Angry pro-choice rant ahead, you have been warned.
WARNING: ANGRY RANT ABOUT ABORTION RIGHTS, ETC., AHEAD.
So UW-Health wants to open a second-trimester abortion clinic, as the clinic in town has stopped offering them due to their qualified clinician retiring. Unsurprisingly, there has been major, major backlash against their decision and wants.
You know what? I don't like abortion. I hate it. It sucks.
I've never been in the position to make a decision like that, and I hope I never have to--it's a really hard decision, no matter what the situation is. I don't know what I would do--I've thought about it, and talked about it, and I think that it's something that anyone who has PIV sex, regardless of birth control, needs to really and truly think about and consider.
Everyone says it's a matter of where you say life begins--but you know what? That's bullshit. Total and utter bullshit. It doesn't matter how you define life, because no matter what, it's a shitty situation and a painfully hard decision to make. Does the idea of abortion bother me? Not if it's really early, when it's still a bundle of tissues and crap. When does that change? Fuck if I know. It's not something you can quantify.
So what if life begins at conception? Who cares? That doesn't make the situation better, it doesn't change a rape and it doesn't mean someone has the resources or the ability to raise a child. Does that make the fetus, the tissues, a citizen with all the rights of people in our country? Really? We value the rights, the life, of a little bundle of tissue, more than we value, say, the lives of two people in love that happen to both be men or both be women? That's an argument I can't stomach. If life begins at conception, fine, but do not dare to tell me that fetus has rights you wouldn't afford to a gay person because of their fucking brain chemistry.
No matter what, it's a shitty, shitty situation. It's not going to go away. I don't care if life begins at conception or two months in or three months: I just don't frankly care. It's my fucking body, it's my fucking uterus, and it's half of my fucking DNA. There is no easy situation, and it would be wonderful if every child were a wanted child, or if we could give unwanted pregnancies to those who can't conceive on their own. But we can't.
But you know what? Pro-choice or pro-life, and I consider myself in the former "camp," everyone agrees on one thing: wouldn't it be great if abortions were never necessary? If there was no rape, no failed birth control, if every woman who got pregnant wanted the child and had the ability and resources to raise it happily and healthy--wouldn't that be wonderful? Everyone can agree on that.
Time for some crap news, folks: the world isn't perfect. It's not going to be. Birth control isn't perfect--not even sterilization!, although I imagine a total hysterectomy is just about 100% if not actually--and people are going to have sex whether or not they're ready for children. You know why? Because it feels good, and it's fun, and let's face it, a lot of us get horny out of our minds. That's how we're built, and that's okay. Sex isn't dirty or bad or gross or sinful--we don't have to keep it in our pants or hold a dime between our knees or lie in bed not touching ourselves while thinking desperately about Margaret Thatcher.
Sex happens. It's going to keep happening, too. Sex happens, rape happens, birth control fails, mistakes happen. We aren't perfect. Abortion is just a fact of life. Abortion sucks, and it's a hard decision to make, but you know what? Even if we make it illegal, that won't do shit. It just means that they'll be dangerous and illegal--it won't stop it. Criminalizing something never stops it. I can't fight something--I can't ban it--when I know that doing so condemns so many people that our society already shuns, when I know that doing so means some women will be permanently harmed or killed because their only way out was illegal procedures that no one was monitoring. I just can't make that choice for anyone else.
Some people who protest abortion clinics, who torment the women who go in, who harass the doctors, who yell and picket--they say they're doing God's work. That's bullshit. That's sheer and utter bullshit.
The one's doing God's work are the ones who help the women, who treat them, who give them comfort and--yes--abortions, regardless of their own beliefs. Who realize that, sometimes, life stacks the deck against you, and that for whatever reason, you have to make the hard choice and followthrough no matter the pain involved. Who realize that the most important thing is to help people, to respect them, not to judge and demonize them because of their choices.
So if you want to stop abortion? Awesome! Give out birth control. Teach people about their bodies. Learn to say no, and learn that without consent something is never okay. Teach your kids to respect everyone, regardless of their choices. Learn how to tell when you're fertile and learn to suck it up and wear the fucking condom. And you know what? That won't get rid of abortion. Nothing will.
So until there's no rape, until birth control is infallible, until there are infinite resources, until we can give unwanted pregnancies to those who can't conceive--well, sorry, but I'm in the realism camp, and I'm not every woman alive. How can I possibly judge for them?
Until then--until we live in a perfect world--I want the choice. I want the choice to raise a child I love with every cell in my body, I want the choice to control my own life, I want the choice to hang onto that tiny shred of control I have left after I've been raped, I want the choice to breathe and to know that when I have a child, that child is loved and wanted and ready to be cared for the way that every child deserves to be. I want the choice to give my love and body when and where I want to.
So UW-Health wants to open a second-trimester abortion clinic, as the clinic in town has stopped offering them due to their qualified clinician retiring. Unsurprisingly, there has been major, major backlash against their decision and wants.
You know what? I don't like abortion. I hate it. It sucks.
I've never been in the position to make a decision like that, and I hope I never have to--it's a really hard decision, no matter what the situation is. I don't know what I would do--I've thought about it, and talked about it, and I think that it's something that anyone who has PIV sex, regardless of birth control, needs to really and truly think about and consider.
Everyone says it's a matter of where you say life begins--but you know what? That's bullshit. Total and utter bullshit. It doesn't matter how you define life, because no matter what, it's a shitty situation and a painfully hard decision to make. Does the idea of abortion bother me? Not if it's really early, when it's still a bundle of tissues and crap. When does that change? Fuck if I know. It's not something you can quantify.
So what if life begins at conception? Who cares? That doesn't make the situation better, it doesn't change a rape and it doesn't mean someone has the resources or the ability to raise a child. Does that make the fetus, the tissues, a citizen with all the rights of people in our country? Really? We value the rights, the life, of a little bundle of tissue, more than we value, say, the lives of two people in love that happen to both be men or both be women? That's an argument I can't stomach. If life begins at conception, fine, but do not dare to tell me that fetus has rights you wouldn't afford to a gay person because of their fucking brain chemistry.
No matter what, it's a shitty, shitty situation. It's not going to go away. I don't care if life begins at conception or two months in or three months: I just don't frankly care. It's my fucking body, it's my fucking uterus, and it's half of my fucking DNA. There is no easy situation, and it would be wonderful if every child were a wanted child, or if we could give unwanted pregnancies to those who can't conceive on their own. But we can't.
But you know what? Pro-choice or pro-life, and I consider myself in the former "camp," everyone agrees on one thing: wouldn't it be great if abortions were never necessary? If there was no rape, no failed birth control, if every woman who got pregnant wanted the child and had the ability and resources to raise it happily and healthy--wouldn't that be wonderful? Everyone can agree on that.
Time for some crap news, folks: the world isn't perfect. It's not going to be. Birth control isn't perfect--not even sterilization!, although I imagine a total hysterectomy is just about 100% if not actually--and people are going to have sex whether or not they're ready for children. You know why? Because it feels good, and it's fun, and let's face it, a lot of us get horny out of our minds. That's how we're built, and that's okay. Sex isn't dirty or bad or gross or sinful--we don't have to keep it in our pants or hold a dime between our knees or lie in bed not touching ourselves while thinking desperately about Margaret Thatcher.
Sex happens. It's going to keep happening, too. Sex happens, rape happens, birth control fails, mistakes happen. We aren't perfect. Abortion is just a fact of life. Abortion sucks, and it's a hard decision to make, but you know what? Even if we make it illegal, that won't do shit. It just means that they'll be dangerous and illegal--it won't stop it. Criminalizing something never stops it. I can't fight something--I can't ban it--when I know that doing so condemns so many people that our society already shuns, when I know that doing so means some women will be permanently harmed or killed because their only way out was illegal procedures that no one was monitoring. I just can't make that choice for anyone else.
Some people who protest abortion clinics, who torment the women who go in, who harass the doctors, who yell and picket--they say they're doing God's work. That's bullshit. That's sheer and utter bullshit.
The one's doing God's work are the ones who help the women, who treat them, who give them comfort and--yes--abortions, regardless of their own beliefs. Who realize that, sometimes, life stacks the deck against you, and that for whatever reason, you have to make the hard choice and followthrough no matter the pain involved. Who realize that the most important thing is to help people, to respect them, not to judge and demonize them because of their choices.
So if you want to stop abortion? Awesome! Give out birth control. Teach people about their bodies. Learn to say no, and learn that without consent something is never okay. Teach your kids to respect everyone, regardless of their choices. Learn how to tell when you're fertile and learn to suck it up and wear the fucking condom. And you know what? That won't get rid of abortion. Nothing will.
So until there's no rape, until birth control is infallible, until there are infinite resources, until we can give unwanted pregnancies to those who can't conceive--well, sorry, but I'm in the realism camp, and I'm not every woman alive. How can I possibly judge for them?
Until then--until we live in a perfect world--I want the choice. I want the choice to raise a child I love with every cell in my body, I want the choice to control my own life, I want the choice to hang onto that tiny shred of control I have left after I've been raped, I want the choice to breathe and to know that when I have a child, that child is loved and wanted and ready to be cared for the way that every child deserves to be. I want the choice to give my love and body when and where I want to.