14valentines Day 3: Reproductive Rights
Today's 14valentines post deals with Reproductive Rights. This refers to so much more than just a woman's right to choose as outlined in this country. When people hear "reproductive rights," often their minds go immediately to Roe v. Wade. It's more than that, it's more than I can describe in a single post.
I worked for Planned Parenthood for seven months, and even in that time I barely touched on the multitude of issues that fall under the topic. Go to PPFA.org and take a look around. Even that only brushes on the enormity of prejudice that women have to overcome because of their reproductive organs.
Here are some other links you should peruse:
The Day After Roe by Jeffry Rosen of The Atlantic, an article that details what would really change should Roe v. Wade be overturned. It's fascinating.
The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion by Joyce Arthur, which contains a multitude of quotes from anti-choice women who received abortions and their sincerely backwards justification for their own actions and condemnation of the actions of those around them.
CoverMyPills.Org is an organization that we recommended to people at Planned Parenthood constantly. It gives you information about what types of contraception are covered by your insurance company and what to do if it's not. The fact that birth control isn't covered by many insurance companies is just disgraceful and incredibly sexist.
Repeal the Global Gag Rule, a site from The Center for Health and Gender Equality about S 1774, The Global Democracy Protection Act. If you don't know anything about the Global Gag Rule, take a gander at that site. It's yet another provision put in place by Bush and his friends that's just disgusting and disgraceful.
And, hey, I wrote fic. Here's a secret, guys: I love Kaleb Miller, if only because I think Jeannie's a lot more like Rodney than we get to see and he totally married her anyway. (Because, let's face it, a woman with those qualities is considered, by society, a lot less attractive than a man with the same ones.) Kaleb totally took Women's Studies courses in college and went to campus feminist collective meetings and sold vagina lollipops on V-Day.
Title: Making a Choice
Fandom: SGA, Jeannie Miller
Rating: PG
Summary: Jeannie Mckay Miller has made many choices in her life, but they've all been her choice.
Jeannie only ever hit someone--really hit them, with anger, with a fist--one time in her life. It was her brother and he deserved it, but she spent the next three years feeling pretty badly about it. Well, mildly bad about it. She would have felt worse if she had actually given him a black eye. Or maybe she would have felt better.
They had been arguing about Jeannie's decision to put her dissertation on hold indefinitely.
Jeannie said, "I'm saying it's my choice, Meredith!"
Meredith said, "And I'm saying you shouldn't ruin your life for the first idiot who knocked you up! Did he force you into this?"
Jeannie hit him, then. It hurt, and she guessed, from his shouting, it hurt him too, but she couldn't imagine her first had hurt him as much as his words had hurt her.
***
Jeannie met Kaleb at the student health center when she was just beginning her Master's. He was sitting in the waiting room. She was on her way out with her boyfriend Colin and a crumpled sheet of paper with her pregnancy test results.
"You can't do this to me, Jean!" Colin said, clinging to her wrist and pleading. "You just can't!"
"I can!" Jeannie said, pulling her arm back. She was too stunned to be angry, but the anger was starting to make a good show of it, anyway. "I'm just starting my program, Colin! Do you know how hard I had to work to get into this project? Do you realize how much money in scholarships I'd be throwing away? Not to mention the fact that I'm certainly not ready to be a mother!"
Colin was still staring at her, wringing his hands worriedly. "It's my baby too!" he insisted. He snatched the paper from her hands and smoothed out the winkles, holding it up. It was nothing more than numbers and letters, the most important highlighted in yellow. Results of Urine Analysis: Positive. He held it out as if it were precious, a baby picture or a first ultrasound. "This is our child! This means we're having a child! You can't just destroy it!"
Her fist twitched. Her entire body twitched, actually, and she would have thrown her first punch about five years earlier if the man sitting in the waiting room hadn't spoken up.
"I'm just here for an allergy shot, but unless the laws changed recently, I think she's allowed to do anything she wants."
They both turned to look at him, this slightly gawky, harried looking guy with curly hair and glasses. He was holding a highlighter, an open literature textbook, and a box of tissues.
"I'm just saying," he added, looking back up at them again. "But what do I know? I'm just here for an allergy shot."
Jeannie could have kissed him, this strange literature major who she had never even seen before today.
"You have no fucking right to break into this conversation!" Colin shouted, and Jeannie realized that it had been awhile since she actually wanted to kiss Colin, who was supposed to be her boyfriend. Plus, this other guy's hair was kind of cute.
"You have no fucking right to be demanding things!" Jeannie said, shoving Colin back through the doorway into the office. "I told you out of courtesy, Colin, and this is my future we're talking about, so excuse me if I'm not too keen on you making the decisions for me. I've made my decision, and you have no part in it, or in the rest of my life from now on, for that matter!"
She slammed the door to the office, which was tricky considering she had to pull the door towards her. Curly Hair looked impressed and pleased. It was a good look on him, even with the runny nose and watery eyes.
"I've gotta get out of here before he realizes that I shoved him in and not out," she said, gesturing towards the hallway. "He's studying photography, though, so it might take a couple minutes."
Curly Hair laughed, then sneezed, then closed his literature book. "Well, we can't have you here when he gets out. He might do something really embarrassing like try to apologize or cry." Jeannie snorted. "I can take you by the Women's Clinic if you'd like."
"Maybe later," Jeannie said. "First, I really need a milkshake."
"I know the perfect place," Curly Hair said. "I mean, provided you don't mind soy milk and dairy-free ice cream."
"That's just gross," Jeannie said, pulling a face.
"They taste just as good, I swear," he insisted, getting to his feet and sneezing again.
"Don't you have to get an allergy shot?" she asked.
"It can wait," he said, runny nose saying otherwise. "My name is Kaleb. Modern Literature. I'd offer you my hand, but I've been holding snotty tissues all day."
"Jean," she said. "Well, Jeannie. Physics. If you want, I can tell you why you're ruining your life and wasting your education over milkshakes." He grinned at her. It was a cute grin.
"Sounds great," he said. "As long as you don't mind me taking mine with a shot of antihistamines."
She didn't. She didn't mind Kaleb's vegetarianism, either, or the way he'd accidentally go for days at a time without showering when he was working on a paper. And, a few years later when he presented her with a ring in the most cliche, heteronormative way she could ever imagine, she found she didn't mind that, either. Because it was always her choice--her choice to be around him, her choice to eat meat, her choice to stay with him for the foreseeable future. And when she found herself in the same health center with the same test results five years to the day after they met...
Well, she thought, resting her hand on her belly, that was her choice, too.
I worked for Planned Parenthood for seven months, and even in that time I barely touched on the multitude of issues that fall under the topic. Go to PPFA.org and take a look around. Even that only brushes on the enormity of prejudice that women have to overcome because of their reproductive organs.
Here are some other links you should peruse:
The Day After Roe by Jeffry Rosen of The Atlantic, an article that details what would really change should Roe v. Wade be overturned. It's fascinating.
The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion by Joyce Arthur, which contains a multitude of quotes from anti-choice women who received abortions and their sincerely backwards justification for their own actions and condemnation of the actions of those around them.
CoverMyPills.Org is an organization that we recommended to people at Planned Parenthood constantly. It gives you information about what types of contraception are covered by your insurance company and what to do if it's not. The fact that birth control isn't covered by many insurance companies is just disgraceful and incredibly sexist.
Repeal the Global Gag Rule, a site from The Center for Health and Gender Equality about S 1774, The Global Democracy Protection Act. If you don't know anything about the Global Gag Rule, take a gander at that site. It's yet another provision put in place by Bush and his friends that's just disgusting and disgraceful.
And, hey, I wrote fic. Here's a secret, guys: I love Kaleb Miller, if only because I think Jeannie's a lot more like Rodney than we get to see and he totally married her anyway. (Because, let's face it, a woman with those qualities is considered, by society, a lot less attractive than a man with the same ones.) Kaleb totally took Women's Studies courses in college and went to campus feminist collective meetings and sold vagina lollipops on V-Day.
Title: Making a Choice
Fandom: SGA, Jeannie Miller
Rating: PG
Summary: Jeannie Mckay Miller has made many choices in her life, but they've all been her choice.
Jeannie only ever hit someone--really hit them, with anger, with a fist--one time in her life. It was her brother and he deserved it, but she spent the next three years feeling pretty badly about it. Well, mildly bad about it. She would have felt worse if she had actually given him a black eye. Or maybe she would have felt better.
They had been arguing about Jeannie's decision to put her dissertation on hold indefinitely.
Jeannie said, "I'm saying it's my choice, Meredith!"
Meredith said, "And I'm saying you shouldn't ruin your life for the first idiot who knocked you up! Did he force you into this?"
Jeannie hit him, then. It hurt, and she guessed, from his shouting, it hurt him too, but she couldn't imagine her first had hurt him as much as his words had hurt her.
***
Jeannie met Kaleb at the student health center when she was just beginning her Master's. He was sitting in the waiting room. She was on her way out with her boyfriend Colin and a crumpled sheet of paper with her pregnancy test results.
"You can't do this to me, Jean!" Colin said, clinging to her wrist and pleading. "You just can't!"
"I can!" Jeannie said, pulling her arm back. She was too stunned to be angry, but the anger was starting to make a good show of it, anyway. "I'm just starting my program, Colin! Do you know how hard I had to work to get into this project? Do you realize how much money in scholarships I'd be throwing away? Not to mention the fact that I'm certainly not ready to be a mother!"
Colin was still staring at her, wringing his hands worriedly. "It's my baby too!" he insisted. He snatched the paper from her hands and smoothed out the winkles, holding it up. It was nothing more than numbers and letters, the most important highlighted in yellow. Results of Urine Analysis: Positive. He held it out as if it were precious, a baby picture or a first ultrasound. "This is our child! This means we're having a child! You can't just destroy it!"
Her fist twitched. Her entire body twitched, actually, and she would have thrown her first punch about five years earlier if the man sitting in the waiting room hadn't spoken up.
"I'm just here for an allergy shot, but unless the laws changed recently, I think she's allowed to do anything she wants."
They both turned to look at him, this slightly gawky, harried looking guy with curly hair and glasses. He was holding a highlighter, an open literature textbook, and a box of tissues.
"I'm just saying," he added, looking back up at them again. "But what do I know? I'm just here for an allergy shot."
Jeannie could have kissed him, this strange literature major who she had never even seen before today.
"You have no fucking right to break into this conversation!" Colin shouted, and Jeannie realized that it had been awhile since she actually wanted to kiss Colin, who was supposed to be her boyfriend. Plus, this other guy's hair was kind of cute.
"You have no fucking right to be demanding things!" Jeannie said, shoving Colin back through the doorway into the office. "I told you out of courtesy, Colin, and this is my future we're talking about, so excuse me if I'm not too keen on you making the decisions for me. I've made my decision, and you have no part in it, or in the rest of my life from now on, for that matter!"
She slammed the door to the office, which was tricky considering she had to pull the door towards her. Curly Hair looked impressed and pleased. It was a good look on him, even with the runny nose and watery eyes.
"I've gotta get out of here before he realizes that I shoved him in and not out," she said, gesturing towards the hallway. "He's studying photography, though, so it might take a couple minutes."
Curly Hair laughed, then sneezed, then closed his literature book. "Well, we can't have you here when he gets out. He might do something really embarrassing like try to apologize or cry." Jeannie snorted. "I can take you by the Women's Clinic if you'd like."
"Maybe later," Jeannie said. "First, I really need a milkshake."
"I know the perfect place," Curly Hair said. "I mean, provided you don't mind soy milk and dairy-free ice cream."
"That's just gross," Jeannie said, pulling a face.
"They taste just as good, I swear," he insisted, getting to his feet and sneezing again.
"Don't you have to get an allergy shot?" she asked.
"It can wait," he said, runny nose saying otherwise. "My name is Kaleb. Modern Literature. I'd offer you my hand, but I've been holding snotty tissues all day."
"Jean," she said. "Well, Jeannie. Physics. If you want, I can tell you why you're ruining your life and wasting your education over milkshakes." He grinned at her. It was a cute grin.
"Sounds great," he said. "As long as you don't mind me taking mine with a shot of antihistamines."
She didn't. She didn't mind Kaleb's vegetarianism, either, or the way he'd accidentally go for days at a time without showering when he was working on a paper. And, a few years later when he presented her with a ring in the most cliche, heteronormative way she could ever imagine, she found she didn't mind that, either. Because it was always her choice--her choice to be around him, her choice to eat meat, her choice to stay with him for the foreseeable future. And when she found herself in the same health center with the same test results five years to the day after they met...
Well, she thought, resting her hand on her belly, that was her choice, too.