VirusHead

Here’s where we go with right-wing policies on reproductive rights.

We’re already seeing results ….

Jen (not her real name) is administrator of a women’s health clinic in the South that provides abortions. She has noted with alarm the recent rise in illegal abortion in her community. For some of the women she sees—after their initial attempts at abortion fail—whether Roe v. Wade is technically still the law of the land is beside the point. The combination of the procedure’s cost, the numerous regulations that her state imposes and the stigma surrounding abortion is leading a growing number of women to choose self-abortion or an untrained practitioner over legal abortion.
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Our local hospital tells me they see 12-20 patients per year, who have already self-induced or had illegal abortions. Some make it, some don’t. They are underage or poor women mostly, and a few daughters of pro-life families…

So – you want to reduce abortions? Allow sex education, family planning, and birth control. If you are against those things, then it doesn’t seem to me that abortion is really the issue.

… the very policies that could reduce unwanted pregnancies—and thus abortions, legal and otherwise—are resisted at every turn by right-wing extremists and their allies in the Bush White House. Funds for family planning services are cut back while millions of dollars of federal funding are spent on “abstinence only” sex education. Emergency Contraception (EC), a higher-than-normal dose of regular birth control pills that can prevent a pregnancy if taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, sexual assault or birth control failure, is denied over-the-counter status by the FDA, even though the agency’s own panel of experts voted overwhelmingly to make EC available without a prescription. Researchers estimate that EC prevented some 51,000 abortions in 2000—the last year for which such data is available—and OTC status would make this option far more accessible.

The latest front in the abortion war is the pharmacy. There are increasing incidents of anti-abortion pharmacists who are refusing to dispense both EC and regular birth control pills.

It’s about controlling women. Do you really think so little of women’s own decision-making ability? No-one makes that kind of decision lightly – it is fraught with ethical dilemnas and every situation is different.

There are some who deeply regret having terminated a pregnancy. There are those who carry heavy costs for not doing so. Each story is different, and when you hear the stories you really come to understand that there are too many different kinds of situations to impose rules. These are rights of privacy and even for freedom of religion.

This kind of decision is to be made by a woman. She needs to look at the reality of her situation, consult with her doctor, examine her religious beliefs, and -if she is one of the fortunate ones- talk at length about the issues with her sexual partner. Ideally, personal, religious, and medical views should all be taken into her consideration.

Fundamentally, no-one else has the right to impose their decision on a woman’s life and body. No-one should be forced to carry any more than they should be forced to abort. It’s not anyone’s decision but hers.

No-one is happy about ending a pregnancy. I have never voluntarily terminated a pregnancy, but I’ve also never been in the position to have had to consider doing so. I have lost two pregnancies, the first one of which nearly killed me. I deeply mourned their loss. And it is partly for that very reason that I support a woman’s right to plan for her reproductive life.

Want to reduce abortions? Address the reasons that women have abortions. Make sure they know how to make decisions about their sexual lives, reduce the psychopathology of domination and rape, reduce poverty, increase education. These are all things that the right _opposes_. So while you’re being manipulated for your votes, realize that you are also selling out the future of your daughters. Under these polities, their lives will be worse. I think that’s a much more insidious form of abortion.

(Tip of the hat to Ann at Is America Burning – welcome to my blogroll!)

Women’s Call for Peace: An Urgent Appeal from CodePink

Take Action – Sign the Call

(Note: Men in solidarity with “Women Say No to War” are invited to join us.)

We, the women of the United States, Iraq and women worldwide, have had enough of the senseless war in Iraq and the cruel attacks on civilians around the world. We’ve buried too many of our loved ones. We’ve seen too many lives crippled forever by physical and mental wounds. We’ve watched in horror as our precious resources are poured into war while our families’ basic needs of food, shelter, education and healthcare go unmet. We’ve had enough of living in constant fear of violence and seeing the growing cancer of hatred and intolerance seep into our homes and communities.

This is not the world we want for ourselves or our children. With fire in our bellies and love in our hearts, we women are rising up – across borders – to unite and demand an end to the bloodshed and the destruction.

We have seen how the foreign occupation of Iraq has fueled an armed movement against it, perpetuating an endless cycle of violence. We are convinced that it is time to shift from a military model to a conflict-resolution model that includes the following elements:

– The withdrawal of all foreign troops and foreign fighters from Iraq;
– Negotiations to reincorporate disenfranchised Iraqis into all aspects of Iraqi society;
– The full representation of women in the peacemaking process and a commitment to women’s full equality in the post-war Iraq;
– A commitment to discard plans for any foreign bases in Iraq;
– Iraqi control of its oil and other resources;
– The nullification of privatization and deregulation laws imposed under occupation, allowing Iraqis to shape the trajectory of the post-war economy;
– A massive reconstruction effort that prioritizes Iraqi contractors, and draws upon financial resources of the countries responsible for the invasion and occupation of Iraq;
– Consideration of a temporary international peacekeeping force that is truly multilateral and is not composed of any troops from countries that participated in the occupation.

To move this peace process forward, we are creating a massive movement of women – crossing generations, races, ethnicities, religions, borders and political persuasions. Together, we will pressure our governments, the United Nations, the Arab League, Nobel Peace Prize winners, religious leaders and others in the international community to step forward to help negotiate a political settlement. And in this era of divisive fundamentalisms, we call upon world leaders to join us in spreading the fundamental values of love for the human family and for our precious planet.