Saturday, February 4, 2012

U is for...


Image via http://www.buzzfeed.com/provincialelitist/keep-your-boehner-out-of-my-uterus



U is for uterus.


I give you fair warning, this post is about a very controversial subject.


There was a march on our state's capitol recently by the anti-choice crowd, you know the type, the ones who want to make your decisions for you and then leave you to handle the consequences by yourself, the ones who champion the unborn but can't be bothered with the born.

Somehow, their religious convictions tell them that it's OK for them to be that way, that it's OK to insert themselves in the private lives and circumstances of other women, to interfere and thwart and then leave them with the mess while they go interfere in someone else's life. They can't be bothered with the results of their interference. Unwanted children are still unwanted, often resented, abused or abandoned, causing meager resources to be further stretched affecting all.

It would be so much easier to take those anti-choice people seriously if they were out there adopting all the unwanted children that are already here or at least making sure that they have access to adequate food, housing, and healthcare. I posted as much on my FB page to which I received this comment: It's about believing life is sacred, period.

I don't really have an argument with that but life doesn't begin until birth with that first breath of air. A baby who grows in the womb, who is born and does not breathe is not alive. A fetus in the womb is the potential for life but it is not alive and it is kept growing and developing by grace of it's mother's blood and oxygen. Yes, a fetus responds to stimulus. So does a nerve bundle growing in a petrie dish.

I find them not pro-life so much as anti-choice. Because once it is indeed a life and not just the potential for life but an actual living breathing human who needs care, it seems their interest wanes. For all their anti-choice stand you would think that they would be for sex education and making pregnancy prevention devices readily available so that abortion would not be a necessary option but many of these same people are against this as well.

From this site (a brief fact sheet about who, when and why women get abortions):

88% happen in the first trimester with 61.8% by the first 9 weeks. Only 1.5% of abortions happen after 20 weeks and I would venture to say (but have no documentation to back it up) that the majority of these have to do with saving the mother's life, something else these far right christian people are against. If you get pregnant and something goes wrong, then the living breathing human's life is forfeit. Where's their belief in the sanctity of life then?

The idea that women are going blithely about and having abortions because they can't be bothered to prevent pregnancy or raise the ensuing child assuming it makes it to full term is not just ridiculous, it's ludicrous. It is a terribly personal decision, some more easily made than others perhaps but I would not ever begin to impose my judgement about this on someone else. It is none of my business. Period.

And so I say to all the anti-choice people out there...

Don't want an abortion? Don't get one. And I promise I will never force you to get one as long as you never prevent me from getting one if I so wish.

Do not presume to tell me that you are right and I am wrong especially when your 'truth' comes from a book of myths written to promote a particular version or vision of 'god' that I do not share instead of scientific data.

Do not presume to claim the moral high ground just because I do not believe in your version of god and creation because I am no more interested in christian sharia law than I am muslim sharia law.


U is for uterus. Step away from mine.



17 comments:

  1. Wow - this is a brave post Ellen, well done for speaking your mind.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nicely said Ellen - couldn't agree more.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm in total agreement here. What's funny is that I'm pretty sure that I would never have been able to have an abortion - but I'm sure not going to foist my own sensibilities on someone else.

    Here's a story I saw yesterday that gave me some hope: http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/03/10311134-in-virginia-the-power-of-one-womans-story

    ReplyDelete
  4. AMEN sister! TELL IT! Thank you!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Are these the same righties who, at the debates, cheer capital punishment? What happened to life is sacred, period?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am saddened at the extent the pro life faction has brainwashed themselves. That they can ignore the consequences of their policies, which far exceed what you have written about. We must keep on being the voice of reason.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This is a subject close to my heart. I've had mixed feelings for a long time. The Bible says, God knew us when we were in the womb. Yet, I knew a girl who had to abort a very deformed baby and it was heartbreaking.How do I feel, I don't know. I do know it does not belong in the arena of politics.
    Thanks for posting this.
    Barb

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for posting this Ellen.

    To me it is all very simple. It is my choice if I should elect to have an abortion.
    I see life as sacred.
    I am against the death penalty.
    I believe in the right to choose abortion regardless of the reason.
    I believe there is no conflict here because I don't believe there is life until a child is actually born and freed of its mother's womb.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The pic of Boehner in the uterus?? That is SO scary! Yikes.

    You know I agree with you 100%

    ReplyDelete
  10. This is so true, written, not only from your heart, but, also, with your brain.

    It should be each person's choice, I agree. Leave it out of politics.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very well said. Good for you for speaking up and pointing out the inconsistencies of the radical right wing minority. No one has the right to claim that they know what other people should do with their bodies or their lives.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I agree with you all the way.
    Not very christian but maybe, just maybe, Boehner should have been aborted?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Freaky picture.

    People who believe "life is sacred, period" don't really believe that deeply enough to extend health care and a good education to every child born.

    I doubt that this issue will ever leave the political arena because the individual's right-to-choose, apparently has to be legislated.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I believe this bunch is friends with those who shout how they believe in love and goodness, but spit on the faces of people who don't share their views. They just can't be bothered with anything they don't have enough heart or brain to see.

    ReplyDelete
  15. This is such a scary subject because so many of the people who believe all this anti-choice stuff are so brain-washed that they will not even listen to the inconsistencies in which they believe...To have a conversation with them is almost impossible...so sad for everyone...

    ReplyDelete
  16. Since I'm a teacher posting under my real name, this is one of those areas where I can't comment publicly...(but you can probably guess where I stand on the issue).

    I just wanted to say that I'm seriously ROTFLMFAO at the picture. Thanks for that.

    ReplyDelete

I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.