These are scary times to be a woman. Hell, they’re scary times to be anyone. But every time the right wing opens its mouth about issues affecting women’s reproductive rights, I get a little more nervous. Maybe it’s just the typical consequence of listening to the media too carefully, but I’m starting to fear a devastating snowball effect of their power.
It started last week with the news that they were attempting to redraw rape provisions in medically covered abortions under the new healthcare laws. Rape abortions could only be covered by insurance in instances of “forcible rape” which is, evidently, much worse than the other kinds. I don’t know how the chips are going to fall with healthcare coverage or how this will affect private insurance, so I’m not going to concern myself with it now. But I’m terrified by the fact that, in their efforts to ostracize and demonize women who choose to exercise control over their reproductive rights, they have become indifferent to those they even concede are rape victims. They are throwing them under the bus. Apparently victims of statutory rape and incest or those that have been drugged might as well carry out those pregnancies because, how traumatic is that, really? Even in some instances of date rape (which are very hard to prove in courts of law, with defense lawyers as determined to make a whore out of a woman as anti-abortion types) it seems as if, having your body assaulted and your most sacred human possession stolen from you without violence, you’re pretty lucky and should probably just live with the consequences. It was probably your fault anyway.
And then there is this article about anti-abortion rights activists’ attempts to cut all federal funds from Planned Parenthood because the organization uses private funds to provide abortion services to women. Planned Parenthood provides affordable medical services including exams, STD testing and treatment, and education and support for safe sex, invaluable services for both women and men. Their programs prevent pregnancies, but activists would like to completely cripple the organization by withholding public funds, leaving millions of people without the resource they’ve come to depend on for come-as-you-are medical care. More leaving people in the lurch – casting them out in the cold because they deserve their comeuppance if they deign to practice their own sexual morality. After all, sexually transmitted diseases are God’s punishment for sinful behavior and everyone knows that no married people, bound in holy matrimony in the eyes of the Lord, would need low-cost contraceptives or frivolous things like exams and cancer screenings.
I’ve been a long-time believer in the legal right to choose, sharing the view that abortions should be “safe, legal, and rare” as Bill Clinton put it, in a moment that made me think “yes, finally!” In the Southern Baptist church I attended in junior high, where there were no qualms about endorsing “the candidate who doesn’t want to kill babies” I cringed and sat silently, hating that they had ignorant things like that to say that were so effective falling on the ears of congregants afraid to think for themselves. At 14-years-old I knew better. I knew that choice is not dependent on law, that desperate women have always had options, however grim and ghastly. The dangers of outlawing abortion are horrifying. This essay, which is linked from the one discussed above, is not for the faint of heart. A doctor recalls his experiences repairing the damage done by illegal abortions back in the early years of his career. I’m glad though that I have heard stories like these since I was a child, since I grew up with a hearty fear of what would happen if Roe v. Wade were ever overturned. It’s made me wary of all the people who wish to boil it down to a black and white issue, try to focus on one part of a very painful, complicated and ultimately personal issue and trick you into turning your back on women in trouble.
My freshman year of college, I was at a Rock The Vote event with a couple of friends, shortly before America inexplicably said “No really, we want George W. Bush” at the polls. A friend of mine, whose lack of political knowledge was heartbreaking, asked me to explain some issues for her, and break down the divisions between the major parties so she could prepare to vote for the first time. Being from Arkansas, she assumed she was a Republican, and the church-spouted rhetoric that dominates all political conversation there became very evident with the first question she asked me. “Which party is pro-abortion?” I tried to be respectful and not let my jaw drop, and answered “Nobody is pro-abortion” and tried to explain the battle between reproductive rights and the limiting thereof. It’s a tough side we’re on, people who vehemently defend the right to choose. Often when we stand up for reproductive rights, we get the sinking feeling that what people are hearing is “Abortions are fun and easy and I like them and I’m only on my third one!” Of course not. I don’t like abortion. It’s difficult being passionate about an issue you don’t like. But I care deeply about people who have to face the issue.
The friend I mentioned had always believed she aligned with whomever wasn’t pro-choice, because it’s easy to think that, when you hear it the way they tell it to you. But before she cast her ballot she would find herself a 17-year-old girl, just embarking on the bright future ahead of her, pregnant by her boss at her high school job, a man in his late twenties with no notion of responsibility who made no gesture to help her or see her again. I’ve never seen or heard of her father, and her mother was battling cancer. She was completely on her own. Choice is not a campaign issue when you are looking at a plus sign on a stick. It is a very private and personal reality that you wouldn’t want a hundred million strangers deciding for you. She knew then that she believed in the right to choose, and regretted thinking she knew the right answers for people in circumstances she’d never faced. I won’t say what decision she made, because that’s not relevant. The debate over choice is not one that should be decided by actions or inactions. It’s not black and white.
I’m thankful for the commitment that Planned Parenthood has, and the conviction of the people who work in their offices and provide care for people in need. I’m thankful for the bravery of doctors who helped women prior to 1973 to receive safe treatment at the risk of their own careers. I understand the beliefs and motivations of those who are anti-abortion rights, but I will never understand their willingness to turn their backs on women in need, women who are suffering, women who have been raped by those they trusted, or women who depend on non-profits like Planned Parenthood for vital medical care. The blindness and lack of empathy they so willfully flaunt breaks my heart, but it is also dangerous to us all.
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