Happy Roe v. Wade Day: 35 Years of Choice

It's hard to imagine that there was ever a time when abortion wasn't legal. Only in the last thirty-five years has the medical procedure been allowed in this country, and every year since then its opponents have worked to strip away a woman's right to this private procedure bit by bit, culminating in last year's horrifying decision that the so-called "partial-birth" abortion could not be performed even if it the mother's life depended on it. What does that mean? It means that some believe a fetus--that may or may not live--is more important than an already living, breathing and fully aware female human being, and want to enforce those laws upon all of us.

I'll be the first to admit that this is my most important political issue, and one where I stand firm. It's one where many people stand firm, and understandably so. It's a difficult issue to contend with, and it is never a decision a woman makes easily. But the fact of the matter remains that a woman's decision to have an abortion, or to take birth control, or to have a hysterectomy, or to have plastic surgery, is a PRIVATE, MEDICAL DECISION to be made between SHE and HER DOCTOR. The government need not get involved in any of it.

I'm of the school of thought where the father should be informed of the decision, if the mother is in a relationship with the father (as opposed to being raped or molested by an uncle), but I also believe that the father should respect her decision and be supportive. There's a whole new movement afoot of "men's post-abortion syndrome," or men who regret that their wives/girlfriends/victims had abortions. I obviously think that the man's opinion and view matters, but when it comes to who's carrying the child, who's health may be in danger, and who will in all likelihood be forced to raise the child, it is clearly the woman's decision to make.

However, I honestly don't think any woman should really have to make that decision. I believe that women and men of all ages should receive honest and factual scientific sex education that includes information on prophylactics, birth control and STIs. I believe we all should have access to safe medical care and counseling, and that every child should be wanted and welcomed into the world instead of brought into an environment where it is not welcome nor properly cared for. Also, people make mistakes. Shit happens. Should a woman be forced to carry a child she doesn't want because the condom broke? Because she just happened to be in that .2% for whom birth control is ineffective? No. Babies are not punishment for having sex.

In fact, the majority of women who have abortions these days are 1. married, 2. white, and 3. already have children and don't particularly want anymore. They can also afford access to safe, quality medical care unlike so many women of color and lower-class women who cannot afford the medical care they NEED in the first place and who cannot really afford to have a child, either. Adoption is, of course, a lovely thing, but it's not always the answer. In fact, abortion itself is not exactly an "answer," but merely the means to an end. It's not something women go into flippantly or lightly, and if they do, then they have other issues they might need to deal with.

Basically, it all boils down to control. When a woman exerts independent control over her body by defying the traditional patriarchal standards of purity and decides-GASP!-to have sex without being married, she must be struck down. When a woman decides that she is not ready to have a baby, that she can't afford it or properly care for it, she must be made to see the foolish error of her ways. She clearly can't be trusted with her own body and her own decisions, so she must be forced into giving birth--but once that baby is outside her womb, she is on her own. It's her fault she got pregnant, and now she must face the consequences.

You may think I'm exaggerating here, but I'm not. Kentucky, my home state and the place I love in spite of itself, is trying to pass new legislation where a woman must be forced to look at a sonogram of the cluster of cells growing inside her before she can abort it. In Ohio, my current residence, they are working on an outright abortion ban a la South Dakota. This is not about states' rights, this is about civil rights, about personal rights. It's about recognizing people with vaginas as people with brains and hearts and souls, not carriers of babies or sinful stupid whores who don't know what's best for them.

I realize that I am most likely not going to change anyone's mind with this post. If you are pro-choice you will most likely agree with everything I just said, and if you are anti-choice, then there's nothing I can do or so say to make you otherwise. But if you are anti-choice, I have just one question for you: Why? Why is it so important for you to have a say in what another individual decides to do privately? Why is it so crucial that these children be born, even when they are not wanted, even if they will most likely die and so will their mothers, even when they are the result of a painful assault or attack? Why do you care more about a cluster of cells than a child who is already alive and starving? Or illiterate? Or homeless? The anti-choice side is just so bizarre to me, so beyond common sense that I honestly find it difficult to understand why anyone would be as such. And I'm sure the same can be said of the anti-choicers about me and my pro-choice, baby-killing rants and ramblings.

Let's get one thing clear: I am not pro-abortion. I believe it can be prevented with education and honesty, but I also believe it should be an option if it is needed. I am pro-privacy, pro-independence, pro-education, pro-personal decision-making, pro-responsibility and awareness, I am pro-children (when they're not spoiled assholes), I am pro-family and I am pro-woman. Which doesn't mean that I am anti-man; in fact, there are a lot of men I love very much. But I am pro-choice because I don't think anyone who doesn't know my situation, my dreams, my goals, my budget, my opinions, my spirituality or my life should be able to tell me what I can and cannot do with my body. That's between me, my doctor, my partner, and whatever God there might be out there. And it's no one's decision but my own.

Further Reading:

• Erica Jong - "If Men Could Get Pregnant Abortion Would Be a Sacrament"
• Gloria Feldt - "I Am Roe and I Have Questions For the Candidates"
• Courtney E. Martin - "Admitting the Complexities of Abortion"
• Suzanne Grossman - "Thank You, Justice Blackmun"
• Jill Filipovic - "10 Reasons to Support Reproductive Justice on Roe Day"
• Cristina Page - "What the Huck?"
• Jezebel - "Unlike Alveda King, I Am Neither 'Reformed' Nor a Murderer"
• Jezebel - "Pro-Life Teen Says 'I Feel Like We're All Survivors of Abortion'"
• HillaryClinton.com - "On Anniversary of Roe, Clinton Announces Agenda for Reproductive Healthcare"
• Feministing's Reproductive Rights
• NARAL Pro-choice America
• National Organization for Women