getting publically political for a moment.....
The following statement has been going around LJ, and while I do feel slightly different about the portion that says that sexual partners should have no say over whether I choose to bear a child*, I am a rather strong supporter of keeping abortion legal, and so I shall post it.
The circumstances under which I would, might, have, or might have chosen to have an abortion are nobody's business but mine and those I choose to tell. They are not the business of any government. I do not accept the proposition that either the state or my sexual partner(s) should have any say over when and if I choose to bear a child. I do not accept any sovereignty over my body and my reproductive organs but my own. If faced with the situation, I will do everything feasible to help other women and girls I know exercise their rights to safely terminate a pregnancy if they so choose. When a state treats women and girls as chattel, it is they that commit a crime.
If you agree, please place the preceding paragraph in your journal. Then use the following link to send a message to South Dakota's governor:
http://www.saveroe.com/blogs/2006/03/03/stand-up-for-south-dakota-women
And thanks.
* I recognize that my issues with this statement are moral rather than legal, and the morality issue is personal not legal.... I personally think that relationship to the sexual partner must be taken into account... is it your husband? long time boyfriend? or some guy you had casual one night sex with and never even swapped phone numbers? By protecting a woman's legal right not to have to hunt down the one night stand and get his permission to have an abortion, you are legally also protecting the right of a woman to sneek out behind her husbands back and have an abortion. Morally I am emphatic that committed couples need to make this sort of decision together, but I recognize that not everyone will agree with me in their own lives, and there for this portion needs to be left to the individual and not left up to the law to define.
The circumstances under which I would, might, have, or might have chosen to have an abortion are nobody's business but mine and those I choose to tell. They are not the business of any government. I do not accept the proposition that either the state or my sexual partner(s) should have any say over when and if I choose to bear a child. I do not accept any sovereignty over my body and my reproductive organs but my own. If faced with the situation, I will do everything feasible to help other women and girls I know exercise their rights to safely terminate a pregnancy if they so choose. When a state treats women and girls as chattel, it is they that commit a crime.
If you agree, please place the preceding paragraph in your journal. Then use the following link to send a message to South Dakota's governor:
http://www.saveroe.com/blogs/2006/03/03/stand-up-for-south-dakota-women
And thanks.
* I recognize that my issues with this statement are moral rather than legal, and the morality issue is personal not legal.... I personally think that relationship to the sexual partner must be taken into account... is it your husband? long time boyfriend? or some guy you had casual one night sex with and never even swapped phone numbers? By protecting a woman's legal right not to have to hunt down the one night stand and get his permission to have an abortion, you are legally also protecting the right of a woman to sneek out behind her husbands back and have an abortion. Morally I am emphatic that committed couples need to make this sort of decision together, but I recognize that not everyone will agree with me in their own lives, and there for this portion needs to be left to the individual and not left up to the law to define.