Student op-ed claims certain voting privileges should be revoked from 'cis men'

A student opinion piece in Mizzou’s student newspaper, The Maneater, claims “cis men” should not have the right to vote on abortion issues.

The term “cisgender” is used to refer to people who identify with their biological sex. 

In her op-ed, freshman student Abigail Ramirez claims that federal and state governments are “no longer capable of protecting the rights of women.” Ramirez says that women have the right to “demand reform,” which she says should exclude cis men from the voting process entirely.

“Aside from the typical arguments between pro-life and pro-choice advocates,” Ramirez writes, “[t]here is one aspect of these decisions that must be changed, no matter the outcome: who gets to vote on these issues.”

Quoting the Declaration of Independence, Ramirez states, “to uphold the American rights to ‘life and liberty,’ cis men should not have any power in deciding what women can or cannot do with their bodies.”

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A senior student at Mizzou, and former president of the university’s TPUSA chapter, told Campus Reform that Ramirez does not fully understand the phrase “life and liberty.”

“Ramirez opens up her op-ed talking about the Declaration of Independence and unironically mentions the right to life,” the student said, requesting anonymity. “Yet she is campaigning and advocating for the murder of innocent human beings, a movement that has killed roughly 63 million innocent babies.”

“This concept sets a dangerous precedent for the future. Ramirez appears to be a full-on leftist, who will be the first to say that if an issue does not affect you, you do not get to vote,” the student added. 

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Ramirez also argued that including men in the abortion conversation is a “silent version of male domination and control over women.”

“Really, maybe that’s what it’s all about,” she wrote. “Sexism continues to prove itself to be a systemic problem in our country, and this is just one example.”

In 2020, student tuition was raised to fund The Maneater and other student media publications with a student media fee referendum. 

According to the Columbia Missourian, the paper had been struggling for a few years.

“The Maneater could not make it, and needed to be bailed out by student fees,” the Mizzou student told Campus Reform. “They had to come to the Missouri Student Association and ask tuition to be raised for all students, just to fund their liberal newspaper.”

Campus Reform reached out to The Maneater and Mizzou for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.

Follow the author of this article on twitter: @addison_pummill