On Pro-Choice

[desertvixen]

http://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2006/02/28/ap2559931.html

President Bush, asked about the South Dakota measure in an interview with ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas, said Tuesday he hadn't "paid attention to that, to this particular issue you're talking about" but "I am not going to prejudge how the Supreme Court is going to judge a particular issue."
However, he said, "My position has always been three exceptions: rape, incests and the life of the mother." Asked if he would include the broader category of health of the mother, Bush said: "No. I said life of the mother, and health is a very vague term, but my position has been clear on that ever since I started running for office."

I know some of the discussion about the bills in South Dakota and Mississippi have included women wondering about how the distinction between a woman's life and a woman's health. I guess now we know (I hadn't seen this particular quote previously) what the President thinks.

As a woman, I'm scared, very scared. Considering that GWB thought they should keep Terry Schiavo alive as well, I guess anything up to just short of a woman hemorraging to death in the middle of delivering a baby won't count as endangering the woman's life.

So would he support forcing a woman to continue a doomed pregnancy? (Anacephaly comes to mind.) Forcing a woman to carry a child that has no chance of life - which by the way, you're now financially responsible for. Personally, I think it would either make me crazy or drive me to doing something harmful to myself.

Call me selfish, but I'm one of those people who doesn't want to live if I'm not *alive*. The quality of life is a big factor, and I think some people are starting to blur that one out.

I'm pro-choice, because it affords women the right, the basic right, to make decisions about their lives. Our reproductive life impacts on every single area of our lives, and we should be able to control it.

I think we should have access to abortion, if needed, without having to jump through flaming hoops. I think we should have access to birth control, at an affordable cost, and access to a method that works for us. I think we should be able to walk into any pharmacy and have our prescriptions filled, without worrying about if the pharmacist is "okay" with it. (BTW, if they're so concerned about our sex lives, stop selling Viagra while you're at it.) And I think we should have the right to these choices without being hounded and harrassed and disrespected.

DV

Comments

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Here, here.

This is why when other soldiers tell me they support Bush because "he supports the military" I stare at them and tell them they're REALLY missing the big picture.

I hadn't thought about the Viagra thing, though. To its credit, the Vatican pharmacy doesn't sell it. At least *they're* consistent.

[rockahulababy.livejournal.com]

"If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament."
-Florynce R. Kennedy

I completely agree with you. Abortion should be kept legal, readily available, safe, sterile, and performed by a licensed professional. Women deserve better than metal coathangers or knitting needles.

[anneebrat.livejournal.com]

I also agree it should be the womans choice on weither or not she keeps her child. However I do draw the line at those woman out there that use abortion as a form of birth control.

[rockahulababy.livejournal.com]

Who are you or I, or anyone for that matter, to say how many abortions a woman can have? Why do you care about what someone else does with their life and their body?

Not attacking you, I'm just asking.

[anneebrat.livejournal.com]

I don't think Fox wants a debat going on here, so I'll answer you and end it at that. All I was saying was that abortion shouldn't be used as a sole form of birth control. There are other ways to prevent pregnancies aside from waiting till after the fact.

[rockahulababy.livejournal.com]

I'm not here to be nasty or start a flame war with anyone. I made sure that you knew that I wasn't attacking you, as I don't want to get ugly in a friend's journal. As DV has stated below, friendly debate is fine, and that's what I am engaging in.

I definately think that women should look for alternate forms to prevent pregnancy, but some women are more fertile than others. Really, though, what is the percentage of women who get multiple abortions in comparison to women who only get one abortion? I wish I had the time to find the actual study, but someone once found a study that more women only get one abortion in a lifetime than multiple ones.

And let's give the female populace some credit here. Speaking on general terms, I'm sure many use a form of birth control in order to prevent pregnancy in the first place.

As DV pointed out below, though, it's a slippery slope. Once you let them start telling a woman how many abortions she can have, what else are they going to restrict? My reproductive system is my business and no one elses. I don't want the government telling me what I can and can't do with my body. My own mother can't do it, so why should anyone else if she of all people cannot? My body, my choice.

It's just been my belief for a very long time that I need to worry about myself, my body, and my life, more than other people's. (Not to say I don't care about other people and what happens to them.) They have their lives and they can deal with them. I got my own stress to worry about, you know? Why let what a woman who knows where is doing with her body get to me? It's her body, and her uterus, how is her having an abortion or X amount of abortions affecting my life?

That's just the way I personally feel. Although, I am also a firm believer in honest sex education, as well. I think it's important for people to know about STDs, pregnancy, and how to prevent both properly. As well as other methods of self pleasure.

[anneebrat.livejournal.com]

I agree with you in ever aspect of what you say. Maybe when I said "Draw the line" it wasn't the best choice of words to use. I did do some quick cheking though and found some stats at http://womensissues.about.com/cs/abortionstats/a/aaabortionstats.htm

according to the stats found there 47% of abortions are performed on women who have already had one or more abortions. You are right in the fact that it is your body and it is your choice, but for me it's an area where I disagree since there are other ways to handle the situation before the fact from birth control to even a permint solution. I would never suggest forcing this on anyone, but the options should be given at a point same as the option of abortion is given to woman.

[rockahulababy.livejournal.com]

Actually, permanent forms of sterilization (ie tubals, Essure) or IUDs are not that easy for all women to receive. Many women without children are told they must have children before given a tubal, Essure, or an IUD. Women with children are told they have to have so many children before they will be given a tubal, sometimes ending in another pregnancy.

Many women in their childbearing years who do not want children ever, the childfree, have a lot of issues with getting a permanent form of sterilization, and even IUDs, are told that they'll "change their minds".

I went to get an IUD a few months ago, and I found one doctor willing to give the IUD to me. He wasn't available to do the actual procedure, and the doctor who was refused to do it because of a 1% chance that I might become sterile and not be able to have children.

Also, not all women can use certain, in some cases, multiple forms of birth control. I cannot do horomonal birth control for whatever reason. I have eczema, so that patch is out. The NuvaRing (what I was perscribed instead of the IUD) irritated me, and not only that, I found the schedule to be confusing.

Some women are just fertile. While I don't disagree that alternate forms should be suggested, a woman should never be turned down for a procedure in which she wants, regardless of how many times she's previously had the procedure done. I'm all about doctors being open and honest about all health information, however, like I said, the woman is the one with the ultimate choice.

I would also venture to guess that women are informed about birth control methods at such points in time. I know I am always whenever I go get tested. (Somehow I need to "slow down" just because I like to get myself tested on a regular basis just know that I am clean. I thought that was a good thing, but apparently, it makes me "loose" around here. But whatever.)

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

A little friendly debate is fine. No getting ugly if we can avoid it.

I definitely want people to take advantage of other methods of birth control, but at the same time, once we start drawing lines it gets tough.

DV

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

I was with you until And I think we should have the right to these choices without being hounded and harrassed and disrespected..

The latter is the consequence of a free but diverse society. No help for it short of tyranny.

Unless, of course, you're simply making a plea for good manners, rather than of gummint intervention in same. In which case "Hear! Hear!"

Which is not to say I agree with your manifesto in every way (some parts yes, some no, some qualified), merely that I can appreciate your perspective: In a sane world, political compromise would be possible. Since we don't have that (have we ever?) we'll just have to muddle through somehow.

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

Unless, of course, you're simply making a plea for good manners, rather than of gummint intervention in same. In which case "Hear! Hear!"

Yes, more an issue of "good manners". I don't like how the states have been able to chip away at access, but that is the right of a state. I didn't so much mean the protests at clinics, so much as I meant the simple fact that all these people are trying to have a say in my reproductive life. To be perfectly blunt, the only man who has any semblance of say in what I do with my uterus is Brian, and that's because he's contributing to the production of any life therein.

You and I can have this reasoned discussion, and agree to disagree (like this is the only topic that occurs on, NOT!). Everytime I see anti-abortion propaganda that portrays women as essentially too stupid to make their own decision, that makes me mad. Luckily, because we live in the free and diverse society, I'm allowed to say so.

It's really the imposing of one's views on others that bothers me. I support choice - choice and right to have an abortion, choice and right to birth control (and I wouldn't mind if they mandated insurers to cover it, that much government influence I support), choice and right to bear children if and when (approximately) you wish. I do not support forced abortions (China comes to mind). The problem with overturning Roe v. Wade is it forces the pro-life viewpoint on those of us who are pro-choice.

There's also the worry of if it's okay to attack abortion, can birth control REALLY be that far down the road?

I will freely admit though, that the idea that it is a woman's life, and not her health, that they will make an exception for squicks me the hell out. But then, with the man currently in charge, that's not the only thing that does.

DV

[rockahulababy.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the outright lies that some do spread. Have you seen the "talking fetus" story that's passed around the internet? Full of inaccurate information.

The term "partial birth abortion" was also created as a scare tactic and is a medically inaccurate term.

[tygerr.livejournal.com]

BTW, if they're so concerned about our sex lives, stop selling Viagra while you're at it.

*snicker*

I *like* it!!