Wading in Uncomfortable Waters: Abortion and the Politics of Experience
Forty years after abortion became legal in the United States we are still wading in waters that run deep.
Arguably, abortion runs as deep in our modern human history as pregnancy does. Our ancestors had ways of terminating pregnancies long before the U.S. Supreme Court existed. And while we commemorate and celebrate the 40th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade, we know that it does not mark an anniversary of the beginning of this family planning method. Abortion has been, and will continue to be, part of a wide array of methods that we use to control our bodies and fertility, regardless of its legality.
...read moreRoe at 40
Today is the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the United States Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion for American women. I wrote about it in the Guardian, emphasizing the fact that abortion, birth control and bodily autonomy are crucial for women’s survival and our freedom. Without the right to determine the number and spacing of our children, we lose the ability to drive our own lives and to live fully freely, happily and healthily. Outlawing abortion doesn’t decrease the abortion rate; it just drives women to use a more dangerous methods and put their lives and their health at risk. Forty years on, Roe is as important as ever. And American society is, sadly, as misogynist as ever — evidenced by the very fact that abortion is still a fight.
...read moreThe Pope and Killing Gay People
The Pope met with one of the leaders of the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda, and reportedly gave her a blessing. I write about it in the Guardian, and discuss how the Catholic church uses sexuality to control its followers when it feels its power is threatened:
...read moreHow Women’s Health and Social Media Won 2012: Retrospective
“Gentleman and ladies, your hard work paid off. Tonight we demonstrated to the other party what happens when you sneer at rape survivors, birth control and equal pay for equal work.”
By all accounts, it shouldn’t have ended like this. The president running for re-election was supposed to be an enemy of American values, waging the real “war on women” by giving out free contraception on street corners, encouraging girls to become sex objects by sleeping with hundreds of men and covering themselves in venereal disease, having abortion after abortion as their birth control inevitably failed them, until they no longer had any respect for their own bodies or lives – thus destroying the Christian work ethic that once made America’s economy great. And that was on top of Obama’s takeover of healthcare, bailouts for the billion-dollar abortion industry, and attacks on religious institutions that believe they have a right to discriminate against the healthcare of female employees.
...read morePregnancy caused by rape is a gift, ladies, so say thank you!
Can Republicans stop talking about rape now? Or maybe keep talking, so we know what they really think?
...read moreWait you mean pro-life politicians think they can control women’s reproductive choices?
Yes, we are all very disgusted that Scott DeJarlais, a “pro-life” Republican Tea Party Congressman and doctor, slept with a patient, got her pregnant and then pushed her to have an abortion. Pro-life! Except when a pregnancy is inconvenient for him personally.
...read moreSafe and legal. And rare.
Given the choice between needing and not needing minimally invasive medical procedures, most people would rather not need them. But abortion is the only such procedure where the solution offered is to outlaw the procedure entirely. You don’t hear a lot of arguments that angioplasty should only be available for patients with congenital defects, because everyone else “got themselves into that position and now has to deal with the consequences.” (God has a plan.) Safe, legal, rare angioplasty is seldom up for debate. But to the anti-choicers, abortion is both the symptom and the disease.
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This Is Personal
An awesome campaign from the National Women’s Law Center, emphasizing that reproductive choices are personal — and we should keep them that way.
...read moreRape: Just another “method of conception.”
In response to a question about the “legitimate rape” / Akin debacle, Paul Ryan says that life is life and the “method of conception” — in context, remember, rape — that doesn’t change that. Which sounds an awful lot like downplaying a vicious crime, no? I suppose he is technically correct, in the same sense that punching someone in the face is also a “method of touching.”
...read moreFinally, open misogyny is cool (again)!
Ten years ago the opposition used to speak in coded language about how their attacks on women’s sexual equality were about “protecting women” from themselves, promoting “a culture of life” – because everyone knows that without guidance from wise, misogynist politicians, women just aren’t smart enough to make personal decisions about their own sexuality. Today the opposition has dispensed with its dog whistles entirely, and taken to openly smearing women who dare to exercise control over their health and reproductive rights as sluts and threats to the moral foundation of America. (They’ve also said pretty rude things about the LGBT community, but… one thing at a time.)
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