Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Right to Life? Really?

As I listened to news programming tonight, I learned that the bulk of what Republicans are doing amounts to doing everything they can to make the constitutionally protected right to reproductive care will be all but impossible for women to access, from cutting all funding to creating new taxes (I thought Republicans wanted to cut taxes!).  And the good old boys are at it again, talking blithely of medical procedures in their own twisted perceptions, without regard for truth or the feelings of their female counterparts in the chamber.

It's time the Right is forced to face the hateful nature of their attacks on women, and, by related attacks, on the rest of us.  Planned Parenthood is about  trying to reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and occasionally helping a woman obtain an abortion.  And all the good studies have said the only truly effective programs to educe teen pregnancies involve teaching our youth to protect themselves from unwanted pregnancies - yet, the Right holds out their hope that by saying "Just say no!" works will make it so, even though it wasn't even effective as an anti-drug campaign.  So called promises to wait until marriage for sexual activity are easily made by youth in the heightened emotional moments in which they are sought, but not so easily maintained when the rising emotions are of a sexual nature in an entirely different moment.

And, if we are truly honest with ourselves, not many of us were celibate until we were married.  And down through history, that has been the case.  In some societies, it was, in fact, expected that a couple would actually seek pregnancy to prove the fertility of the couple for the good of the community.  Not only was there no stigma attached to the couple or the children, the community celebrated the new family and welcomed the child!  It's only in relatively modern terms that we have started branding children born outside wedlock ass bastards and shunning they and their mothers - notice I didn't say fathers, but that just didn't happen.  Even now, when we say we believe in an equality of the sexes, if a young man impregnates a young woman, she bears the stigma and the shame, while he simply moves on to another partner.

It has been said, offering a true assessment, that if abortion is banned in America, it will only prevent the poor and middle class women, for the rich will simply go to another country to have their abortion, then return home.  What isn't often said is that the horror stories of pre-Roe-versus-Wade will become reality again - young women turning up dead in dumpsters because of botched back-alley abortions, or from successful ones that had complications when no medical facilities were available to address them.

I still recall overhearing a conversation between a couple of farmers in a very rural setting, in which one told another they needed to support a legislative effort to ban abortions, and the second responded that if it were his daughter who was raped, or who had a severely malformed, he would not want to saddle her with having to keep the child, just because someone thought the procedure wasn't acceptable.  I already felt women should have the right to control their own reproductive abilities, but this really turned my thoughts completely in support of that.  There are those on the Right now that want abortions banned, period.  Even if the woman's life is threatened, no abortion would be allowed!  However, at the same time, the Right wants to cut the very public services that would help that mother care for her child.

It is time for supporters of women's rights, of true supporters of the constitution, to stand shoulder to shoulder against the violence of the radical anti-abortionists.  And let's be honest, so called Right to Lifers are plainly anti-abortionists.

Think about it, and stand up, to protect medical staff and women seeking care and help in desperate times!

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