Blogging for Choice IV

I’ve been checking out some of the other Blogs for Choice. Here’s a few I enjoyed:

Angry Black Bitch

Reclusive Leftist

Tennessee Guerilla Women

Spazeboy

The Quaker Agitator

Welcome to my Revolution

Caffeinated Geek Girl

Feministe

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Blogs for Choice has a list of participants.

Blogging for Choice III

Here’s more George Carlin to finish up the day:

[...] But let’s get back to this abortion shit. Now, is a fetus a human being? This seems to be the central question. Well, if the fetus is a human being, how come the census doesn’t count them? If a fetus is a human being, how come if there’s a miscarriage there isn’t a funeral? If a fetus is a human being, how come people say “we have 2 children and 1 on the way” instead of saying “we have 3 children”? People say life begins at conception, I say life began about a billion years ago and it’s a continuous process! Continuous, just keeps ~rolling~ along! ~Rolling~, ~rolling~, ~rolling~ along!

And say, you know something? Listen, you can go back further than that! What about the carbon atoms, huh? Human life could not exist without carbon! So is it just possible that maybe we shouldn’t be burning all this coal? Just looking for a little consistency here in these anti-abortion arguments. See the really hard-core people will tell you that life begins at fertilization. Fertilization, when the sperm fertilizes the egg. Which is usually a few moments after the man says “Gee honey, I was going to pull out but the phone rang and it startled me.”

[snip]

Now. Speaking of consistency. Catholics, which I was, until I reached the age of reason, Catholics, and other Christians are against abortions and they’re against homosexuals. Well who has less abortions than homosexuals? Leave these fucking people alone, for Christ’s sake! Here’s an entire class of people that’s guaranteed never to have an abortion! And the Catholics and Christians are just tossing them aside! You’d think they’d make natural allies!

Go look for consistency in religion. And speaking of my friends the Catholics, when John Cardinal O’Conner came to New York, and some of these other Cardinals and Bishops have experienced their first pregnancies, and their first labor pains, and they’ve raised a couple of children on minimum wage, then I’ll be glad to hear what they have to say about abortion! I’m sure it would be interesting! Enlightening too. But, in the mean time what they ought to be doing is telling these priests who took a vow of chastity to keep their hands off the alter boys. Keep your hands to yourself, Father! Ya know? When Jesus said “suffer the little children come unto me”, that’s not what he was talking about!!

[snip]

But you know, the longer you listen to this abortion debate, the more you hear this phrase, ‘ sanctity of life’. You’ve heard that, ‘Sanctity of life’. You believe in it? Personally, I think it’s a bunch of shit. Well I mean, life is sacred? Who said so, God? If you read history, you find that God is one of the leading causes of death! Has been, for thousands of years! Hindus, Moslems, Jews, Christians, all taking turns killing each other cause God told ‘em it was a good idea. The sword of God, the blood of the lamb, vengeance is mine. Millions of dead mother-f*ckers. Millions of dead mother-f*ckers, all because they gave the wrong answer to the God question. “Do you believe in God?” “No” Pfft, dead! “Do you believe in God?” “Yes” “Do you believe in my god?” “No” Pfft, dead! My God has a bigger dick, than your God! That’s all it is!

Thousands of years, thousands of years, and all the best wars too, the bloodiest most brutal wars fought, all based on religious hatred. Which is fine with me, hey any time a bunch of holy people want to kill each other, I’m a happy guy! But don’t be giving me all this shit about the sanctity of life. I mean even if there were such a thing, I don’t think it’s something you can blame on God. No you know where the sanctity of life came from? We made it up! You know why? ‘Cause we’re alive! Self-interest. Living people have a strong interest in promoting the idea that somehow life is sacred!

Blogging for Choice II

Last year, I quoted from a post by Ampersand at Alas, a blog (3/21/2006):

A lot of people who favor forced childbirth for pregnant women say that they believe that an abortion, even early in pregnancy, is identical to child murder. Have an abortion, shoot a four-year-old in the head; morally, it’s the same. Or, anyhow, that’s what they claim to believe.
In contrast, pro-choicers tend to think that the abortion criminalization movement is motivated by a desire – perhaps an unconscious desire – to punish women for having sex.

[snip]

In contrast, the leaders of the abortion criminalization movement have consistently put their political weight behind policies which make little or no sense if they genuinely think that abortion is identical to child murder. And those same leaders routinely endorse policies that make a lot of sense if their goal is to penalize women who have sex.

And also from this one by MJS at CorrenteWire, in which the Democratic Talking Point Oracle appeared as a Schematic Drawing of a Vagina:

SDV: What strikes me as a mistake is for Democrats to allow the discussion to continue to be framed by conservatives. “Pro-Life” is only pro-life for a fetus, not the mother, and not the grown child, who can be shipped off to kill people without so-called “Pro-Life” supporters batting an eyelid. Call them “Pro-War on Women.”

[snip]

… Do not refer to those who wish the government to control women’s reproductive organs as “Right-to-Life” people. They’re not. They are something else, so call them something else, not to be didactic, but to be precise. Do you understand what I’m saying by calling legislators who are working to make abortion illegal “Pro War on Women?” Describe, in graphic detail, what is meant by those who would outlaw legal, safe abortions.

[snip]

SDV: Be graphic in your discussion of the issue, i.e. our wives’ vaginas are to be managed by the state, our daughters’ vaginas are to be run by the state, congress is taking over the role of qualified doctors when it comes to the health of females in the United States. Be graphic in your descriptions: female citizens of the United States do not have sovereignty over their uteruses, their fallopian tubes, their vaginal canals, because each one is connected to the other.

MJS: Many people don’t like explanations that take too long.

SDV: Precisely: make them take too long. If a progressive goes on the radio suggest that he or she talk about vaginas, vaginal canals, fallopian tubes, uterine wall, eggs; talk about penises and sperm and DNA and testes and so forth. The same people who are uncomfortable with their own bodies are the ones who want to run yours: get it? Make them face what they are trying to do, make them talk about it in as unfettered, non-euphemistic fashion as possible. Make them face The Elephant in the Room.

Blogging for Choice

** Okay. WordPress keeps eating this and spitting back only chunks, so I give up. I’m posting what’s left, and if I get time later, I’ll try to clean it up again.

 

– Jenn

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Recently, I read a paper written by some Republican on how to use specific words to attract voters, and describe Democrats and their party.

The ‘pro-life’ groups use “life” as their frame. In that framing, those who are against them are ‘against life’ or ‘for death’.

Pro-choice, on the other hand, reflects the need for abortion to be a personal and individual choice. It is those on the anti-abortion/anti-women crusades who want to force a woman to bear a child – regardless of how that child was conceived or the financial or emotional circumstances of her life.

Whether a woman chooses abortion, adoption, or raising a child, she is the only one who can make that decision based on her personal circumstances. And it is not a decision made lightly, no matter which way you turn.

I have faced this decision twice in my life. Twice. Once as a teenager just out of high school, and once as a woman with two children and a troubled marriage.

I got lucky. I had a mother who believed in factual information about sex and birth control. I had a grandmother who was pragmatic and believed “First babies come anytime. It’s the rest that take nine months.” I had support from family and friends, and a fiancee who believed in ‘doing the right thing,’ and while surprised to find himself a father, never shied away from the responsibility.

Six years later, married, the mother of two lovely little boys, I found myself pregnant again. My marriage was in trouble, and my health was precarious. During my second pregnancy, I’d been diagnosed with Addison’s Disease (adrenal insufficiency). My adrenal glands had stopped functioning. By the time it was diagnosed, I was four months pregnant and nearly comatose.

With a diagnosis came a new worry. I would have to take replacement hormones (steroids in my case) for the rest of my life and there was no research to show the effects on the unborn.

Somehow, by some miracle, I managed to make it to full-term and gave birth to a healthy son. But, I was cautioned against ever having more. My body simply could not handle the stress associated with pregnancy. And who knew if the exposure to hydrocortisone and Florinef from conception on would affect the fetus.

So there I was, 23 years old, facing that same decision. Again.

I found out I was pregnant in December, and my husband moved out in January. I hadn’t worked in years and couldn’t work now. I was the sole support of myself and two children already – and the future wasn’t too bright.

I had to decide. Do I risk my life and leave two little boys motherless? Or not? I spent hours worrying over the decision. I spoke to my endocrinologist, my obstetrician, friends, family, and in the end, I chose to continue the pregnancy.

I chose. 

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Why am I pro-choice? Here’s a few reasons, in no particular order:

Because I believe that the decision to have a child should be made only by the person who must carry that child to term.

Because I believe that no girl or woman should endure rape or incest and be forced to bear the result of either act.

Because I believe that sex is not a dirty word, and pregnancy is not a punishment for having sex.

Because I believe every child that comes into this world should have parents who are financially and emotionally capable of raising it.

Because I believe that women have the right to make their own medical decisions, in accordance with their own beliefs.

Because I believe there are too many children of color and too many children with special-needs who are left to languish in the foster care system.

Because I believe every woman has the right to choose how many children she will have, and when.

Because I believe I don’t need a ‘daddy’ to tell me what to do.

Because I believe there are too many women without health insurance who don’t have access to proper prenatal and perinatal care.

Because I believe that no one should force their religious beliefs on anyone else.

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