Some thoughts on the politics of abortion rights

[emmagrant01]

As seen on several places on my flist, it's apparently an arrestable offense to even be thinking about protesting the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. I won't bother to express my disgust at that, because I know I'm preaching to the choir here.

But there is something that's been bothering me today. You know what always annoys me about anti-abortion folk? They seem to think that being pro-choice means one supports having abortions at every possible opportunity. You know, for fun.

And so today I've heard these clips of delegates over and over, talking about how wonderful it is that Sarah Palin elected to have her 5th child, "even though" he had Down's Syndrome. And how wonderful it is that her 17-year-old pregnant teenage daughter will be having (and keeping) her baby. The clear implication in all of these comments is that these are the morally superior choices, and that only a "pro-life" person would make them. Clearly a godless, feminist liberal like me would choose to have an abortion under those circumstances.

And that utterly, completely misses the point of being pro-choice. Being pro-choice means recognizing that the only person who should make such a decision is the pregnant woman herself. It's none of my business what she chooses, and it's certainly not my place to judge her for her choice. I trust that women are capable of deciding for themselves under what circumstances to give birth to a baby.

Because let me tell you, pregnancy is not all sunshine and puppy dogs. Everybody knows that, but seriously -- being pregnant almost killed me. I mean that literally; I came very close to dying and am still here today by only a stroke of luck. That experience only reinforced my conviction that no woman should be forced to go through a pregnancy she doesn't want, even though the majority of cases turn out fine.

So yay for Sarah Palin and her baby. She made her choice, and I totally respect that. As an aside, initial tests during my pregnancy indicated my son had an increased chance of having DS, and I would not have terminated if it had been confirmed. But I recognize that others might make a different decision based on their life circumstances, and I respect that. Because I'm pro-choice.

And assuming she actually got to make her own choice and wasn't bullied into it because of her mother's political career, yay for Palin's pregnant teenage daughter. I'm sure she'll love that baby and not have any regrets.

But Ms. Palin, isn't it painfully clear to you now that abstinence-only sex "education" doesn't work? I'm just sayin'.

Comments

[gmth.livejournal.com]

OMG, I love you. The first article I read about Palin's daughter went on about how McCain knew about it and considered it a private family matter, which just blew me away. Apparently this is the only woman in the country whose choice about what to do with a pregnancy is a private matter. For the rest of us, it's a totally public matter in which the government has the right to get involved. I'm astounded by the hypocrisy.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oooh, great point! I need to remember that when I get in arguments with my family about this.

[akemi42.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately people really think pro-choice = pro-abortion.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yes. :-P

[jeanquirieplus.livejournal.com]

Dude. I know. I had an abortion a few months ago, and even though I've been a pro-choice activist since I've been able to formulate coherent political thought, it was one of the most difficult and painful choices I've ever made. So it's not like I was all "tee-hee! All the bars have closed. To the Abortion clinic!"

Also, when researching abortion? All the Anti-Abortion sites that proclaim that if a woman decides to terminate a pregnancy she will be suicidal, unhappy, incapable of having a working marriage, beaten, and a terrible parent? ARE NOT HELPFUL.

It's not like THE MINUTE I GET PREGNANT I'm going to have the feotus torn out and fed to piranhas. I look forward to having children. When I can give them the life and the love they deserve.

Thanks for givng me a platform, Emma.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

I've never had an abortion, but I had a pregnancy scare when I was 17. I was already researching abortion clinics when my period arrived a week late. And I would have had an abortion if I'd been pregnant then, no question. I could not have been the parent at 17 that I can be now.

[frances-veritas.livejournal.com]

Totally one hundred percent agree so much it hurts. I was raised catholic, like a trillion percent catholic and went to an all girl private catholic high school for 4 years. And all that anti-abortion stuff was beat into our heads 24/7. Sometimes I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs and always wondered if I was crazy for being pro-choice. *shakes head*

I kind of want to print out what you said here and submit it in the next newsletter I get from my high school. Heh.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Along with gmth's comment above about how it's apparently okay with even anti-abortion folks to choose as long as one makes the "right" choice. For me it comes down to trusting women with their bodies and their lives, end of story.

[pombagira.livejournal.com]

**loves**

just cause

*beams*

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

*grins*

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

Yep. I may (and often do) disagree with the choices that women make - either way - but it is absolutely their choice. I am not in their shoes, and what they think is best is what they need to do, not what I or anyone else thinks is best.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly.

[coffeejunkii.livejournal.com]

But Ms. Palin, isn't it painfully clear to you now that abstinence-only sex "education" doesn't work?

srsly. EPIC LOGIC FAIL. which she will never concede even when it's staring her and other "abstinence-only" people in the face.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It makes me want to bang my head against a wall. :-P

[kaitlyn142.livejournal.com]

If you don't mind a comment from the pro-life side. I am one of the rare pro-life Democrats who is not particularly religious one way or the other.

You are coming at it from an (understandably) negative viewpoint. It is not that we think a pro-choice person would automatically choose an abortion. Rather, we're happy that someone in an important position is finally walking the walk and not just talking the talk. At last, it's not someone who is "pro-life until something bad comes along and then oh crap, abortions are a good thing to have available." This is what we are happy about, because we would rather someone be pro-choice than pro-life until something bad happens.

[kaitlyn142.livejournal.com]

I feel I should mention I'm voting for Obama. I really am a Democrat. If I had to choose something to be singe-issue about, it's science education and religion has NOTHING to do in our science classrooms. *ahem*

[primroseburrows.livejournal.com]

As seen on several places on my flist, it's apparently an arrestable offense to even be thinking about protesting the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

Wow. It's like 1968 Chicago all over again.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Scary. :-P

[ixchelmala.livejournal.com]

Thank you posting a more put-together set of thoughts than I'm able to these days.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It's been stewing all day...

[scrtkpr.livejournal.com]

This is one of the best arguments for this stance on abortion I've read.

Personally, I'm a big fan of life and choice both, and not such a big fan of abortion. I sometimes feel just as misunderstood as you've described, because when forced to pick a side, I do identify as pro-life, but I'm not out there lobbying to make abortions illegal. That really doesn't seem like it would solve anything. I'm in favor of improving education and giving women as many options as possible and hopefully reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies from the beginning. In that regard, I do seem to be on the same page as my pro-choice friends.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

It would be a great world if no one had an abortion because there were no unwanted pregnancies -- because everyone had access to birth control and accurate information, and society's views about sexuality were healthy, and rape and incest were non-existent. I'm all for that!

I'm not being sarcastic, btw; I really think that's what it would take. :-)

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

Abortion is always something that I have mixed feelings about because while I don't think I could personally ever have one I also don't think that my feelings regarding what would be a very personal situation should be forced upon everyone else.

It's just not that simple. I wish politicians didn't try to make it so. Everyone has different life situations.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

As I said somewhere above, if I'd accidentally become pregnant as a teenager, I absolutely would have had an abortion. If I found out I was pregnant next week, there's no way I would have an abortion, even though I had such a traumatic experience with my pregnancy. My life circumstances now are very different than they were then.

That's my frustration, I guess. Being pro-choice is not equal to being all "Yay, abortion!" But that's what a lot of conservatives seem to think.

[hermorrine.livejournal.com]

Very well said.

You know what always annoys me about anti-abortion folk? They seem to think that being pro-choice means one supports having abortions at every possible opportunity. You know, for fun.

I've always been disgusted by the fact that pro-life people seem to assume that pro-choice equals pro-abortion. Umm, NO. Like you, I've spent most of my life with serious medical issues that, had I ever become pregnant accidentally, might have resulted in me having to give serious consideration to the choices. Luckily for me, I never had to face that, but you can be damn sure that I'm glad that I still have the option there. Though how anyone can think that choosing between your life and the life of your unborn child is in any way fun... I just boggle.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Though how anyone can think that choosing between your life and the life of your unborn child is in any way fun... I just boggle.

Yes, absolutely. I've know many women who had abortions, and though none of them regretted their decision, they all said it was one of the hardest things they ever had to go through.

[ciel-vert.livejournal.com]

WORD.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Hee!

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Yes, and yes, and yes again.

"Emma Grant in 2012!!"

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

*snerk*

Waaay too many skeletons in my closet! ;-)

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

I don't care about her personal baby drama or her daughter's personal baby drama.

She thinks that other people shouldn't be allowed to legally choose to get an abortion even if it is a result of being raped. IMO, that is fuckin' fucked up. I am so far left on this one that to me that is like saying it doesn't matter if some asshole rammed your car on purpose, whiplash is a special miracle from Jesus and you shall not get treatment for it.

She probably won't be able to DO anything about this, it is too difficult to change on a national level. But I am way skeeved by a politician who even believes that, even if they can't do shit about it.

Again, I don't care about her choices or her daughters choices (like you said, assuming she had one). Other people's choices? Arrgh.

[scarah2.livejournal.com]

Also, I was gone from LJ for a long time but I meant to say I'm glad you're OK now and things seem to sound good.

[valkyrie17.livejournal.com]

I'm a pro-choice person, though my choice was to have my child. My girlfriend had 2 children, had her tubes tied and then became pregnant. After a lot of agonizing, she chose abortion. Hard choice, but at least she made it.
A pregnant 17 year old in this day and age? Either she's an idiot who wants a baby, or her sex education was sorely lacking.

[ashe-frost.livejournal.com]

I have had this conversation like four times this week!

Pro-choice =/= pro-abortion.

Nobody wants an abortion. You don't wake up one morning and think, "Wow, I think I'll go get knocked up so I can have an abortion!" It's not want thing so much as a, "I think I need" thing.

[daddybear716.livejournal.com]

Here in Buffalo, NY we had a mayor who referred to Pro-Choice as being "Anti-Life" A great claim to fam that was.

In terms of choice... does anyone seriously believe that 17 year old Bristol Palin was given any kind of choice what so ever? I highly doubt it.

[deadcat-vagrant.livejournal.com]

Same here. While I think she might have actually wanted to keep the baby (I'm in camp with the theory that Palin's 5th child is actually her daughter's first), I doubt she was in such a hurry to get married.

"Now, you aren't going to ruin Mommy's political career again! You get runnin' to that chapel, little girl!"


I'm from the South. I know what this shit is like. >:-|

[florahart]

I am very with you on the becoming more pro-choice after finding myself sitting in a hospital hemorrhaging where, had I not been sitting right there when everything went to hell, we'd both have died. I mean, I myself would probably choose not to do a downs screening if, in another five years, I found myself pregnant, because the outcome of it, if positive, would only bring pressure to terminate, and that wouldn't be the choice I'd make, This doesn't make me less interested in everyone having access to choices, and I am all for those tests being available and easily obtained, and that is probably only MORE true because I understand that forcing somone else into circumstances that might get ugly is not okay. That I would not abort in [whatever set of circumstances] has no bearing on my opinion of someone else's decision to, which unless they seriously do demonstrate an extremely cavalier attitude toward the topic, is that it's not my opinion to have. Hell, I don't have any daughters, but if I did, I would think it was only my place to offer perspective and/or support/ideas/whatever, not to decide.

[luahoana.livejournal.com]

Well said, Emma.
I'm observing the whole thing from the outside, as usual.
Despite my mum (and me) being Catholic and me dedicating quite a lot of my childhood days to church (in the same way that I would spend time at my gymnastics class), my family is actually not very religious. Today, my confession is nothing but two words written on a piece of paper, and for my mum and my grandma, it's mostly the case of "knowing that someone's there to look after you". The values my family believes in are IMO not Christian, but what I'd consider ..human values.
I've grown up with a very strong conviction of pro-choice, which, to my parents, did not only include abortion, but also political views and one's sexual identity.
It's everyone's own choice, and it's not for anyone else to judge.

Actually, speaking of church, I've just remembered something I haven't thought of in years. It was during one of our church group meetings (communion or confirmation class, I can't remember). There was a priest from another church (no wait, I think he was a bishop) and he was telling us about his work.
He told us that once a woman called him very late at night to talk about the abortion she'd had years ago. She said she couldn't forget and although for her it was the only possible choice at the time - and despite having children now - she was still suffering. He spoke about her without any disapproval, saying that he'd told her that it wasn't for him to judge and that God was with her.
Quite surprising for someone in his position, now that I think of it. (maybe there's hope yet?)

[meri-oddities.livejournal.com]

Exactly. They miss the point completely and the sad thing is you can't even explain it to them.

I am not going into my problems here, but suffice it to say it is a choice. And sometimes it's a hard one. I can't imagine being forced to make it one way or another.

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

yes yes yes yes and yes.

[glass-houses.livejournal.com]

A-fucking-men.

[aurorasinistra.livejournal.com]

Here via scarah2, thank you for your comments.

I too am fortunate to not have ever become pregnant. I have a medical condition which may have taken my life during a pregnancy. Fortunately, I was never faced with making a choice, but I would never presume to eliminate any woman's right to do so.

I hope you don't mind, I've friended you.