Today is the 35th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. When I started to write this I went looking for some specific death rate statistics prior to legalized abortion. Depending on who you believe the number is 10,000 annually between 1960-1970 or something like 120. The larger number reflects a common pro-choice viewpoint based on estimations since many deaths would not have been reported as abortion induced. The smaller number is a number which is inconsistent throughout the pro-"Life" propaganda. What is consistent is the sentiment that not that many women really died, so that isn't a big deal. I am of the firm belief that the death of any woman is one too many. Wouldn't that make someone really for "Life?"
Prior to the 1973 Roe decision women died because it was decreed that they were not smart enough to make decisions about their own bodies. Hundreds or thousands of women were forced to go through with unsafe medical procedures with little hope of medical assistance should anything go wrong. Women were motivated to perform abortions on
themselves. Women died.
Roe vs. Wade saved lives. Even if it was one or one million. No woman should be forced into slavery and oppression because of a selfish and cruel group of ignorant humans who are simply well organized.
I am young enough that I do not remember an American nation where contraception was unavailable and the right to terminate a pregnancy was forbidden. There was a Planned Parenthood clinic one block from my high-school where we all went for our birth control pills and we could receive free pregnancy tests. We could go in any time and get information. It was always understood that we had options. And no one would tell our parents. I don't recall anyone talking about Roe vs. Wade in my classes but admittedly I was pretty bored in school and paid little attention. Someone could have brought it up but I may have been in such a deep
coma from the boring day-to-day drivel of too old teachers (who also taught my mom at the same school) that I missed the good stuff.
It honestly never occurred to me that I didn't have that choice, should I need it. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that it dawned on me that the right to choose was a controversial one, to say the least. That is when the anti-choicers started hanging out on the street in front of my high school. For a few months they would show up a couple of days a week protesting, with the picture of the bloody fetus. You know the one. The one with the picture of a very late term fetus but with the words "Your Baby at 2 WEEKS" or some such nonsense. I still can't figure out why they chose our location as opposed to the actual clinic down the road. I wrote these folks off as religious zealots and just kind of dumb old people. I just assumed that all of us young folks knew the deal. I was not yet clued into the true power of these folks nor was I politically motivated yet.
It wasn't until I went on to college that I became ever more bewildered and incensed by the Pro-"Life" movement. There I met a woman who was incredibly motivated in her unwavering and scary support for the "Life" movement. This woman was smart. She was motivated to succeed in her education. She had career goals. She seemed nice enough. She was young. She drove this older car and the entire back of the thing was covered in crazy "abortion-is-murder" bumper stickers, including a version of the baby as fetus picture.
I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that here was a well read, seemingly smart woman who was not only anti-abortion as it pertained to her own body but who was also unfailingly anti-choice for every woman in the world, no matter the circumstances. I was shocked by her unwavering lack of compassion for women who were not as privileged as she was. She was the typical Orange County girl. Blonde, blue, Right, blah, blah... (disclosure: I am blonde and blue but I grew up hippy-commune style and I have curves so I don't really fit in the OC). There simply wasn't any room in her mind or heart to empathize with any other viewpoint. It was almost as if she had a vehement disdain for all women, even herself, and refused to accept the idea that women deserve the right to have a choice when it comes to their own body. That was shocking to me. I quietly wondered what this woman would do if she found herself in a situation that at best would severely limit her ability to achieve her goals or at worst could threaten her life.
Thank you Roe for giving me the opportunity to not be a parent before my time.
Prior to the 1973 Roe decision women died because it was decreed that they were not smart enough to make decisions about their own bodies. Hundreds or thousands of women were forced to go through with unsafe medical procedures with little hope of medical assistance should anything go wrong. Women were motivated to perform abortions on
themselves. Women died.
Roe vs. Wade saved lives. Even if it was one or one million. No woman should be forced into slavery and oppression because of a selfish and cruel group of ignorant humans who are simply well organized.
I am young enough that I do not remember an American nation where contraception was unavailable and the right to terminate a pregnancy was forbidden. There was a Planned Parenthood clinic one block from my high-school where we all went for our birth control pills and we could receive free pregnancy tests. We could go in any time and get information. It was always understood that we had options. And no one would tell our parents. I don't recall anyone talking about Roe vs. Wade in my classes but admittedly I was pretty bored in school and paid little attention. Someone could have brought it up but I may have been in such a deep
coma from the boring day-to-day drivel of too old teachers (who also taught my mom at the same school) that I missed the good stuff.
It honestly never occurred to me that I didn't have that choice, should I need it. It wasn't until my senior year in high school that it dawned on me that the right to choose was a controversial one, to say the least. That is when the anti-choicers started hanging out on the street in front of my high school. For a few months they would show up a couple of days a week protesting, with the picture of the bloody fetus. You know the one. The one with the picture of a very late term fetus but with the words "Your Baby at 2 WEEKS" or some such nonsense. I still can't figure out why they chose our location as opposed to the actual clinic down the road. I wrote these folks off as religious zealots and just kind of dumb old people. I just assumed that all of us young folks knew the deal. I was not yet clued into the true power of these folks nor was I politically motivated yet.
It wasn't until I went on to college that I became ever more bewildered and incensed by the Pro-"Life" movement. There I met a woman who was incredibly motivated in her unwavering and scary support for the "Life" movement. This woman was smart. She was motivated to succeed in her education. She had career goals. She seemed nice enough. She was young. She drove this older car and the entire back of the thing was covered in crazy "abortion-is-murder" bumper stickers, including a version of the baby as fetus picture.
I just couldn't wrap my head around the idea that here was a well read, seemingly smart woman who was not only anti-abortion as it pertained to her own body but who was also unfailingly anti-choice for every woman in the world, no matter the circumstances. I was shocked by her unwavering lack of compassion for women who were not as privileged as she was. She was the typical Orange County girl. Blonde, blue, Right, blah, blah... (disclosure: I am blonde and blue but I grew up hippy-commune style and I have curves so I don't really fit in the OC). There simply wasn't any room in her mind or heart to empathize with any other viewpoint. It was almost as if she had a vehement disdain for all women, even herself, and refused to accept the idea that women deserve the right to have a choice when it comes to their own body. That was shocking to me. I quietly wondered what this woman would do if she found herself in a situation that at best would severely limit her ability to achieve her goals or at worst could threaten her life.
Thank you Roe for giving me the opportunity to not be a parent before my time.
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