I am pro-choice

[capnzebbie]

1957. A woman gets pregnant. She’s not married. She goes to her father and tells him what has happened. Her father has money and connections, so he buys her a safe abortion from a reputable physician who is a friend of his. Her father tells her not to come to him if it happens again. It happens again. She’s afraid to go to her father, so she goes to her boyfriend instead. He has little money, no connections. He buys her a back alley abortion and she nearly dies. She lives, though, and becomes an activist for reproductive choice later in life.

1963. A woman gets pregnant. She’s married, and already has four children, but she and her husband are excited about a fifth child. She starts bleeding. Her husband takes her to the hospital. Her doctor tells her husband that she will die unless he performs an (illegal) abortion. Her husband and her doctor decide that she gets to live. The woman isn’t consulted.

1971. A girl gets pregnant. Her father raped her. He gets a neighbor woman to perform an abortion in the basement of the neighbor's house. The girl is scarred, but she survives.

1973. Roe v. Wade.

1979. A woman gets pregnant. Her boyfriend forces her to have an abortion. They have no insurance, so he pays cash for the abortion. He can afford the abortion, but not the anesthesia. Her scars are emotional.

1981. A woman gets pregnant. She is living with an abusive alcoholic. He might be the father, but he might not be. She doesn’t need to go on a talk show to know that her life is a mess. She knows this is no time to have a baby. She has insurance through her job that covers abortions. She has an affordable, safe, legal abortion in a physician’s office and recovers in about a day. She straightens out her life, glad that she is not permanently tied to an abusive alcoholic because of a child.

These are all true stories, women I know (actually, one of them is me). The reason I'm posting this is that it's starting to feel like 1957.

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Comments

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

I'm pro-choice because I've seen some of these scenarios also. It would be a crime, beyond a crime, to have to start from square one again.

[capnzebbie.livejournal.com]

I think we're maybe at square two or three right now, but we're moving toward square one. I didn't realize how bad it had it had gotten until just recently, seeing how far the gradual chipping away at our rights has gone.

[sugar-mcduff.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I have my own story.

[capnzebbie.livejournal.com]

I sometimes wonder how many women do have their own stories like the ones above, and if the people who are working toward taking away our rights realize how many women they are persecuting.

Every story is different, and every woman who has to make this decision brings a different history. And each woman is the only one who can, and should, make that decision.

[sugar-mcduff.livejournal.com]

I don't think they care. I think some are self-righteous and think in absolutes, some want others to suffer through the only choice they felt they had, and most men just desperately want to subjugate the empowered women they fear will emasculate them. But I don't think much of humanity, so I might not be the best judge.

[capnzebbie.livejournal.com]

I think you've got a pretty accurate read on it. I don't think they are interested in "life," so much as they are interested in controlling the sex lives of women.

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed. Absolutely. Otherwise, they would care about quality of life and all life.