Blog for choice day
Jan. 22nd, 2007 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonwiseA 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.
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no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 01:55 am (UTC)Thankfully, it's not likely to be an issue here ever again, even though there are some Catholics in our conservative Federal government who'd like to turn back the clock. The last time there were rumblings on this kind of issue (actually it was the 'abortion' pill) women on both sides of politics got together and stomped on it.
I don't know what the proportions are here (I'm sure it's nowhere near 50%), but I think that's the key; once you get enough women in the legislature this kind of nonsense goes away.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 04:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 04:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 04:45 pm (UTC)Around here, it's not just the Catholics. There are legions of right-wingers, many of them born-again, who are much more vocal, and who run those enormous megachurches. Nice to hear that in Australia, some of this nonsense gets binned.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 05:19 pm (UTC)I'm counting on the anonymity of voting to keep things sane.
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.
Well, I don't know about that. There's not a doubt in my mind that if I had gotten pregnant at 15, my mom would have made me keep it. People like my parents (who themselves had children young anyway, why should I be any different?), have no problem with religion trumping reason.