Please don't tell me that it's a woman's fault if she gets pregnant and she should pay the price. Believe what you want, but I think that particular belief is short-sighted, mean-spirited, and lacking complexity. I don't want to hear it because it doesn't ring true.
Don't tell me that a pregnant woman can always give her baby up for adoption. Have you ever put your young life on hold, carried an unwanted fetus for 9 months, went through labor and delivery and then gave it up to strangers at birth? I know some of you have. If so, I will listen to your story with compassion and empathy. I will listen to your story over and over again, because I know you need to tell it. There are situations where a woman chooses to do this, and it is the best thing for her and the child. Her choice, because there are as many "best situations" as there are pregnant woman.
Don't tell me that a fetus is a human being from the moment of conception. I accept that you believe this, but I don't. Beliefs are not facts. Up until the mid-19th century even the Catholic Church allowed abortions until the baby quickened because that is when they determined the fetus was ensouled. Then the Fathers of the Church changed their mind, because they can do that. Dogma is an enforced belief system.
I'm not saying you shouldn't believe your religious or political dogma. It is your choice, and I trust you to make the best choice for yourself. You have that right. We all should.
Exactly! Thanks for this post, Colette.
ReplyDeleteBravo!
ReplyDeleteThank you. If you don't believe in abortion don't have one. Pretty simple. Just stay out of my uterus. If you don't believe in owning guns, don't buy them. (like me) If you don't believe in taking birth control, don't take it. This is so easy. Can you imagine us telling men they must be fixed until they are married so they won't keep populating? Boy I'd like to fix a few men!
ReplyDeleteI know of not one woman who doesn't take this seriously. Those who have had to have one still think about it. Normally the circumstances leading up to it were horrific and that is something that comes flooding back too. But sometimes it's necessary and they all know that too and do not regret what they had to do, only why they had to do it. This was not ever used like birth control or flippantly. Now if only these right wing nut jobs would then support this unwanted child they insisted a woman bring into the world with neonatal care, head start,day care and the list goes on. You are only wanted by these nuts jobs until you are born! Our world is so @#$!%! up.
When will women stop fighting for the rights they were born with and simply enjoy them?
ReplyDeleteYes! Whatever my view on any of it, I wouldn't force my Choice on any other Woman involuntarily... her Body, her Life, her set of Circumstances. They are coming for Women now, it's fairly predictable who they'll be coming for next, it's not about any Child Born or Unborn, at all!
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say I'm pro-choice, but I'd go further - any decisions about abortion should be made by women and women alone. The male contribution to the reproductive cycle is so brief, so morally dubious, so impulsive and - historically speaking - tending towards carelessness that men should be disqualified from pontificating on what follows. And especially old men who've had their fun and now imagine they're wise enough to mean a damn in the delivery and nurture of babies. Yes, men should be be allowed to try and show their bodies and minds are now in the right place but should be expected to fail in 999 cases out of a 1000. On the whole, men just don't get it. Including me. I only started to get a tiny hint of what it is to be a woman by the time my two daughters were on the brink of middle age. Thought a lot about various important things up til then: ski-ing, clever headlines, the classification of Bordeaux wines, and subjunctive verbs in French. Babies? Just a dim memory. I cleaned up their sick but only rarely.
ReplyDeleteI feel like we are living in a dystopian nightmare. I can only hope that this decision will finally prompt the passage of codified women's rights and that it will bring down the political party that even suggested such inhumane legislation. I will be doing everything I can to further towards those goals.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that american freedoms that the republicans love to drone on about, only apply to men. Wankers, the lot of them.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Unfortunately there are still plenty of men who feel they're entitled to tell women what to do with their own bodies.
ReplyDeleteMy mother gave a baby up for adoption before she got married (who has since been found and re-integrated into the family). My sister had an abortion before she got married. Both were devastating decisions when there just was no right answer. I just feel so lucky that I didn't have to ever make that choice, but by god, I want the right to. I want that for every woman.
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