Going Backwards and the Loss of Progress

This blog will addresses the idea of de-evolution causing the violation of reproductive rights in Louise Erdrich’s book Future Home of the Living God and how that can relate to what I have seen taking place in our country today. Throughout this book we learn of an apocalypse taking place due to a disease and the government has decided to regulate females and their reproductive rights due to concerns of de-evolution. The belief among scientists in this book is that humans may “skip straight back to a previous hominin” or “homo erectus perhaps” (55). This causes the government to capture women and either inseminate them or help them give birth in order to take their babies and study them. The government believes this is the best thing for all women and expects all citizens to help in the effort to capture pregnant women for the protection and greater good of humanity. This reminds me of our country today in a way because of the attempt of certain politicians and their partisan policies of restricting family planning and health services for women. Found in this website, https://www.thirdway.org/memo/talking-about-reproductive-rights-in-2020 , there is evidence that shows state legislatures have been steadily decreasing the amount of family planning providers found in the state and they make state funding dependent upon these providers not offering abortion services. I can see similarities here on how governments can restrict and control women and their bodies along with their reproductive rights based on the belief that it is for the greater good. In the book it is for the greater good of the human race to control and study the de-evolution of the human race through the women and their pregnancies and in our country today many politicians believe and push policies that it is for the greater good to regulate the bodies of women who are pregnant to protect the fetus. Found on this website, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20443281/ , we can see why some politicians argue for these type of regulations because they say “the fetus is a person”. Overall I see a connection between the government in this book and how they control women and their reproductive rights and how the government of our country can in ways do the same. Similar to the control on women’s bodies in Future Home of the Living God, do you think our government in the United States already has too much influence and control over women’s bodies and their reproductive rights? I think it was interesting how Louise Erdrich used reproduction rights to show the influence and control governments can and already have over their citizens. Louise Erdrich also did an amazing job showing how humans tend to view the best solution to problems they do not understand is through the process of eradication. This idea can be applied to both the capturing of women in this book and the prevention of reproductive healthcare in times that women need it in our country.
 
Source for Image: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/emer-o-toole-science-and-sociology-are-on-the-side-of-pro-choice-1.2294754