Blog for Choice Day: Your Stories
Every year we are blown away by the poignant and powerful thoughts shared online from hundreds of pro-choice people. 2013 is clearly measuring up!
Here are a sampling of stories we've received about why YOU support women and men to make their own personal reproductive-health decisions:
Here's Lindsey at spelled like latte-man:
I was pro-choice from the first time I learned about abortion because no one gets to tell me what to do with my body. But now, I am pro-choice for all women, because we are still fighting for equal pay, equal health care coverage, equal treatment, and the benefit of basic dignity. The rise of waiting-periods, ultrasounds, and mandatory counseling scripts speaks volumes: legislators still think of women as children, incapable of making such difficult decisions rationally, and who must thus be protected from their own poor judgment. Well, excuse my language, but I think that is horseshit of the highest order.
From Tamara at Creative & Curly:
I would also like to take this opportunity to dispel the misconception that people who believe in access to safe, legal and affordable reproductive care, including abortion, do not like or want children. While that may be the case sometimes, it is a sweeping generalization. I of course cannot speak for everyone, only myself. And as for me, I love kids! I just want to be able to plan when I want to have them so I can give them the best life possible!
Here's what Misha from Laugh.Rant.Snort had to say:
In nursing school, I started working at a clinic. I saw women harassed. I saw women afraid. I saw the security system at the clinic. I became afraid. Then I got mad. Then I got active. I had taken the job because I was a poor student and I wanted to earn money while learning more about women's health. But the fear that the clients, the employees and I felt ignited me. Abortion was a legal, medical procedure. I didn't want to back to the days my mother and grandmother had told me about.
PG from Everysaturdaymorning's Blog
How could I not be pro-choice? In 1945 my younger sister was born, and my mother nearly died. Doctors told her she was not in good enough physical condition to ever have had babies. But they refused to sterilize her. What was she to do, a married woman with two young children, terrified she would get pregnant again? Doctors had no solution for her. So when abortion was legalized in 1973, I was so glad, and thought it was a whole new world for women and our reproductive issues. It was good to know my two daughters would have control over their own bodies. Little did I know that 40 years later we would be fighting to keep these rights for our health and our lives. We somehow need to make the general public aware of the dangers of women losing their reproductive rights.
We thank these bloggers - and everyone - who has shared their posts with us so far. We'll keep updating our website with the full list of bloggers who participate.
But the day is far from over! There's still time to tell your story about why you're pro-choice. Send us your post and we'll add it to our website.
* Blog for Choice Day posts are submitted freely to NARAL Pro-Choice America. Links to external content do not represent endorsement.
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I am pro-choice for many reasons. One of them is that I have four kids, and one of them is a daughter. She should be able to have a say in whether or not she bears a child. I am glad I had my four kids, but it was my choice. No government or theocratic authority should be able to force a woman to have a child she does not want to have. I think that until this issue is thoroughly resolved, once and for all, there is no real freedom for women. This is about a woman's right to choose. Without this right, women are truly only second class citizens. I would prefer to see more sex education, prevention and birth control funded by our taxes, than see what has happening now. You can buy a gun in our nation with more ease than you can get an abortion. That is just wrong. So many men want to have a say over what women can do with their bodies and they have no business legislating morality or values. There are more church-sponsored "crisis pregnancy centers" in our nation than there are clinics where a woman in need can get safe medical care. It is all about keeping women down. We are over 50% of the population, yet earn 77 cents for every dollar a man earns. We hold only a small portion of the elective offices in our nation. That needs to change too. Let's start with prizing the lives of the children already here with quality education, food and medical care. It seems like the men and women that are so concerned with abortion do not care a bit for the kids that are already here.
I was 18 years old when R vs W was passed. I was pregnant at the time and could have had an abortion if I had chosen to. I never dreamed that we would have to fight this battle all over again. I remember when abortions killed women and know exactly why the law passed. I never wanted an abortion but felt good that if I had wanted one I could get one safely. It makes me sooo MAD that the weirdo's out there that claim to be anti-abortion, would be the last one to raise that child that they insist that I have. I raised my son virtually by myself with no help. The State of Virginia never prosecuted the father for non-support and I kissed my life away in order to raise my child. They give a lot of lip service with no intention of helping anyone.
I am insulted that the government officials believe and support these radicals and have no empathy for those of us who are and have been in this situation. It is high time we told these creeps to take a hike and stomp them into oblivion. I might be older but I have no intention of standing by for any more of this foolishness!!
When I was a young person I babysat my neighbor's kids and the adults of the house were not very careful about what sort of magazines they left laying around. Being a curious young thing, and bored because the kids were in bed I picked up a magazine I knew was strictly for grownup eyes. In one article were photographs of women who had died trying to terminate their own pregnancies. Very graphic photos. Those sorts of things really happened. My mind on abortion was made up then and I have never changed it. As long as women need this service, it needs to be available to them. Now, when Mississippi tried to defy the federal government on segregation, the national guard was sent in to enforce it... when will our pro-choice president, our African American president put some real teeth into enforcing a woman's right to abortion? Why aren't we demanding it? It is outrageous that our southern states, again, are manipulating the laws of their states to undermine our rights. It makes me sick. This is our country too and we need to not leave the women of the south high and dry. Its time our federal government stepped in.