Blog for Choice Day -- Why I'm Pro-Choice
I covered the reasons for my belief that women must have the ultimate say in what happens to their bodies and my experiences in making those choices in my life in last year's Blogging for Choice Day.This year's theme is "Why I'm Pro-Choice" which I really felt I covered in last year's post.
My thoughts keeping coming back to "Why are some people 'pro-life'?" We already know that a good percentage of "pro-life" folks aren't really pro-life, as evidenced by many of those same folks eagerly embracing the policies of war and the death penalty, and the justification of the murder of clinic workers and doctors. Their creditability is further undermined by being anti-contraception and anti-comprehensive sex education, which would lessen the need for abortion. This group isn't so much pro-life as they are pro-punishment -- and what better way to punish a woman for being sexual than force her to go through a pregnancy against her will, and either suffer the emotional scars and uncertainty of giving her child up to adoption, or raise a child for 18 years, most likely in poverty.
Another group are the people who are "pro-life" that I've identified really do believe that there is a life lost with abortion. Many of these people's beliefs come from their religious background, which makes me wonder -- where is their faith? Is their God so incapable that each abortion is a threat to His/Her plan? Is a woman more powerful than God in their viewpoint? If God wants a certain soul to be born on earth, isn't He/She capable of making sure that soul gets born to someone who wants the child? How do we know that abortion isn't part of God's plan to make sure that each child is a wanted child, and to help us to balance out our impact on the planet?
In ancient times the human race perhaps needed every baby that was conceived to be born to ensure the survival of the race; this was a time when many babies and children died due to diseases and famine and just the dangers of living in those times. We now know that not only do we not need every child conceived to be born, but the survival human race may depend on a lot fewer of them being born.
I believe another group taking the "pro-life" side are those who want to see a return to unquestioned male dominance in our society. What better way to keep women in their place, than to force those of them unwilling into the role of producing and taking care of children? I've seen evidence of this in various "studies" of questionable method that have been publicized by mainly conservative media, that "prove" that women who stay home and raise the kids are happier than those that pursue a career -- my personal experience (which is likely as valid, if not more so, than these "studies") is that closer to 75% of the women I know are much happier haivng a career or working outside the home than doing the full time mom thing (of which I am one); I do know a few that do enjoy staying home with the kids, and I respect their choice -- I just do not want policy for the rest of womankind modeled around those few.
So we have pro-punishment people, religious folks with shaky faith, and the misogynists running this "pro-life" movement, as far as I can tell. Not exactly an opposition with a trustworthy authority.
Being out and loud about being pro-choice is more important now that just about any time in the past 30 years. We have to be adamant about our right to choose the direction of our lives, as the legislatures across the country that are dominated by pro-punishment folks, shaky-faith folks and misogynists are planning legislation to to chip away or do away with legal and safe access to abortions.
I keep hearing conservatives saying that their policies are about personal responsibility. Disregading many of the policies that they support that aren't -- safe and legal contraception and abortion is about being personally responsible. It's about honestly confronting our strong, and very human sexual drives, and balancing that with what we can handle in our lives.
My thoughts keeping coming back to "Why are some people 'pro-life'?" We already know that a good percentage of "pro-life" folks aren't really pro-life, as evidenced by many of those same folks eagerly embracing the policies of war and the death penalty, and the justification of the murder of clinic workers and doctors. Their creditability is further undermined by being anti-contraception and anti-comprehensive sex education, which would lessen the need for abortion. This group isn't so much pro-life as they are pro-punishment -- and what better way to punish a woman for being sexual than force her to go through a pregnancy against her will, and either suffer the emotional scars and uncertainty of giving her child up to adoption, or raise a child for 18 years, most likely in poverty.
Another group are the people who are "pro-life" that I've identified really do believe that there is a life lost with abortion. Many of these people's beliefs come from their religious background, which makes me wonder -- where is their faith? Is their God so incapable that each abortion is a threat to His/Her plan? Is a woman more powerful than God in their viewpoint? If God wants a certain soul to be born on earth, isn't He/She capable of making sure that soul gets born to someone who wants the child? How do we know that abortion isn't part of God's plan to make sure that each child is a wanted child, and to help us to balance out our impact on the planet?
In ancient times the human race perhaps needed every baby that was conceived to be born to ensure the survival of the race; this was a time when many babies and children died due to diseases and famine and just the dangers of living in those times. We now know that not only do we not need every child conceived to be born, but the survival human race may depend on a lot fewer of them being born.
I believe another group taking the "pro-life" side are those who want to see a return to unquestioned male dominance in our society. What better way to keep women in their place, than to force those of them unwilling into the role of producing and taking care of children? I've seen evidence of this in various "studies" of questionable method that have been publicized by mainly conservative media, that "prove" that women who stay home and raise the kids are happier than those that pursue a career -- my personal experience (which is likely as valid, if not more so, than these "studies") is that closer to 75% of the women I know are much happier haivng a career or working outside the home than doing the full time mom thing (of which I am one); I do know a few that do enjoy staying home with the kids, and I respect their choice -- I just do not want policy for the rest of womankind modeled around those few.
So we have pro-punishment people, religious folks with shaky faith, and the misogynists running this "pro-life" movement, as far as I can tell. Not exactly an opposition with a trustworthy authority.
Being out and loud about being pro-choice is more important now that just about any time in the past 30 years. We have to be adamant about our right to choose the direction of our lives, as the legislatures across the country that are dominated by pro-punishment folks, shaky-faith folks and misogynists are planning legislation to to chip away or do away with legal and safe access to abortions.
I keep hearing conservatives saying that their policies are about personal responsibility. Disregading many of the policies that they support that aren't -- safe and legal contraception and abortion is about being personally responsible. It's about honestly confronting our strong, and very human sexual drives, and balancing that with what we can handle in our lives.