It should be a given that abortion, as in the willful termination of a healthy pregnancy, is not the best choice in most situations. The issue really is, however, who makes those choices? In the attempted governing of abortion we must reach inside the domain of a woman’s body. The next step would be regulating her behavior which has already begun within the grandiloquence concerning contraception in the political and religious arenas.
The legality of abortion and some would say abortion rights have been increasingly challenged by several state measures aimed at constraining the use of abortion. Legislation in Kansas will restrict women’s access to abortions. The Kansas measure “declares the life of each human being begins at fertilization.” Alabama introduced a measure that considerably raises the safety requirements for abortion clinics to operate. Safety as an alleged issue has been used before as in the recent case of a Virginia bill requiring women to have an ultrasound before an abortion. The strategy in these cases is to use the seemingly legitimate issue of safety as a premise to get one more step closer to the control of women’s bodies.
Regardless of where you stand on this issue, whether it be pro-life or pro-choice, please step back from it for a moment with me. Try to recognize what the current firestorm regarding abortion in American politics is really all about in consideration of the rights of women. Especially if you are a woman focus on the rights of you and your own body not the rhetoric of politics or religion.
Women are the producers of life. Women have babies develop within them. They go through the pain and the dangers of pregnancy and childbirth. A woman’s body then transforms to nurture the child with her milk and maternal instincts. Like it or not if a man does not want to be involved in a pregnancy all he has to do is walk away. Furthermore, it is a crazy little hunch of mine that maybe if men had an equal role to that of women in the process of bringing a life into this world then maybe men would not be in such a big hurry to drop bombs on other countries.
The universe is a big place and we, as individuals, have absolute control over very little that is in it. There are not too many places or things in this world that always remain with us and that we have complete power to control from our birth until our death. Two notable exceptions would be our bodies and our minds.
Pregnancy happens within the body of a woman. A woman’s body belongs to that woman. That body is her domain. That body is her life support system in this world. She has every right to determine what processes take place inside of her.
I am most alarmed by those on the right who put forth the concept that abortion should not be legal even in the cases of rape, incest, or if the mother’s life is at risk. Please consider some of the broad ramifications of this premise.
Rape can be a very traumatic event for a woman and not all women can recover from rape psychologically if they become pregnant and have to carry to term. Statistically the percentages of women who endure a rape or a sexual assault at some point in their lives are very high. Many rapes go unreported because the law does very little to protect women against sexual assault in many cases or puts the victim on trial. It often comes down to his word against hers. How unfair is it then that women, being so vulnerable in these situations, are being threatened with limits regarding how they feel they may best recover from a sexual assault? If anything, women should have extra safeguards and rights as victims of sex crimes. As it stands, it can be argued that an accused rapist has more rights and protections.
It doesn’t stop there. I would be willing to bet that most women have had, at some point in their life, an ex-boyfriend or ex-husband that just doesn’t get it that the relationship is over. If you are a woman, how would you like an obsessed idiot to be armed with the notion that if he rapes you and gets you pregnant, some judge is going to order you to have the baby and thereby forever intertwine your destinies? With this extreme no abortion under any conditions concept, even if your father rapes you and the pregnancy will be life threatening to you, you still do not get the option of an abortion.
Be aware of anyone trying to get the high ground on this issue by invoking religion. Penis envy in Freudian psychoanalysis suggests that a girl has some sort of an insecurity regarding her self-worth during her psychosexual development due to the recognition that she does not have a penis. I would suggest that it is more likely that men have way more issues regarding vaginas. What some men don’t have, they wish to control. Often the windows of opportunity to gaining that control are moral and religious points of view.
Most people find comfort in their faith and want to comply with their religion. This is often used as a first step to get you to do something else, like give generously to your church. Many churches do well to help the community there is no question. However, I do find it odd that in other cases the assertion is made that God, who created everything from the biggest galaxies to the smallest atoms and even the time in which all of these things exist, needs you to donate substantial amounts of money to a preacher who is standing on a stage worthy of a rock star because he requires help spreading God’s word.
The submission and the subservience of women in society are woven into the religious plot in the same way. This is how contraception becomes a sin. Nothing keeps a woman busier than being pregnant and raising ten kids. By the way, if a man decides he does not want any more children is a vasectomy a sin? How often have you heard that?
This is the bottom line of what I want to say to women. Own your own body. If you are a person of faith what happens in your own consciousness regarding your body is between you and the Good Lord. Don’t let some man, preacher, or politician manipulate your religion or promote legislation to control your life, your finances, or what is between your legs.
President Barack Obama backed Planned Parenthood Friday. The President stated (among other things) that “an assault on women’s rights” is happening in the country considering that there are bills introduced in 40 some states that limit or ban abortion or restrict access to birth control and possibly other services. I do not understand how this issue began going backward to the point that even preventing pregnancy is a problem.
Nicely stated Billy. If we would simply focus on preventing unwanted pregnancies there would be less need for all the hysteria being acted by extremists on the right. But it is this group of anal retentive types that forbid any use of condoms, birth control pills or public sex education that might reduce this problem with pre-adolescents.
And for my money, anyone who makes a decision to prevent abortion based on law they draw up that says a fertilized egg is equal to a full birth human being or even a late-term fetus is simply bat-shit crazy.
Thank you for the comments. Republicans in particular have to get off these types of issues to ever have any hope of being in touch.