Texas passes sweeping abortion restrictions
I'm gonna take a minute to step out of my personal life bubble here and address this:
Texas passes sweeping abortion restrictions
Okay, I have a lot of rage-y feelings about this particular thing, mostly because I have a lot of feelings about women's rights in general. As a daughter of a poor minority single mother, I have a LOT of feelings about politics.
First of all, you should know that this is not my knee-jerk reaction. My knee-jerk reaction wasn't nearly as coherent, and more resembled something like this:
Secondly, okay, my problem - okay, problems - with the GOP and their anti-abortion crusade is that, well, it's essentially a crusade against choice. Against women having agency over their bodies. They call themselves "pro-life" because that makes it sound so much better than what it actually is. They talk about "unborn children" like they actually give a flying fuck about anyone other than themselves and those around them.
Because if they were really pro-life, then they wouldn't be for the death penalty, or for war, or for unrestricted access to guns for everyone.
And if they really cared for the well-being of babies and children, they would do more for the millions of children already in the U.S. that lack loving homes, or access to healthcare, or proper education.
But they don't.
They're all for death when it comes to anyone not in the womb. They throw money at weapons manufacturers and into military coffers when the military itself says there's too much to spend, all the while cutting spending from social programs and education. They take money away from things that will benefit children in order to fund more death, and have the gall to call themselves "pro-lifers" just because they "care" about fetuses.
And, honestly, they can't care that much about fetuses, either, considering that they're also against providing pre-natal healthcare. So...they don't care that children are unwanted, or are unhealthy, or are uneducated. They just care that they're born, even if they're born to suffer.
No, it's not about the children, the babies, or even the fetuses.
It's about women. About hating the fact that women can choose what they want to do with their bodies, with their lives, with their futures.
"What if your mom had an abortion when she was pregnant with you?" That's a question that gets asked a lot by Anti-Choicers, and it really reveals how selfish they are, and how selfish they think everyone else is, too.
Honestly, if my mom had aborted me as a baby, I would never know the difference, but my mother wouldn't have had to struggle so much. She would never have had to work every day to try and make ends meet, never have had to struggle to get out of bed with a migraine to get to work because she had to pay for my needs, never have had to suffer what must have been the worst kind of humiliation in order to ask people for money because even with all that hard work, sometimes it still wasn't enough.
If I could have spared her all of that by not being born, I would.
But that's not my choice to make, it wasn't anyone's choice to make, except for hers - it was her choice.
It should be every woman's choice, not something forced on them.
I've seen families where the parents don't want children but have them anyway because "abortion is wrong." I've seen what happens to the children that are raised with the knowledge that they're unwanted, that they were always unwanted. I've seen how it affects a someone when they get told, point blank, by their parents, "I wish you had never been born." I would never wish that kind of emotional turmoil on anyone, much less a child.
I want every woman to have a choice, because it's their lives and their futures and their health on the line. And because women having that choice will also result in more children being born to homes with want them, that love them - instead of homes that resent them and neglect them.
Why is that so hard for people to understand?
xpost: http://jadehunter.dreamwidth.org/187331.html
Texas passes sweeping abortion restrictions
Okay, I have a lot of rage-y feelings about this particular thing, mostly because I have a lot of feelings about women's rights in general. As a daughter of a poor minority single mother, I have a LOT of feelings about politics.
First of all, you should know that this is not my knee-jerk reaction. My knee-jerk reaction wasn't nearly as coherent, and more resembled something like this:
Secondly, okay, my problem - okay, problems - with the GOP and their anti-abortion crusade is that, well, it's essentially a crusade against choice. Against women having agency over their bodies. They call themselves "pro-life" because that makes it sound so much better than what it actually is. They talk about "unborn children" like they actually give a flying fuck about anyone other than themselves and those around them.
Because if they were really pro-life, then they wouldn't be for the death penalty, or for war, or for unrestricted access to guns for everyone.
And if they really cared for the well-being of babies and children, they would do more for the millions of children already in the U.S. that lack loving homes, or access to healthcare, or proper education.
But they don't.
They're all for death when it comes to anyone not in the womb. They throw money at weapons manufacturers and into military coffers when the military itself says there's too much to spend, all the while cutting spending from social programs and education. They take money away from things that will benefit children in order to fund more death, and have the gall to call themselves "pro-lifers" just because they "care" about fetuses.
And, honestly, they can't care that much about fetuses, either, considering that they're also against providing pre-natal healthcare. So...they don't care that children are unwanted, or are unhealthy, or are uneducated. They just care that they're born, even if they're born to suffer.
No, it's not about the children, the babies, or even the fetuses.
It's about women. About hating the fact that women can choose what they want to do with their bodies, with their lives, with their futures.
"What if your mom had an abortion when she was pregnant with you?" That's a question that gets asked a lot by Anti-Choicers, and it really reveals how selfish they are, and how selfish they think everyone else is, too.
Honestly, if my mom had aborted me as a baby, I would never know the difference, but my mother wouldn't have had to struggle so much. She would never have had to work every day to try and make ends meet, never have had to struggle to get out of bed with a migraine to get to work because she had to pay for my needs, never have had to suffer what must have been the worst kind of humiliation in order to ask people for money because even with all that hard work, sometimes it still wasn't enough.
If I could have spared her all of that by not being born, I would.
But that's not my choice to make, it wasn't anyone's choice to make, except for hers - it was her choice.
It should be every woman's choice, not something forced on them.
I've seen families where the parents don't want children but have them anyway because "abortion is wrong." I've seen what happens to the children that are raised with the knowledge that they're unwanted, that they were always unwanted. I've seen how it affects a someone when they get told, point blank, by their parents, "I wish you had never been born." I would never wish that kind of emotional turmoil on anyone, much less a child.
I want every woman to have a choice, because it's their lives and their futures and their health on the line. And because women having that choice will also result in more children being born to homes with want them, that love them - instead of homes that resent them and neglect them.
Why is that so hard for people to understand?
xpost: http://jadehunter.dreamwidth.org/187331.html