It's My Choice, Stupid

The recent supreme court decision in Gonzales v Carhart, permitting a ban on an abortion procedure without exceptions to protect a woman's health is a strong blow to women's reproductive rights.

It's even more than that. the ban refers to something the anti choicers call a 'partial birth abortion' and no such thing exists. Never has. Never will.

That the media, in all its lazy haste to fill air/print space, has picked up this phrase only illustrates the pervasiveness of the fanatics who would control a woman's life completely, even to inserting themselves between a woman and her doctor.

There are abortions performed during the second and third trimester of a few pregnancies. But they are rare, and only done because the health of the woman makes it necessary. The doctor and his/her patient discuss this, and together decide whether or not to abort the pregnancy.

One example is when a cancer is discovered that must be treated, and could damage the fetus, or if no treatment is consented to, the woman faces a harder battle against the cancer after giving birth...if she survives at all.

But the point of this is that this decision is made by a woman and her doctor...made even more poignancy by the fact that, given the pregnancy has advanced to even the third trimester, this woman has looked forward to giving birth to a wanted child. A child that was looked forward to, anticipated, even longed for.

But the anti choicers don't think about this. They have an agenda that they adhere to no matter what.

I don't want anyone to make my decisions for me. I don't want anyone to make decisions for anyone in my family. my friends, my city, county, state or nation.

We are intelligent, thoughtful people. i don't ask the anti choicers to become pro abortion. i do ask that they respect my right to make up my own mind, and then act on that decision. In other words, become pro CHOICE. because what they don't realize is that prochoicers would fight just as hard to protect their decision not to abort a pregnancy, as we fight to get safe, legal abortions.

I have had many discussions over the Internet with women in the fight to protect our reproductive freedom. ultimately, i decided that we can no longer trust our government to defend and protect our reproductive rights. laws can be made, changed, amended, overturned, at the whim of whatever power is in charge.

the best way to make sure that abortion is available and safe is to learn how to do it ourselves. and then no woman would ever again be at the mercy of a collection of men and the women who support them.