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August 1, 2005
More on the Culture of Li(f)e(s)
By Dr. B
Since being asked to guest blog for BvC today I have actually found myself at a loss for words. I talk a lot about choice. I think about it constantly. As the daughter of a strongly pro-choice medical professional who saw the horrors of botched abortions firsthand, I grew up knowing that choice was the only thing that can truly keep women safe.
Five years ago I moved from a large urban city with a very liberal environment to small town conservative America and found myself in an extreme state of culture shock. Just when I thought that my current political climate couldn't get any better I saw that climate spread...nationally. Like most folks I know I threatened to expatriate after the 2000 election. Folks tried to placate me with cries of “there's only so much that can happen in 4 years.” Boy, were they wrong! We watched the emergence of the “Culture of Life” begin. And then in 2004 we watched the beginning of “four more years” and optimistic friends tried to reassure us that “he'll be too busy with the situation in the Middle East to worry about women's rights.” Well, this administration quickly dispelled that notion and we find ourselves in a society once again parents feel more comfortable marrying their 13 year old daughters off to 22 year old pedophiles with mental disabilities than giving them a choice and a chance at life.
We have seen what the “Culture of Life” can do firsthand on dirty kitchen tables and in back alleys and swore we'd never go back there. Countries that “we” have called backwards or third world are now finding themselves in that same situation and it seems more and more that this is where we are determined to go back to. We have seen pharmacists claim the right to refuse contraception to women based on their own beliefs. (What's next? Refusal to distribute anti-depressants or cancer meds? Of course, the same would never be true of Viagra even when folks are going blind. But who cares if you're blind as long as you have an erection, right?) This administration and all of it's cronies are trying to scare women into submission. “Have an abortion and we'll know.” Women have come up with all manner of ways to respond including knitting for choice. There is some poetic justice in taking up knitting needles in favor of health care rather than using them for health care. I do my bit when I can. Knit a womb. Post a bumper sticker. Speak up. Donate to great pro-choice organizations. Wear my NARAL button proudly.
Let's do something about the Culture of Li(f)e(s)!
Posted by at August 1, 2005 4:47 PM
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Comments
That's really tragic, what's happening in Kenya... and I'm sure the same thing is happening in many other places in Africa. South America isn't a great place to look for an abortion either from what I've heard (or is that just Brazil that's really bad? I'm not sure).
But what really upsets me is how anyone could advocate outlawing abortion, knowing what it was like before abortion was legal. Are people that uneducated about it, or do they actually not mind it? Either way it's scary.
Posted by: Mitaralu at August 1, 2005 7:14 PM
Is illegal abortion just a problem that can be solved with a (legal) clinic on every corner, or is it a symptom of some larger problem? If so many women feel like they don't have the means or the support to have the baby, and they are so desperate to get themselves out of the situation that they are willing to mutilate themselves, it really sounds like society has failed them by not providing them the help that they need. I know from experience that it can be the situation, not the pregnancy itself, that presents the problem.
Posted by: Leyan at August 1, 2005 9:04 PM
Other huge problems are insurance companies that feel justified in not covering contraceptives and parental consent laws. It's almost as if they are thinking, we'll if we don't give them birth control they won't have sex. (Sounds like folks who think sex education causes kids to have sex) But in all actuality what they are doing is adding to the problem of teen and unwanted pregnancy. This will definitely lead to desperate acts.
Posted by: dr.. b. at August 1, 2005 9:33 PM
Leyan: No society ever has or, most likely, ever will entirely do away with the need for abortion. Making the society more supportive of women with children could help reduce the need for abortion, but sometimes the situation is such that a woman simply does not welcome a pregnancy or can not sustain a pregnancy without serious damage to herself.
Posted by: Dianne at August 1, 2005 9:41 PM