In the name of "You feminists are so negative!"
I'm late to the party, but last week the state of Victoria decriminalised abortions for women up to 24 weeks into their pregnancy.
Blogger on the Cast Iron balcony has two posts up about the issue, featuring emails from her local Greens member. The most recent of these made me cry.
I don't go around trumpeting the fact, but I'm fairly open about the fact I was an unwanted teenage accident for my parents. I also narrowly missed being aborted because of the time limitations on abortions in this state.
You all know I'm a (very happy) mother at this point. And that I had a difficult pregnancy and birthing experience, as it turned out.
I was pro-choice before I ever got pregnant. If (despite my severe precautions) I'd fallen pregnant up until sometime in my early twenties I knew I would have had an abortion. In my paranoia that the same thing would happen to me that happened to my mother (and her mother, and HER mother...) I'd sat down and spent some time thinking about the "what if" scenario of my pregnancy. Growing up, I was aware of the fact of my mother's resentment and frustration with me and the early role of motherhood. I swore to myself that I would not have an unwanted child - I would choose when I got pregnant, and any children I had would grow up knowing they were wanted and loved even before they were born.
These days, I don't know if I could do it. But I will not make that choice for others. My experiences have made me even more adamantly pro-choice.
I don't like abortions, so I probably won't get one. But I am not anyone else, I am not living their lives, I cannot presume to tell them what to do with their bodies. The thought of small children being raised by women and/or men who don't want them horrifies me. The thought of women dying because an ectopic pregnancy exploded their innards is terrifying. The gamut of experiences and possibilities between the two is enormous and awful. I'm so glad women in Victoria will have the choice to control their own bodies - to decide if they want to have an abortion as well as if they don't want to!
Blogger on the Cast Iron balcony has two posts up about the issue, featuring emails from her local Greens member. The most recent of these made me cry.
I don't go around trumpeting the fact, but I'm fairly open about the fact I was an unwanted teenage accident for my parents. I also narrowly missed being aborted because of the time limitations on abortions in this state.
You all know I'm a (very happy) mother at this point. And that I had a difficult pregnancy and birthing experience, as it turned out.
I was pro-choice before I ever got pregnant. If (despite my severe precautions) I'd fallen pregnant up until sometime in my early twenties I knew I would have had an abortion. In my paranoia that the same thing would happen to me that happened to my mother (and her mother, and HER mother...) I'd sat down and spent some time thinking about the "what if" scenario of my pregnancy. Growing up, I was aware of the fact of my mother's resentment and frustration with me and the early role of motherhood. I swore to myself that I would not have an unwanted child - I would choose when I got pregnant, and any children I had would grow up knowing they were wanted and loved even before they were born.
These days, I don't know if I could do it. But I will not make that choice for others. My experiences have made me even more adamantly pro-choice.
I don't like abortions, so I probably won't get one. But I am not anyone else, I am not living their lives, I cannot presume to tell them what to do with their bodies. The thought of small children being raised by women and/or men who don't want them horrifies me. The thought of women dying because an ectopic pregnancy exploded their innards is terrifying. The gamut of experiences and possibilities between the two is enormous and awful. I'm so glad women in Victoria will have the choice to control their own bodies - to decide if they want to have an abortion as well as if they don't want to!