Abortion: Take Back Our Power
“I wish I would’ve had an abortion!”
I grew up hearing that sentence almost daily when I was a child and teenager; the words still cut me deeply, even though I am now 50 years old and cut contact with my mother almost 15 years ago.
There were many other things she said to me, called me, and berated me with over the years, but, “I wish I would’ve had an abortion”, yeah… there’s no better way to say “I despise being your mother and wish you were never born” than that.
She would tell me (constantly) in the midst of her “I hate my life” rants that I should be extremely grateful that Roe v Wade did not go into effect until 1973 because she most certainly would’ve aborted me.
So, that being said, you’d think I’d be an adamant and active pro-life/anti-abortion advocate, but no.
I am 100% pro-choice – always have been and always will be.
When I was 18 and found out I was pregnant, the first thing I did was find out how much an abortion was.
This, of course, was after I went to our local Family Planning clinic just to make sure I was indeed pregnant. I was still having my period, albeit light, but I wanted to be SURE sure.
They confirmed my fears and sat me down in a room to speak with a counselor about my options, of which abortion was not one of them. They gave me a bunch of pamphlets about pregnancy and what to expect, along with nutrition and exercise suggestions.
It was all a blur for me. All I could think of is how mom is going to kill me for making a mistake of this grandeur.
I ended up going to get my abortion, but in the end, I just couldn’t do it, and it turns out that’s why my friend took me – she knew I wouldn’t go through with it.
Fast forward a bit, I had my child, a girl, and gave her up for adoption, and since it was an open adoption, I got to keep in touch for the first year. We actually kept in touch much longer and I got to see my daughter grow up into an amazing woman, who now has a family of her own.
Again, because of my experiences, you’d think I’d be anti-abortion, but I am not.
My choices are mine.
Another woman’s choices are hers.
That’s the point.
We have free will and the power to choose what is best for us, our lives, our families, our mental and physical health, and even our spiritual beliefs.
Well, at least we did until Friday, June 24, 2022
It pains me that the religious right, who are completely in the wrong, in my opinion, are waging a war and just picked up a major SCOTUS victory of having Roe v Wade overturned.
Let me make something absolutely clear here and now – this is not about abortion. This is about control. This is about taking bodily autonomy away because if you have no control over your body, your privacy, or your healthcare, you have nothing.
This is about moving the United States closer to a theocracy, based on a warped “Republican” Evangelical (so-called) Christian Jesus.
It’s like they are using the Margaret Atwood book, The Handmaid’s Tale as a “how-to manual” and attempting to turn this country into the fictional world of Gilead.
Sorry, dystopian fiction isn’t supposed to be used in that manner – it’s supposed to be a warning, like George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, both of which I read in the sixth grade and helped develop my love of dystopian and science fiction novels.
Novels.
Fiction.
Not Fact.
But alas, it seems we are heading towards some warped far-right-wing extremist Gilead reality led by the (very much dystopian) Evangelical Christians. Look at one of the reasons why Justice Alito cites in his leaked draft opinion in May 2022 for overturning Roe v Wade:
“Nearly 1 million women were seeking to adopt children in 2002 (i.e., they were in demand of a child), whereas the domestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life and available to be adopted had become virtually nonexistent.”
… the domestic supply of infants…
I’m flabbergasted. When did babies become a capitalistic commodity?!
Forcing a woman or even a child to give birth so the “domestic supply of infants” can be replenished is torture! Oh, but I’m sure they’ll just do it until the supply is up, just like in The Handmaid’s Tale. Riiiiight.
These people are NOT pro-life, they are pro-birth.
If they were truly pro-life, they’d care about the infants brought into this world as well as the existing children by pushing just as hard for universal healthcare, helping impoverished families to feed and clothe their families by offering better wages, paid family time off, and paid childcare, better immigration policies for our southern border, and I don’t know, maybe tax cuts for the middle-class instead of the ultra-rich millionaires.
But what do I know, I’m just a woman living in an almost dystopian patriarchal society that is fast heading towards a fascist theocracy.
The United States is supposed to be a democracy that stands for life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. At least that’s what this country was founded upon. Only a meager 28% of Americans want Roe v Wade to be overturned – how is that a majority rule?
The constitution is our “playbook”, not the Bible or any religious text for that matter, and certainly not dystopian fiction.
It’s time for all who are opposed to this warped Evangelical “Republican Jesus” Christian direction the United States is heading toward to get out and make our voices heard.
We need to mobilize with protests, call or write our local, state, and national legislators, and most of all, register and vote in every election, not just the presidential ones. This apathy around voting is what got us to this point and we can’t allow it to keep happening.
It’s time to take our power back!