As states in the U.S. role back abortion rights given women with Roe v. Wade, it appears that once again, women are losing claims over their own bodies. But this is not new news when it comes to the gaming of the female body.

Women’s bodies have been used by those in power for centuries—as scapegoats for men’s indiscretions, to populate new territories, to inseminate the enemy’s camp, to alleviate stress in battle, for unlawful profit, and, prior to abortion as an option, to keep women tied to an outdated model of hearth and home as calling.

Abortion is not about abortion at all, Adrienne Rich, poet, feminist and author of Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, taught me. It’s about a woman’s power to govern herself and her body, as men do theirs. It’s that simple.

As suffragist Alice Paul once penned about women’s right to vote, “There is nothing complicated about ordinary equality.”

M. Carolyn Miller, MA, designs narrative- and game-based learning. She also writes and speaks about the power of story in our lives and world. www.cultureshape.com

Photo Credit: Classic Lines by Lori Overland is licensed under CC BY 2.0.