(no subject)
Today is the 35th anniversary of the legalisation of abortion in America. Today George Bush renewed his anti abortion stance (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7203769.stm). Today I went to see 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days which is about a student in 1987 in Romania helping her friend to get an illegal abortion. If ever there was a something to prove why we need illegalised abortions that film is it.
It is the bleakest film I've ever seen. Not only are the girls in question risking their lives and their freedom, but the doctor will only perform the abortion if they both sleep with him. Which in it's self is sickening, and then you remember that this is a time and place where contraception was next to impossible to get hold of, so a doctor that is performing illegal abortions has sex with one pregnant girl and one who isn't. That really is fucking obscene. And then I came home to see George Bush inviting 200 people who want to take this right away from women round for dinner because he thinks they're right.
If I lived in America I think I'd be packing my bags right now and getting the first flight to somewhere where women are free. About half way through 4 Months... I realised that it could so easily be set in America in some of the states that are little by little taking away a woman's right to choose. And that is terrifying.
Today I am grateful that I live in a country where I have easy and open access to all the contraception I could ever need and that in a country where if I should find myself in that situation, I could have an abortion and not be raped by my doctor in order to get one. Or have to get my friend to dispose of the fetus in the rubbish chute of a tower block.
It is the bleakest film I've ever seen. Not only are the girls in question risking their lives and their freedom, but the doctor will only perform the abortion if they both sleep with him. Which in it's self is sickening, and then you remember that this is a time and place where contraception was next to impossible to get hold of, so a doctor that is performing illegal abortions has sex with one pregnant girl and one who isn't. That really is fucking obscene. And then I came home to see George Bush inviting 200 people who want to take this right away from women round for dinner because he thinks they're right.
If I lived in America I think I'd be packing my bags right now and getting the first flight to somewhere where women are free. About half way through 4 Months... I realised that it could so easily be set in America in some of the states that are little by little taking away a woman's right to choose. And that is terrifying.
Today I am grateful that I live in a country where I have easy and open access to all the contraception I could ever need and that in a country where if I should find myself in that situation, I could have an abortion and not be raped by my doctor in order to get one. Or have to get my friend to dispose of the fetus in the rubbish chute of a tower block.