Stephan: When I was in my early twenties I had two women friends my age who died as the result of kitchen table abortions (I was not the father, just a friend). Both women had made the pregnancy termination choice I learned from other women who were mutual friends because of the behavior of the men who were the fathers. Until that time I had never thought about abortion rights; I'm not even sure I had heard the word. But the loss of those two friends forced me to confront the issue of why a woman who accidentally gets pregnant must be condemned to an unwanted lifetime of motherhood of a child society saw as a bastard, or forced into an unwanted marriage?
An evangelical pastor I knew told me at the time that the women should have gone through their pregnancies and put their babies up for adoption. What about the social stigma I asked? What about the mother's feelings about giving birth to a child she would never see again. His response was that was the Lord's punishment for the women being sluts. Our acquaintanceship ended in that moment, and since those days I have been a strong supporter of a women's right to choose.
What has also always stood out for me in the choice debate is that the anti-choice community is also anti-childcare, anti-maternal leave, anti-family support. So they care about a handful of cells about the size of a marble, but once born those babies and mothers are on their own. I think that is a very sick anti-life worldview. This piece from The Washington Post expands on that.
Antiabortion activists protest outside a Planned Parenthood clinic on Jan. 20. Credit: Drew Angerer/Getty
A note to all the participants of Friday’s antiabortion March for Life rally, taking place in Washington:
I hope you’re preparing to make condoms rain from the sky. Buckets of them. Craploads, hurled from the cargo holds of the biggest planes you can find. Also, birth control pills. I hope every time a teenager opens their locker at school she finds 60 packs of Yaz.
You have been holding these marches since 1974, the year after Roe v. Wade, and guess what? You might have finally done it. You stacked the courts. Your lobbying efforts and voting patterns jammed three conservative justices on the Supreme Court’s bench during President Donald Trump’s term — never mind the hypocrisy of stonewalling Merrick Garland and then replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg (this isn’t the March for Constitutional Etiquette, after all). That same court is now preparing to issue rulings that might overturn the precedent that guaranteed women control over their reproductive futures. So, congrats?
lauren raine
on Saturday, January 22, 2022 at 7:06 am
Oh boy. As a lifetime feminist theorist and activist, there is too much to say, far too much. But no, no provision is made for the “feminization of poverty” by these people, who are following systems for the enslavement of women as “breeders” set in place millenia ago through the development of patriarchal cultures and institutions, the Bible being full of that social control mythology. From the “sin of Eve” on down to these clueless “right to lifers” who turn right around and scream about “welfare mothers”, and make no provision for childcare, schooling, even food stamps………who insist that usually girls not even out of their teens must “keep” their babies, thus ensuring a childhood of neglect, poverty, and (usually) also no father for the child, not to mention the loss of a meaningful future for the girls……………..I am speechless still, after 50 years of this. It’s all about punishment and control of women, in the end.
I was one of those girls, just 18 when I had to decide whether I was going to go to Mexico to risk my life (and I had friends who did and came back permanently damaged) or give up a baby to an unknown life. The “sexual revolution” might have been great for the boys, but we were the ones who carried the consequences of that irresponsible time. Giving up a baby is not an easy thing, and that is why most young girls or women can’t do it, but I did. Lots of girls in my generation had to, and were haunted by for the rest of their lives. I knew I had no means to raise a child, and any hopes of pursuing the education I desired and a career I would need to support myself…..would end if I didn’t give the baby away. I am fortunate that many years later I learned that the child had done well, but most birth parents never know.
From the witch trials on to the endless “entertainment” on TV of women raped and murdered…..when will the punishment of women end for the “crime” of being human beings with authority over their own bodies.
Oh boy. As a lifetime feminist theorist and activist, there is too much to say, far too much. But no, no provision is made for the “feminization of poverty” by these people, who are following systems for the enslavement of women as “breeders” set in place millenia ago through the development of patriarchal cultures and institutions, the Bible being full of that social control mythology. From the “sin of Eve” on down to these clueless “right to lifers” who turn right around and scream about “welfare mothers”, and make no provision for childcare, schooling, even food stamps………who insist that usually girls not even out of their teens must “keep” their babies, thus ensuring a childhood of neglect, poverty, and (usually) also no father for the child, not to mention the loss of a meaningful future for the girls……………..I am speechless still, after 50 years of this. It’s all about punishment and control of women, in the end.
I was one of those girls, just 18 when I had to decide whether I was going to go to Mexico to risk my life (and I had friends who did and came back permanently damaged) or give up a baby to an unknown life. The “sexual revolution” might have been great for the boys, but we were the ones who carried the consequences of that irresponsible time. Giving up a baby is not an easy thing, and that is why most young girls or women can’t do it, but I did. Lots of girls in my generation had to, and were haunted by for the rest of their lives. I knew I had no means to raise a child, and any hopes of pursuing the education I desired and a career I would need to support myself…..would end if I didn’t give the baby away. I am fortunate that many years later I learned that the child had done well, but most birth parents never know.
From the witch trials on to the endless “entertainment” on TV of women raped and murdered…..when will the punishment of women end for the “crime” of being human beings with authority over their own bodies.