Blogging For Choice
While I do have my own story, one I'm fairly sure I've shared somewhere on this blog, I have a tendency to get "all panicky" when writing on feminist topics*. While I actually consider Health Care a Humanist topic, it's obvious that I will never face a personal decision as to whether or not I need to terminate a pregnancy in my own body.
Thus bein' the case, though admittedly it's mostly the panicky bit, I offer this link to another exemplary essay from a much clicked upon resident of my sidebar, Suzanne at C.U.S.S and Other Rants. I hope you take the time to read her Op piece on the Metro site as well.
From 34 Years of Legal Abortion: Blog for Choice DayThank ya, woman, For all you blog!
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Women are people already. We have the right to decide if we want to undergo these risks or not. No one has the right to impose these risks on an unwilling woman. It is nice for you if your religion says that life begins at conception. Your religion is not the law, nor should it be. Your religion does not grant a zygote more rights to life than a living woman has. As a woman, I have a life. There are no debates about whether I am alive or not. As such, my rights always supersede the rights your religion grants a fetus. At the end of the day, women will always decide for themselves whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term. The only difference is whether we have the legal right to a safe medical procedure or whether we need to seek out potentially life-threatening illegal abortions. AGI reports that 13% of pregnancy-related deaths worldwide are from unsafe abortions. These unnecessary deaths are undisputable blood on someone’s hands, and those hands belong to the forced childbirth movement.
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* Oh, I know why. Is just not as "bad" a cause as my silly residual Catholic shame-complex makes it seem.
There are still a lot of women out there who do not consider their bodies as their own domain. they haven't even realized that they have the right to think and decide what is best for their own body. When enough women come to that realization - that this is their body and their responsibility, things will change.
ReplyDeleteI leave this kinda stuff up to EB...
ReplyDeleteI like the tone of the one you quote. No nonsense plain talk. Only thing is that the "forced childbirth" crowd doesn't think it's "nice" that life begins at conception. They think it's the word of God. Therefore they can NEVER compromise.
ReplyDeleteSo where does that lead?
You also have a "residual Catholic shame-complex"? Welcome to the club. I'm still getting over 12 years of Catholic education myself.
ReplyDeletefrom feminist to another, "WELL PUT!!"
ReplyDeleteDon't we all have some sort of residuals left over from somewhere in our pasts? It's not always rainbow time unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteData suggests that Catholics are the highest reporters of abortion procedures. So, join the shame group with them.
ReplyDeleteI chose not to blog about abortion yesterday. I did so because abortion is important to me everyday. It is important because anyone who is against secretly or not so secretly hates women. Abortion is about women controlling their own lives and bodies. I support that everyday. I also support abortion being practiced where it belongs: safely in the hands of a trained physician.
I have said it before and I will say it again, if the anti-abortion crowd care so much -- why aren't they lobbying for better birth control. Abortions exsist mainly because birth control is an unmet need around the world. For those who oppose the practice of abortions, support birth control that is suitable to all. It would reduce the number of abortions.
OK, enough preaching to the choir. Hence, why I didn't blog about it.
Nice post! Thanks for caring about what I care about. That's why we are friends.
:)
ReplyDeleteThank you all, for everything.
Thanks for the link and quote! Although I must say that I think that you have the right to write about as many "feminist" topics as you want. In my mind, being a feminist is something that any person who supports equality can lay claim to. And I agree that abortion is a humanist health care topic as much as anything.
ReplyDelete"Your religion does not grant a zygote more rights to life than a living woman has."
ReplyDeleteThis might just be the best quote ever on the subject. Thank you!