A Pro-Family Society Must Be Pro-Choice
In light of South Dakota's recent aberrant political manuevering, and the threat of others to follow (including my home state), I've done a bit of writing to newspapers lately. I sent what is below to the local paper of my alma mater, the Oracle of Tennessee Tech. I have no clue if they'll print any of it, but I figured at the very least I could share it with you folks and see what everyone thought.
A Pro-Family Society Must Be Pro-Choice
Recently the news has been filled cases of states striving to challenge Roe vs. Wade. I would like to make it clearer to you why that decision is so pivotal in protecting the lives of women, and why that legislation alone is far short of a holistic response to our current crisis in individual control over one‘s own reproduction.
So many anti-feminist "thinkers" have been spreading their uninformed nonsense lately that it makes me very disturbed. First, they decry the high abortion rate as evidence of a "harmful" pro-choice society. Yet, according to FactCheck.org, abortion rates have streadily *dropped* every year since 1980. We fems happily accept the bulk responsibility for this downward trend. The reason that we can legitimately claim that responsibility is because we have a more realistic, accurate and practical view towards helping women so that they never need to make such a difficult choice. Anti-choice activists misleadingly address abortion as a the cause of social ills, when in fact it is a symptom of society‘s problems. Preventing women from legally seeking abortions is like giving headache medicine to a patient with a tumor. It hides the problem without solving it, and in this case even increases the imminent danger to the patient.
Worldwide, 78,000 women die every year from unsafe abortion, primarily in countries where the right to a legal abortion goes unprotected or is forced upon unwilling, would-be mothers.
In Brazil abortions are very restricted. They are only legally allowed to save a woman‘s life or in cases of rape. In fact, any person performing an abortion under other circumstances can be jailed up to 4 years. Most hospitals require court authorization for a legal abortion, often resulting in delays which make the abortion impossible to perform. Despite the law, between 1 and 1.4 million abortions occur there each year, in extremely dangerous conditions. Unsafe abortions account for 25% of infertility of Brazilian women, and they are the 5th leading cause of hospitalization among women, particularly of the middle and lower classes. It is also very difficult to get contraceptives information and access.
Laws in China which force abortions on unwilling women in the name of population control also turn out serious dangers to women, including gender-selective abortion which gravely devalues girls. This violation of women‘s bodies and of a married couple‘s rights to their own family is every bit as atrocious as Brazil‘s unjust restrictions. The name of the game is Pro-Choice for a reason.
The idea that making abortions illegal will stop them from happening is simply naïve. Since women will seek abortions for as long as societal constraints in their lives compel them to need it, here are six effective (i.e. feminist) ways to reduce needed abortions: 1. remedy poverty, 2. prevent rape and incest, 3. stop domestic abuse, 4. expand women‘s shelters, 5. compel detailed sex education in schools, and 6. protect contraception access as a right. Numbers 5 and 6 are likely the most achievable and most directly related to unwanted conceptions for all women. Therefore, we must recognize the morning-after-pill as the safe, pro-family choice that it is by making it over the counter (as many countries have done in Europe); influence more health insurance companies to cover the pill, the patch, etc.; and, of course, we need to develop increasingly more effective forms of contraception.
Feminists have long fought to ensure that women have every necessary tool to control their own reproduction. That includes every possibility: abortion, adoption, the morning-after pill, plus other safe (and affordable) contraceptives. In truth, the feminist label label of "Pro-Choice" is a slight misnomer. It would be more accurately stated "Pro-Choices."
Second, though most importantly, these anti-choice activists ignore the most important issue of all: women‘s health and safety. The greatest change which legality made for abortion seekers is that the procedure is much safer. No longer must women resort to quack doctors in back alley clinics, or risk using hangers from their own homes, thereby risking permanent sterility and even death at the hands of unskilled hacks. Thank God that danger has passed, and that a moral society such as our own would never have so little heart as to subject women to it ever again.
Finally, I would like everyone to remember that no little girl grows up dreaming of the day when she will be able to have an abortion. That choice is never an easy one, but then, every person‘s life includes facing very difficult choices, and it should not be at the discretion of any court to rule over such an intimate decision. The government does not belong inside a woman‘s uterus, and it has absolutely no right to tell doctors what is best for their patients.
Until we as a society are ready to remedy every social ill which brings about the need for an abortion, we must acknowledge that this option needs legal protection, for the sake of protecting women from the same disasters as suffered in past generations. If we are to be a reasonable and compassionate society, we must prove that we are Pro-Choices.
Oh, and here's a site posted by cutepurplegirl which I found interesting: The Only Moral Abortion Is My Abortion. It has stories, told by the physicians who performed the procedure, about women who get abortions between their turns at the clinic picket lines. Be sure and check out the final anecdote.
Also, via piepmeier: Rights and Liberties: Running From Roe, which does a more direct political analysis of what has happened regarding this issue since Roe vs. Wade.
So, anybody willing to debate on this? :-D
Oh, and if anybody knows how to fix a camera's lcd screen so that the thing has more on it than blank white, please let me know. That's the only thing wrong with my camera, it still takes and stores pictures just fine, I just can't see anything while I'm taking the pics or look through them on my camera.
A Pro-Family Society Must Be Pro-Choice
Recently the news has been filled cases of states striving to challenge Roe vs. Wade. I would like to make it clearer to you why that decision is so pivotal in protecting the lives of women, and why that legislation alone is far short of a holistic response to our current crisis in individual control over one‘s own reproduction.
So many anti-feminist "thinkers" have been spreading their uninformed nonsense lately that it makes me very disturbed. First, they decry the high abortion rate as evidence of a "harmful" pro-choice society. Yet, according to FactCheck.org, abortion rates have streadily *dropped* every year since 1980. We fems happily accept the bulk responsibility for this downward trend. The reason that we can legitimately claim that responsibility is because we have a more realistic, accurate and practical view towards helping women so that they never need to make such a difficult choice. Anti-choice activists misleadingly address abortion as a the cause of social ills, when in fact it is a symptom of society‘s problems. Preventing women from legally seeking abortions is like giving headache medicine to a patient with a tumor. It hides the problem without solving it, and in this case even increases the imminent danger to the patient.
Worldwide, 78,000 women die every year from unsafe abortion, primarily in countries where the right to a legal abortion goes unprotected or is forced upon unwilling, would-be mothers.
In Brazil abortions are very restricted. They are only legally allowed to save a woman‘s life or in cases of rape. In fact, any person performing an abortion under other circumstances can be jailed up to 4 years. Most hospitals require court authorization for a legal abortion, often resulting in delays which make the abortion impossible to perform. Despite the law, between 1 and 1.4 million abortions occur there each year, in extremely dangerous conditions. Unsafe abortions account for 25% of infertility of Brazilian women, and they are the 5th leading cause of hospitalization among women, particularly of the middle and lower classes. It is also very difficult to get contraceptives information and access.
Laws in China which force abortions on unwilling women in the name of population control also turn out serious dangers to women, including gender-selective abortion which gravely devalues girls. This violation of women‘s bodies and of a married couple‘s rights to their own family is every bit as atrocious as Brazil‘s unjust restrictions. The name of the game is Pro-Choice for a reason.
The idea that making abortions illegal will stop them from happening is simply naïve. Since women will seek abortions for as long as societal constraints in their lives compel them to need it, here are six effective (i.e. feminist) ways to reduce needed abortions: 1. remedy poverty, 2. prevent rape and incest, 3. stop domestic abuse, 4. expand women‘s shelters, 5. compel detailed sex education in schools, and 6. protect contraception access as a right. Numbers 5 and 6 are likely the most achievable and most directly related to unwanted conceptions for all women. Therefore, we must recognize the morning-after-pill as the safe, pro-family choice that it is by making it over the counter (as many countries have done in Europe); influence more health insurance companies to cover the pill, the patch, etc.; and, of course, we need to develop increasingly more effective forms of contraception.
Feminists have long fought to ensure that women have every necessary tool to control their own reproduction. That includes every possibility: abortion, adoption, the morning-after pill, plus other safe (and affordable) contraceptives. In truth, the feminist label label of "Pro-Choice" is a slight misnomer. It would be more accurately stated "Pro-Choices."
Second, though most importantly, these anti-choice activists ignore the most important issue of all: women‘s health and safety. The greatest change which legality made for abortion seekers is that the procedure is much safer. No longer must women resort to quack doctors in back alley clinics, or risk using hangers from their own homes, thereby risking permanent sterility and even death at the hands of unskilled hacks. Thank God that danger has passed, and that a moral society such as our own would never have so little heart as to subject women to it ever again.
Finally, I would like everyone to remember that no little girl grows up dreaming of the day when she will be able to have an abortion. That choice is never an easy one, but then, every person‘s life includes facing very difficult choices, and it should not be at the discretion of any court to rule over such an intimate decision. The government does not belong inside a woman‘s uterus, and it has absolutely no right to tell doctors what is best for their patients.
Until we as a society are ready to remedy every social ill which brings about the need for an abortion, we must acknowledge that this option needs legal protection, for the sake of protecting women from the same disasters as suffered in past generations. If we are to be a reasonable and compassionate society, we must prove that we are Pro-Choices.
Oh, and here's a site posted by cutepurplegirl which I found interesting: The Only Moral Abortion Is My Abortion. It has stories, told by the physicians who performed the procedure, about women who get abortions between their turns at the clinic picket lines. Be sure and check out the final anecdote.
Also, via piepmeier: Rights and Liberties: Running From Roe, which does a more direct political analysis of what has happened regarding this issue since Roe vs. Wade.
So, anybody willing to debate on this? :-D
Oh, and if anybody knows how to fix a camera's lcd screen so that the thing has more on it than blank white, please let me know. That's the only thing wrong with my camera, it still takes and stores pictures just fine, I just can't see anything while I'm taking the pics or look through them on my camera.