Since Google was kind enough to bring this post to my attention by promoting it to the top of the line under Catnjammer64′s Blog I feel it merits my re-writing it.
It is entitled “I’m Dead Set Against Abortion—But I am Pro-Choice”. I present it again, with a few changes made where it is necessary to update it, but for the most part in it’s entirety. I apoligize in advance for it’s length but the importance of it has never been more relavent than what it is currently.
I believe that I speak for millions of pro-choice people when I say the above title of this re-write. If you are confused how I can be both against abortion for myself and daughters but be pro-choice then consider this scenario:
Parents, not I, have a 16 year old daughter who becomes pregnant and has one of these disorders that can only be stabilized by guardianship or medication: pneumonia,severe asthma,cancer,Chrone’s Disease,Rheumatoid Arthritis, Arthritis of the Spine,diabetes,Cerebral Palsy,Multiple Sclerosis,retardation,severe physcosis etc. Teenagers can have the exact same disorders that afflict all adults of all ages.
None of this is about rape or incest by Serial rapists, or killers,but about young women and girls who somehow survive or are pregnant because they thought they were in love or a man or boy or cousin, takes advantage of their diminished capacity and convinces them they are loved in return; Because of their preexisting disease, without staying on their treatment, they are certain as is the fetus, of dying or becoming disabled for life if they do give birth.
However, if they do get an abortion they can remain under guidance or medication and live a fairly normal and happy life. In some cases they can even reach a ripe old age. Would any of us deny a Doctor and their parents the right to make this decision for their child? If the child was 12, 13, 14, 15, would it make any difference?
Now lets talk about rape and incest. We know most incest begins at the age of 8 while some begins in infancy. As much as 90% of these cases go unreported so we have no accurate information on just how prevalent incest is or how many fetuses are aborted due to incest, because these young girls are told to lie, by their own parents, about it in many cases.
With maturity age and menstral cycles sometimes beginning in 8 to 10 year old girls, would any of us insist that these children be raped again and go through the heartbreak of adoption on top of it, if it was our child or grandchild? Haven’t they already been through enough pain?
A great number of these children are the same drug addicts who are prostituting themselves on the streets of all of our towns and cities. What I may consider wrong in my safe and protected environment does not register in the lives of many of these girls because they only know protection from the pimp who beats them if they do get pregnant or do not bring home enough money. Most are addicted to drugs deliberately by these same men. Do you or I have any right to tell these girls or women that they cannot use birth control or get an abortion knowing that will jeopardize their life?
What may be wrong in our circumstances or religious beliefs, takes on new meaning for people less fortunate than ourselves or those who believe differently both morally and religiously than we do. None of us, not me, not you, not our Priests,Ministers, or Rabiies have a right to deny any woman her God given right of Free will or her Constitutional right of Equal rights because of the Constitution or the Equal Rights Amendment.To do so is to destroy the Democracy every American, who has been born into society, is entitled to.
We are not to judge them but to help them. Sadly too many who call ourselves Christians instead chase them out of our neighborhoods and feel entitled to, while we try to defeat Roe vs. Wade, which many times is the only law that is keeping them alive.
I do not doubt that they’re women who use abortion as birth control because they want to look good in their bikini but these statistics are so low that they do not even register in the statistics. The great majority of abortions happen as a result of a mother who is unable to feed her child, if it is born.What women are being told primarilly by men, are quite frankly, falsehoods
My faith and belief tells me that the problems other girls and women face, who are all deserving of my understanding,empathy and compassion,is the only conscionable thing for me to understand, when it comes to protecting the choices for all women and children and turns me to be an advocate for pro-choice. Pro-choice is much more about understanding the needs of humanity and less about the cruel division of all women who are entitled to make the same choices towards the care of their own bodies, just as every white male enjoys the same.
If Roe vs. Wade needs reworking then this needs to go through proper channels by presenting a case before the Supreme Court of the United States of America, who was given the final say over all mankind; Churches and Religious Institutions included.
We have always had children in America starving, being killed,abused and raped while the offender did 90 days or no time at all;that parents could treat their own children in such a manner was so foreign to Doctors that this was denied by the medical profession as happening, until the case was taken before the Courts in 1969,children get and got used as pawns in miserable marriages, no differently from what they do in some divorces;children were and are put into prostitution and addicted to alcohol or to drugs by their own parents, and if we acknowledge it at all we all act as if this is new behavior on the part of adults, etc. This is nothing new but goes back to the days of the Bible. Many of us had grandmothers and great grandmothers mistreated this same way, as we had grandfathers and great grandfathers being raped, but it was a secret kept in the family because of ignorance or shame. It is a credit to our Society today,that we do now acknowledge it all and do prosecute it as the crime it is.
Mitt Romney whose own religion still denies that any of this happens and retains hundreds of lawyers to fight against the person who tries to bring these cases forward, certainly is not the person we need to lead us, when he says,”I want to bring back the soul to America.” We should all be aware by now of what Rick Santorum’s views on birth control use is as he says,”It is just plain wrong,” even though his wife has tried to cover for him since. Both candidates have said their goal is to do away with Planned Parenthood even though they provide some 700,000 mamograms a year for College students and women who would not otherwise have medical care.
Are we so arrogant and self righteous as to think that we have the right to take what little rights or laws that abused women and children have, away from them, by thinking that if we ban birth control or abortion, we do not create more hardship for women and children? Do we just wear blinders and pretend that these problems do not exist like our grandparents did? Do we really think that all orphanages will treat children well when many are ran to gain government subsidies or entitlements? Do we think all wealthy people, who can not have children of their own because they are afraid their husbands will have affairs if they get fat, would give them a better life?
Get real Americans, many of them will go to boarding schools and become a statistic no differently from children of all walks of life. Money does not guarantee good or better parents. Many will get lucky and find love that they would never find otherwise, but too often we forget those who are neglected or abused as well. No one has the right to deny another American their rights as protected by our Constitution nor do any of us have a right to play God in anyone else’s life.
Just because a few women are narcissitic enough to misuse the law and the intent of the law in order to look good in their clothing, none of us have a right to deny others’their rights of the law that protects all of us from abusers.This excuse for getting abortions has been so exaggerated to the point it has become a focal point with too many who would do away with all healthcare for women. Just as Conservatives John Kyle, Bill O’Reilly and others have exaggerated the real purpose of Planned Parenthood being nothing more than an abortion clinic.
To blame Planned Parenthood or women who require medical health care as being frivolous or all about abortion is no different from saying because a few Doctors file fraundalent claims on Medicaid or Medicare then we need to either eliminate Doctors or Medicaid or Medicare. It is a total insult to both the intelligence and integrity of women as well as the almost gut wrenching decisions that women are placed under having to sometimes make both for their own survival as well as for their daughters.
Taking The embalance of consideration for women even further and putting the onus on the accusers we could even say, “Why not ban Social Security because others file fraudently;or guns because others use them to kill. or cars because people die when their gas pedals fail or stick; or planes because their engines fail and fall from the skies or sometimes they are hi-jacked by terrorists and people die; or ban alcohol because people drink and drive and people die in far greater numbers than women get abortions.”
Husbands and boyfriends both batter and kill so should we put all husbands and boyfriends in jail for life? It would make as much sense as making birthcontrol and healthcare both unavailable to women.
What about getting rid of government sanctioned killings on death row instead because innocent people are put to death?What about protesting the fact that euthnasia has been made a part of womens’ rights when both genders have to make these tough decisions for the sake of loved ones? What about forcing the medical profession into putting our loved ones on life support, knowing they have no hope, because some prosecutor or conservative judge will prosecute them if they don’t? What about individual studies done on immigration before we vote against the dream act? What about children starving in America while we scream about welfare or entitlements never once mentioning the welfare and entitlements granted oil Companies or Corporations? Where is the moral outrage by these Conservatives on so many other issues instead of hearing Sarah Palin talk about the “liberal death camps” as applied to euthanasia and abortion?
Why is it always women’s issues that are made paramount by these Conservatives when they speak about Social Issues and especially by white male men and conservative feminists? Why isn’t their lack of truth and sincerity ever placed under the microscope? The list goes on as to why it is considered immoral when women make choices in their lives, but when did we ever hear the same about white male men or these women who would prevent us from doing what is morally right for all Americans? Sadly, only when an innocent child gets shot and killed, or civil rights workers are killed do these same people speak out against injustice not related to abortion or the dying. Women and alive children should never be treated any differently from the way white males are treated in our Society. To treat any American otherwise, regardless of race creed or color, is immoral.
For those who advocate pro-life, I do not doubt that some of your intentions are good, but if you truly cared about the sanctity of life beyond abortion and euthansia(which is almost always the expressed wish of the dying in order to save prolonged suffering), you would be equally committed to the causes of women,children,the less fortunate,children who commit suicide because your child has learned to hate gays from you,bullying and sometimes death done to people of other faiths, because the bigotted and misguided feel justified to do so in your environment, the immigration issue where many are sentenced to a death sentence of poverty or political persecution when sent back home,innocent people who are convicted unfairly and a very long list of improvements that still remain undone in the treatment of women,children, and minorities as well as Americans of different faiths. When we are pro-life we do not get to choose which life matters, period!
Pro-life,for those who yell,”fry them” while ignoring the truth and instead appointing conservative Judges who agree with their narrow interpretations, are only pro-life when it comes to abortion or the dying, and that is what is truly wrong in America today. When the majority of Conservative principles spreads to appointments to our Supreme Court, as it has today, All Americans really need to make certain that we protect the rights of both ourselves and future generations by making certain that we do not elect a Conservative or Tea Party sponsored President who will appoint the next two Supreme Court Judges, since two of those seats will become empty in the next few years. To do so will only lead to another 30 to 40 years of the law that protects us, changing to their narrow interpretation of the same, and our further loss of freedom.
Pro-choice is about giving women control over their own lives as well as their own health issues. It is about a woman being given the respect to know and understand her own emotional and physical limitations and abilities. Its about a woman choosing if she wants an education, a career,to be a homemaker; if she wants to marry or remain single; if she wants to dedicate her life to the improvement of the lives of other women or children even when they do not live in her neighborhood or attend her Church. In short it is about showing women the respect they have a right to both own and choose.
It’s about educating abusers and con artists in the fine art of understanding that we women, will no longer fall for your abuse and mistreatment regardless of your gender. It’s about women standing for women and refusing to let the “Good Old Boys” divide us any longer, as we are the real power in America. White male men who are comfortable with their own conscious,morality, careers,and choices,want to share power with us. They respect both women and minorities as well as people of other faiths and backgrounds. Once we recognize our own value as women, they will gladly work with us to right the injustices in America. Unless we work with these men of Character, we will not find the justice we seek for all Americans.
We will no longer excuse anyone who will continue with the hate,lies or bigotry, or those who placate or dismiss us,nor those who verbally belittle us or batter us to think they have the power to divide us as women and Americans, from doing the right thing for all of our brothers and sisters. We will tell them what is acceptable behavior instead of them demanding that we perform according to what they deem to be acceptable.
We will no longer allow other men or women to make it more important to act on stopping women from making their own God given and State given decisions by denying us the right to make decisions for ourselves. We will speak out in order to gain the health care that we either earn through benefits from the job we work or from the premiums we pay their insurance companies.
We will ask, “if a fertilized egg is life, then what price do these men who would defeat us, pay for fertilizing that egg with their sperm when they force sex on wives,women, and children,” since that is their interpretation of when life begins. Will they be denied the use of Viagra under their insurance program? Would it be appropiate for them to be castrated for making an egg a life, by their own terminology? Why is there never questions asked or laws made against the men who force abortions on women through intimidations and bullying?
We in unison will start asking the questions that they demand we follow, “by what do they base their deductions on?” We will ask them, “if it follows in our best interests both morally and medically”, because our brains are capable of study. Then we will check out the basis for which they claim to be in control, since we will show them the respect they deny us. We will no longer allow Bills effecting women to be initiated and passed on only by “The Good Old Boys”.
When they try to dismiss us, they will need to gain respect from us along with our opinion or we will walk out on them. It is no different from my own daughters telling me when I allowed family members to abuse me,”Mom we are losing respect for you for letting them treat you that way, because you would never tolerate
anyone treating us that way.”
Until we as women do understand, just as the blue collar workers must, that the Conservatives and Tea Party members are doing a number on us, we will continue being lied to by them.Maybe there
isn’t so much difference after all, from what separates some Christian women from the prostitute, since both are performing according to these men’s desires who promote both anti-Science and anti-education. Some women are being trained to serve husbands and sons over their own needs while their daughters’ learn the same without any hope towards future ideas of success gained by their own strengths. At the same time, the blue collar worker is becoming more of a servant,since they are the most under-employed while their wages are dropping the most, due to the “right to work law”. If we do not vote them out of office, then the discrepancies between equality will continue.
Vote against Republican Conservatives and Tea Party sponsored candidates in November, to show them, they were dumber than they thought, we were. It is difficult for all of us who fought this battle, both men of character and women, for you in the 1950′s and 60′s, to believe that these groups have again raised their ugly heads to deny equality once more for American citizens. Don’t let these Conservatives make you have to fight it again for your children.
We enjoyed the freedom that you have been fortunate enough to be able to take for granted and our grandmothers envied us for. They are a miserable bunch to have to get rid of because of their fear of women,minorities, and gays along with their fear of defeat of power;in order for all Americans to enjoy Democracy and our own God given right of free will, as it was intended to be enjoyed, they need to be replaced. Christ never asked women to be subserviant to the male gender much less to deny their own abilities or to sell their intelligence and values short. Household duties are meant to be shared without elevating the male gender to boss while women lower their own standard of needs. Equality begins in the home and follows into the voting booth. We need to make up for the difference for those who either feel they cannot or are not strong enough in their own faith of self to make the right decisions for all Americans.
We begin by getting involved in what is taking place with the erosion of our rights and becoming more politically involved with the damage being done by the right wing conservatives combined with the dollars and lies being spread by both the Conservative movement as well as the Tea Party. The 70% foothold that these groups already have in the Republican Party needs to be taken seriously by all Americans, if we are to maintain the greatest Democracy in the world. Elect a man of character, re-elect Barack OBama in November.