The fight for women's reproductive rights is similar to the fight for African Americans to have “full freedom of speech in public and private” as Dredd Scott discovered in 1865 when he petitioned for his personal freedom from bondage and loss. Additionally, women's reproductive rights are similar to advocating for racial equality rights, civil rights, desegregation, same-sex marriage, and universal human rights. Every individual should have the right to choose how to live their private life in today's society without government interference or control. Abortion had been illegal since 1880 in the United States unless it was “essential to saving the life of the woman.” According to the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, in the 1950s, "about one million illegal abortions were performed each year," resulting in the deaths of one in 1,000 women. As a result, this has brought to the forefront the importance of having safe medical care for women undergoing these procedures. As a result, starting in the 1960s, women's movements began pushing for their rights, including reproductive privacy, after being inspired by the civil rights movement a decade earlier. However, in the United States, the process of spreading the word to unify women nationwide was slow, but in 1970, the voice of the new organization, the National Organization of Women, was finally heard by lawmakers. Subsequently, the first state to recognize the full right to abortion was New York. As a result, in 1973, abortion was legalized in the United States due to the persistence of the feminist and women's movements. For this reason, the Roe v. Wade of the United States Supreme Court, constitutionally protected women's right to privacy and reproductive choice to have a... middle of paper... political maelstrom is that in attempts to save an unborn life, radicals pro-life and anti-abortion actually take human life in pursuit of their religious morality when they bomb a clinic or shoot a doctor who is actually helping women in need. Ultimately, the only decision about what is best for individual women's health is up to them. Works Cited Nowicka, Wanda. “Sexual and Reproductive Rights and the Human Rights Agenda: Controversial and Contested.” Reproductive Health Issues, 19.38 (2011): 119.Jackson, L.J. “A Right-to-Life Movement Reborn: Friendlier State Legislatures Lead to Increased Anti-Abortion Legislation.” ABA Journal, 97.8 (2011): 20.Ernst, Julia L. “The Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues: An Inside Perspective on Legislative Making by and for Women.” Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, 12.2 (2006): 189-274.