One of the first messages I encountered this morning asked, “Do you think people are ready for the coming world war?” I was somewhat taken aback. Wars are a persistent rumor in the United States; they always have been. Looking back across the past 250 years of US history, war is a dominant topic. So much so that one might get the impression that we are actually enjoying fighting.

There are different kinds of wars, though. There are the wars that are fought using conventional methods, one military against another military. Those are the wars easily documented and death counts carefully tallied. 

By contrast, social wars are more difficult to define. They rarely have a strict starting or stopping point. The differing sides can be fluid as the battle waxes and wanes. And the death toll can be very difficult to count because we often don’t know when a social issue has contributed to someone’s death.

What Is Autonomy, Anyway?

Social wars are often fought in ignorance. When people don’t understand the vocabulary, it becomes easier for them to believe arguments that don’t make any sense when one understands the issue. Autonomy is one of those issues. People see the prefix auto and think the word has something to do with cars. 

Dr. Natalia Kanem, the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund, defines bodily autonomy in this way: “Bodily autonomy means my body is for me; my body is my own. It’s about power, and it’s about agency. It’s about choice, and it’s about dignity. Bodily autonomy is the foundation for gender equality, and above all, it’s a fundamental right.” 

Sadly, autonomy issues tend to affect women and marginalized communities more than they do men and historically acceptable populations. The reason is obvious: Straight men have traditionally held all the power and made all the rules. That patriarchy is the fundamental reason that any marginalized communities exist in the first place. 

Because marginalized people face constant discrimination, they have constantly been at war.

Which Wars Are We Talking About?

Yeah, I know, there is more than one social war going on around the world. The issues are many and complex. The details vary from country to country. However, what is consistent is that marginalized people are at risk, and many of them are dying. Here’s a quick overview of the issues we’re facing. Sources are in brackets.

• Reproductive Rights and Abortion: State and federal laws restricting or banning abortion, access to contraception, and emergency reproductive care limit individual control over pregnancy and family planning. [1, 2, 3]
• Gender-Affirming Healthcare: Legislative bans and social restrictions targeting medical care for transgender individuals—ranging from minors to adults—pose significant conflicts over personal medical decisions and government authority. [1]
• Gender-Based and Sexual Violence: High rates of domestic abuse, rape, marital rape, and coercive control directly strip individuals of agency over their own bodies. [1, 2, 3]
• Harmful Cultural and Traditional Practices: Practices conducted without consent—such as child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), virginity testing, and forced or “corrective” surgeries on intersex children—violate bodily integrity. [1, 2]
• Forced Sterilization and Medical Coercion: Historically and in modern contexts, marginalized groups, Indigenous women, and people with disabilities have faced forced or coerced sterilization and medical experimentation. [1, 2]
• Mental Health and Involuntary Treatment: Psychiatric holds, forced medication, and the denial of legal counsel in mental health facilities challenge a person’s right to direct their own medical and psychological care.
• End-of-Life Decisions and Euthanasia: Debates over medical aid in dying, assisted suicide, and the right to refuse life-prolonging treatments test the limits of self-determination at the end of life.

Fighting With Laws, Not Bullets

Perhaps we are fortunate that the war on personal autonomy has not yet come to the point where one has to arm themselves and work with rebel militias to protect our personhood. I’m not saying we may not come to that, but we’re not there yet. For the moment, we still have the ability to fight through legal channels. Increasingly, though, we’re finding those methods less than effective.

Our primary defense has been the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. There are two parts to this amendment. The first part is the Due Process Clause. Personal liberty and the right to privacy are addressed here. The second part is the Equal Protection Clause, which prohibits discrimination.

In theory, those two clauses should work together to guarantee that you have the right to be who you are, with no interference and no discrimination. Unfortunately, more recent Supreme Court decisions, such as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and United States v. Skrmetti, diminish the effectiveness of the 14th Amendment, leaving people vulnerable. 

Those losses are not set in concrete, however. The decisions were narrowly split, which means carefully constructed cases could still see some success in the Court overturning those dangerous decisions. Unfortunately, we may need to see dramatic changes in the Court’s personnel before any real change has a chance of being heard

Wars Need To Be Noisy

As I’m writing this, France is experiencing another day of rioting over poor education and an ever-increasing cost of living. The world is noticing, even as French politicians seem stymied on how to resolve the problem. While protestors’ behavior has several negative aspects, one thing is certain: there will be change.

Protesting civil rights abuses, which is how bodily autonomy issues are most commonly categorized, cannot be a quiet matter. For the past 15 years, social media has been the primary way most people have chosen to use their voice. We can look through the feeds on any social media site and see highly opinionated content directed toward issues related to autonomy. But increasingly, these methods are not effective.

Research from organizations like Amnesty International and the Electronic Frontier Foundation found that major platforms (such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok) frequently remove, shadowban, or restrict abortion-related content, medication abortion resources, and non-profit advocacy posts. The tracking, aggregation, and monetization of personal reproductive health data and digital footprints (often described under surveillance capitalism) create privacy and prosecution risks that directly challenge individual bodily autonomy.

While there were large “No Kings” rallies across the US over the weekend, those don’t directly champion issues related to bodily autonomy. In fact, there is no well-organized national movement that is currently engaging the war on bodily autonomy in ways that make a concrete difference.

If we want change, we’re going to have to make some noise.

Voting As An Act of War

There are still too many countries where marginalized people are not allowed to vote. There are still too many places where it is illegal to be gay, or trans, or anything other than a cisgender straight person. The world, as a whole, is not as safe as it should be.

In the US, Midterm elections are scheduled to be held on Tuesday, November 3. Some will tell you that there are no issues affecting bodily autonomy on the ballot. I will forever argue that every election is a referendum on bodily autonomy. The people who are elected to office on every level have the opportunity to impact laws, procedures, and rules that affect bodily autonomy.

To that end, voting becomes a massive weapon, perhaps our most effective weapon, in the war for bodily autonomy. Even in situations where one choice doesn’t feel any better than another, where the stance on bodily autonomy issues is gray, the potential for an elected position to be used against us is a reason to vote.

Are wars won or lost by voting? To a large extent, yes. Electing progressive candidates that support inclusion has historically resulted in better laws for marginalized people. However, what we have seen in the past ten years is that failing to elect progressive candidates can see those protections removed. We have to maintain consistent pressure to protect even the most basic human rights.

Wars That Never End

The nature of the patriarchy is that it thirsts for power. Patriarchy and bodily autonomy are not compatible partners. As long as the patriarchy is allowed to exist, bodily autonomy wars continue. To back off even a little bit is to give opponents an opportunity to dictate who we are allowed to be. 

Our most basic rights have been under attack for far too long. This is the time to ramp up the opposition to the status quo, to make noise in favor of change, and to vote for the change we need. These wars are not something we can avoid. We must engage the enemy forcefully.

Traditionally, churches might tell you that the spiritual war is against the forces of evil. Let me make clear, from the stance of this church, that the wars are against patriarchy and disenfranchisement. These are not wars we can afford to lose.

How are the wars against personal autonomy affecting you? Feel free to let us know in the comments, or contact us if you prefer to remain private.