareness on choice in LeBaron Lounge. The first panel starts at 6 p.m. and the second will follow at 8 p.m.

On a national level, on April 25 there will be more than one million people marching on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

The March to Save Women’s Lives is vital. We will be showing our political leaders and fellow Americans what the majority stands for.

Many activists from Iowa State will be making the long journey from Ames to Washington, D.C. to let our voices to be heard.

Women from all over the country are refusing to let their rights be taken away from them.

Abortion is about the power a woman has over her own body, the power she has and needs to have in this society.

Anti-abortion supporters are not only trying to take away our right to choose to start a family, they are taking away our voice, our presence in society and a symbol of every American citizen’s rights to determine their life courses.

On April 25, let your voice and presence be known. Join us in Washington! For more information, please e-mail us at [email protected].

Erica Carnes is a junior in political science from Adel. She is a member of the ISU Democrats.