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Blog for choice day
Jan. 22nd, 2007 05:12 pmA little late to the party today thanks to a funeral.
I'm posting today in support of a woman's right to choose.
Most people don't understand Roe vs. Wade. They don't realize that Roe vs. Wade is actually a well-thought-out decision that said something basic. In short, the state and the government have no right to meddle in a woman's personal medical affairs before a certain point. Those personal medical affairs include pregnancy. It is a woman's right to decide whether or not she is capable of supporting a child, regardless of how that child was conceived. Whether the woman is ending a pregnancy for the right reasons or the wrong ones, it is not the government's right to play nanny.
I consider myself lucky. I live in a "blue" state, in a fairly liberal area. I learned about birth control in all its forms in school, something that may not be true today. I took my pills regularly, I did my best - and still, like almost every other sexually active woman I know, there was a scare. When that scare came, there was no question what I would have done if the monthly visit hadn't arrived.
The funny thing is that polls show that most Americans do not want to outlaw abortion. When it comes down to them and their scares, they want the option too. They just don't want their friends and their church and their neighbors to know that they want the option. Deprived of their names, they admit how they feel. It's that nasty double standard rearing its head, where it's God's will to create eight embryos in a dish and implant them in one womb, but it's against God's will to relieve the suffering of a rape victim.
I'm not entirely comfortable with late-term abortions, but I also know that the majority of late-term abortions are done to protect the life of the mother, and the vast majority of abortions are performed in the first trimester. Those gory photographs the pro-lifers tote around? Not a common example. And I'll bet you that that screaming maniac outside the clinic would be the first to tote her pregnant daughter in, because the rules don't apply when it's your family.
But your family is everyone's family, and you can either support choice, or you can expect a return to back-alleys and coat hangers. You choose.
I'm posting today in support of a woman's right to choose.
Most people don't understand Roe vs. Wade. They don't realize that Roe vs. Wade is actually a well-thought-out decision that said something basic. In short, the state and the government have no right to meddle in a woman's personal medical affairs before a certain point. Those personal medical affairs include pregnancy. It is a woman's right to decide whether or not she is capable of supporting a child, regardless of how that child was conceived. Whether the woman is ending a pregnancy for the right reasons or the wrong ones, it is not the government's right to play nanny.
I consider myself lucky. I live in a "blue" state, in a fairly liberal area. I learned about birth control in all its forms in school, something that may not be true today. I took my pills regularly, I did my best - and still, like almost every other sexually active woman I know, there was a scare. When that scare came, there was no question what I would have done if the monthly visit hadn't arrived.
The funny thing is that polls show that most Americans do not want to outlaw abortion. When it comes down to them and their scares, they want the option too. They just don't want their friends and their church and their neighbors to know that they want the option. Deprived of their names, they admit how they feel. It's that nasty double standard rearing its head, where it's God's will to create eight embryos in a dish and implant them in one womb, but it's against God's will to relieve the suffering of a rape victim.
I'm not entirely comfortable with late-term abortions, but I also know that the majority of late-term abortions are done to protect the life of the mother, and the vast majority of abortions are performed in the first trimester. Those gory photographs the pro-lifers tote around? Not a common example. And I'll bet you that that screaming maniac outside the clinic would be the first to tote her pregnant daughter in, because the rules don't apply when it's your family.
But your family is everyone's family, and you can either support choice, or you can expect a return to back-alleys and coat hangers. You choose.
