The #BlogforChoice Day Posts Keep On Coming...

And here's why I trust women: Because women know the situations they are in. They know whether or not the condom broke, or whether or not the baby's father was a rapist or whether he wouldn't step in. They know the risks of having a child, either medically or situationally. And I trust women to be in the care of a physician rather than in the care of an unlicensed quack who uses unsanitary equipment. And I trust women to be in the care of a physician rather than taking extreme measures to terminate their pregnancies.

"Trust Women" means understanding a woman's right to make decisions about her body. It means trusting that we can, and must, make our own decisions regarding our reproductive choices.

Trust a woman to know when she's ready to have a child. Trust a woman to decide if she's not ready for a child.

All women, regardless of class, income, religion, or color, should be able to make decisions about their own bodies.

For the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, NARAL Pro-Choice America holds Blog for Choice day. To participate, we're reposting some of our best segments related to abortion, choice, and reproductive health. Last August, Dr. Susan Wicklund joined us in studio. We wrote at the time:
A recent report from the Center for Reproductive Rights reveals that abortion doctors and clinics face continued threats, assaults, and harassment. Are doctors under siege? Dr. Susan Wicklund, author of This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor, on the political climate after the death of Dr. George Tiller and why she's speaking out.

Like I said, there's a lot discussed, but there are two points in particular I want to focus on. The first is the notion that reproductive rights are human rights. To me, that's the crux of what Trust Women means. Abortion is simply a medical procedure that allows a woman to do with her body what she wants and needs. Having a fertilized egg inside of her doesn't suddenly make her incapable of making decisions, yet she is suddenly deemed unworthy of retaining her rights. The second point is closely linked to the first, in my opinion, and that's education and information. If women are given access to accurate information about contraception, abortion, adoption, childbirth, etc., then why should anybody else be allowed to interfere with her decision and her rights?

I get really angry when I see headlines like the one in this article in GQ about Scott Roeder murdering Dr. George Tiller:  "Savior vs. Savior", with the blurb equating Dr. Tiller and Roeder as men who "believed they were doing right" and as having "convictions".  No one would dare say such a thing about a non-Christian terrorist, that they somehow have a conviction worth respecting.  But when the argument is between the conviction that women are people vs. the conviction that women are subhuman incubators, then all of a sudden this false equivalence enters into the situation.

The bottom line about abortion is this. Do you trust women to make their own moral judgments? If you are anti-abortion, then no. You do not. You have an absolute moral position that you don't trust anyone to question, and therefore you think that abortion should be illegal. But the second you start making exceptions for rape or incest, you are indicating that your moral position is not absolute. That moral judgment is involved. And that right there is where I start to get angry and frustrated, because unless you have an absolute position that all human life (arguably, all life period, but that isn't the argument I'm engaging with right now) are equally valuable (in which case, no exceptions for the death penalty, and I expect you to agonize over women who die trying to abort, and I also expect you to work your ass off making this a more just world in which women don't have to choose abortions, but this is also not the argument I'm engaging right now), then there is no ground whatsoever for saying that there should be laws or limitations on abortion other than that you do not trust women. I am completely serious about this.