More Pro-Choice Blogging on #BlogforChoice Day

The thing that we always forget about the abortion debate is that this is an issue that is fundamentally about class. Women with a certain amount of money and privilege will always have access to abortion -- even if it were to be made outright illegal in this country. But disadvantaged women have it much, much harder. Women's abortion rights have been drastically rolled back over the years. As a writer at RH Reality Check, I wrote regularly about the various ways states were trying to rollback the right to abortion: introducing waiting periods, TRAP laws, ultrasound requirements, personhood amendments, and more. Even on television and in TV shows, it has become taboo to discuss abortion.

Considering what a struggle it had always been for me to get pregnant, I supposed it was only fair that I found it so hard to become unpregnant, too.  We spent a full year trying for our first child before we were lucky enough to conceive.  So it wasn't so shocking when it took the same about of time to conceive our second.  The shock came later, at our first appointment, when we they couldn't find a heartbeat.

I am pro-choice because I believe in women. I believe there are situations in a woman's life that I/the government cannot possibly manage for her, and I believe individual women are the ones responsible for making the best choices for themselves and their families. Not me, not a politician solely interested in rallying the faithful, not a pharmacist who refuses to fill a legal prescription, not an insurance plan that won't cover birth control, not a doctor pushing too many inductions and too many c-sections, not schools and parents who believe that ignorance=bliss and safety, not states who refuse to protect women from the tyranny of the majority, not the football game schedule, and not those who would refuse to present medically accurate information to women on a whole host of issues. Women. The individual woman in the individual situation. I trust her, and leave her to her choice.

As our country seems to be swinging toward the ultra-conservative fringe, we need to protect the rights of women to safe and legal choice. The 2010 election will not only be a referendum on health care policy, but it will also be an opportunity for right-wing religious zealots to grab control of Congress and pass draconian laws suppressing the rights of women.

Well, first of all, I am a woman and I do trust myself. I cannot fathom the idea of not trusting my intuition or my own ability to think and make decisions for myself. Even when I have made what I thought were wrong choices in my life, many times they turned out to be blessings in disguise. You can say I am a self-made person. I could have never become who I am now had I not trusted my inner voice and as you may say, my gut feelings. Trusting my intuition and my intelligence has allowed me to move through life gaining knowledge of both the world and myself, while also being able to understand the complexities of the human mind. It has allowed me to be a loving mother and wife, and a creative, multi talented person and artist. I has empowered me as a woman. No, I am not simply enlarging my ego here. I truly think that trusting myself has motivated me to know who I am and what my strengths and weaknesses are to become a better person.

I believe you should Trust Women to:

    * Make their own choices;
    * Keep their PRIVATE medical choices between them and their doctor (Here's looking at you, Kansas.);
    * Be moms;
    * Not be moms;
    * Vote (Thank you Iron-Jawed Angels!);
    * Earn the same wage as men for the same work; and
    * Be your Senator (*cough* MA residents! *cough*), or other elected official.

Trust women. Two simple words and yet there is a world of meaning in them. What exactly does it mean? I suspect that everyone will have a different idea. When I see that phrase one of the first things I think about is how we women are often raised to mistrust each other. Some of us taught that every woman is competition for scarce resources, usually men, and therefore we should never place our trust in each other. I was lucky in that I didn't learn this lesson growing up. Instead I learned that women were the ones I could trust to be there for me, nurture me, love me. Trust women.