Blogging for Choice
Jan. 22nd, 2007 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desertvixenIt's Blog for Choice Day. I don't have one of the nifty icons or links, because I didn't get a chance to email for one.
Bottom Line:
1. Abortion needs to remain legal.
2. Contraception and sex education need to be much more widespread.
3. Choice encompasses both the choice to not have a child and the choice to have a child.
For more, click the link:
Why am I pro-choice?
I am pro-choice because I am the mother of a daughter, and I want her to be happy and healthy.
I want her to have a full range of choices about her reproductive health.
I am pro-choice because, having gone through a pregnancy and a labor and now being a mother, I am more convinced than ever that it must be done by volunteers. It must be done by people who want to go through the process because it's hard.
Pregnancy, FOR ME, wasn't bad. But I am not every woman.
Labor, FOR ME, wasn't bad. But I am not every woman.
Motherhood is, at times the hardest and the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I am glad I chose to do it.
But it was my choice.
Every woman should have her own choice.
Abortion must remain legal. I would like to see a world where abortions are only performed out of medical need, but we don't live in that world. I don't want to question why a woman is having an abortion - it's not my business. It's hers. We need to cast the abortion straw women into the fire, because the truth is that there is no 'type' of woman who has an abortion. Women have them for medical reasons, have them because their birth control fails, have them because they aren't at a place in their life where having a child is a good idea. Their reason shouldn't matter, because there shouldn't be 'right' or 'wrong' reasons to have an abortion.
How do we make abortions less necessary? Contraception and sex education will go a long way towards that goal. Sex education should not be constrained by moralizing textbooks - what teenagers need in the way of sex education is:
1. Clear, detailed information about how their bodies work, and how the bodies of the opposite sex work
2. Honest facts about the risks of sexual activity
3. Honest facts about the types of contraception available - ALL methods, from natural family planning to sterilization
What we do not need is abstinence-only sex education. If parents want their children involved in those programs through other venues - their school, or the parents themselves - then go for it. Don't have it in the schools, and they STILL need the basic facts.
To follow up the education about contraception, we need to broaden access to it. I am lucky, in that as a military member, Uncle Sam pays for my birth control. There is no excuse for insurance companies NOT to cover birth control. One, it saves them money, as birth control is nowhere near as expensive as labor and delivery. Two, if you cover Viagra, and you don't cover birth control, you're just wrong. You are saying that a man's right to get it up is more important than a woman's right to control her body and her destiny.
Pharmacists who won't dispense it? Need to think about other lines of work.
If we do not control our bodies, then do we control anything about our lives? No.
Having an abortion is a choice. But so is having a child. Being 'pro-choice' is not being 'anti-child'. My daughter is precious to me, and I can be the best mother I can be, because I'm in a place in my life and a time in my life where I am ready to have a child, and ready to be a mother.
And every woman should have that choice.
DV
Bottom Line:
1. Abortion needs to remain legal.
2. Contraception and sex education need to be much more widespread.
3. Choice encompasses both the choice to not have a child and the choice to have a child.
For more, click the link:
Why am I pro-choice?
I am pro-choice because I am the mother of a daughter, and I want her to be happy and healthy.
I want her to have a full range of choices about her reproductive health.
I am pro-choice because, having gone through a pregnancy and a labor and now being a mother, I am more convinced than ever that it must be done by volunteers. It must be done by people who want to go through the process because it's hard.
Pregnancy, FOR ME, wasn't bad. But I am not every woman.
Labor, FOR ME, wasn't bad. But I am not every woman.
Motherhood is, at times the hardest and the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I am glad I chose to do it.
But it was my choice.
Every woman should have her own choice.
Abortion must remain legal. I would like to see a world where abortions are only performed out of medical need, but we don't live in that world. I don't want to question why a woman is having an abortion - it's not my business. It's hers. We need to cast the abortion straw women into the fire, because the truth is that there is no 'type' of woman who has an abortion. Women have them for medical reasons, have them because their birth control fails, have them because they aren't at a place in their life where having a child is a good idea. Their reason shouldn't matter, because there shouldn't be 'right' or 'wrong' reasons to have an abortion.
How do we make abortions less necessary? Contraception and sex education will go a long way towards that goal. Sex education should not be constrained by moralizing textbooks - what teenagers need in the way of sex education is:
1. Clear, detailed information about how their bodies work, and how the bodies of the opposite sex work
2. Honest facts about the risks of sexual activity
3. Honest facts about the types of contraception available - ALL methods, from natural family planning to sterilization
What we do not need is abstinence-only sex education. If parents want their children involved in those programs through other venues - their school, or the parents themselves - then go for it. Don't have it in the schools, and they STILL need the basic facts.
To follow up the education about contraception, we need to broaden access to it. I am lucky, in that as a military member, Uncle Sam pays for my birth control. There is no excuse for insurance companies NOT to cover birth control. One, it saves them money, as birth control is nowhere near as expensive as labor and delivery. Two, if you cover Viagra, and you don't cover birth control, you're just wrong. You are saying that a man's right to get it up is more important than a woman's right to control her body and her destiny.
Pharmacists who won't dispense it? Need to think about other lines of work.
If we do not control our bodies, then do we control anything about our lives? No.
Having an abortion is a choice. But so is having a child. Being 'pro-choice' is not being 'anti-child'. My daughter is precious to me, and I can be the best mother I can be, because I'm in a place in my life and a time in my life where I am ready to have a child, and ready to be a mother.
And every woman should have that choice.
DV
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 01:46 am (UTC)It's nice to see #3 up there under the bottom line. That one gets left out. I'm running into a lot of that right now - people who want to make all sorts of comments about I'm having *another* baby? Well, this will be the last one, then, right? Grrr. These are even often from people who don't know about Brendan, and are thinking I only have two. Actually, this seems likely to be the last, but I swear, these people make me want to get pregnant again right away. If we can support them and take good care of them and love them, what business is it of theirs?
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 03:15 am (UTC)I see you stole the icon.
I can guess that that question is probably up there with, "So, you're STILL breastfeeding?". :(
I think we're going to stop with two, ourselves. Depends on whether the next one is a boy or girl, since we really would like to have at least one of each.
But it's a choice we should all make for ourselves.
DV
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 05:41 am (UTC)Yea verily! You want to have one kid, or none? Fine. You want to have three, or six, or nineteen, and you've got the funds to feed and clothe them and the energy to rear them? Fine. It's the business of the potential co-parents how many kids they want, not mine.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 01:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 03:16 am (UTC)What scares me is the people who think women should be punished for having sex - by making them be mothers? WTF, over? In what universe is that a good idea?
Every child should be wanted.
DV
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 03:34 am (UTC)Why I Belong To Planned Parenthood
Date: 2007-01-23 02:01 am (UTC)Re: Why I Belong To Planned Parenthood
Date: 2007-01-23 03:17 am (UTC)Reminds me, I'm donating to our local one here in GA (I probably give PPFA 200-300 dollars a year of my donation money.) since they called me. Did you Georgia is 8th in HIV infection rate? Not good.
DV
Re: Why I Belong To Planned Parenthood
Date: 2007-01-23 03:21 pm (UTC)Re: Why I Belong To Planned Parenthood
Date: 2007-01-24 12:56 am (UTC)I didn't ask how they figured the number. I don't have a problem believing it though.
DV
Re: Why I Belong To Planned Parenthood
Date: 2007-01-24 03:56 pm (UTC)Re: Why I Belong To Planned Parenthood
Date: 2007-01-24 10:53 pm (UTC)The caller from our local PPFA quoted it to me.
DV
Re: Why I Belong To Planned Parenthood
Date: 2007-01-24 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 02:05 am (UTC)WORD!!! So very well said.
Pharmacists who won't dispense it? Need to think about other lines of work.
Again, word!
Having an abortion is a choice. But so is having a child. Being 'pro-choice' is not being 'anti-child'. My daughter is precious to me, and I can be the best mother I can be, because I'm in a place in my life and a time in my life where I am ready to have a child, and ready to be a mother.
Again, very well said. I have come across the argument where someone asked me how I could be pro-choice after experiencing the miracle of child birth? Probably because I've been experiencing all of the other less than miraculous days since the kids came into my life. I love them with all my heart, I am so grateful that I was able to have them, but I totally agree that becoming a parent should be a choice, because it is truly is a very tough job.
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 03:18 am (UTC)Thanks!
DV
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 02:54 am (UTC)I think you probably have read my feelings on abortion in
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 03:19 am (UTC)Yes, hiss on Sunday. Didn't get mentioned at church, thankfully.
I'll join you on that wait.
DV
no subject
Date: 2007-01-24 04:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-24 10:52 pm (UTC)National Sanctity of Human Life Day, according to Bush.
Also anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
DV
no subject
Date: 2007-01-24 10:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 04:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-24 12:59 am (UTC)I got it from someone on
But feel free to take it.
DV
no subject
Date: 2007-01-23 08:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-24 12:59 am (UTC)Thanks!
DV
Keeping the proceedure legal, yes, but--
Date: 2007-01-25 12:16 am (UTC)Most people I know don't call their off-spring, whilst in utero a fetus, they call it "their baby" - the determination to re-educate the world into that language usage is a hall-mark of the sort of people (stalinists, of one stripe or another) I will oppose to my dying day.
And then there's the constitutional abortion that was Roe v. Wade, which opened the door to suborning every one of our constitutional rights...
And finally, there's the whole history of the 20th century in which philosphers and politicians have found it useful to create two categories of human being: The one, "real humans", toward which we have duties and to which rights apply and the other, to whom and with which we can do pretty much as we please.
So, while I don't want the medical proceedure criminalized (ala various drugs) I cannot be as blithe as you
about supporting this particular choice.
Birth control, now--that we can join hands on. Go Western Technology!
Hey, maybe it will come to bat for us on the abortion thing, too.
Re: Keeping the proceedure legal, yes, but--
Date: 2007-01-25 01:15 am (UTC)For myself - the only situation in which I could see myself having an abortion is if there are severe defects. But I have a lot of things going for me, and that affects my decision.
As much as I cannot imagine having one myself, I also cannot imagine imposing my opinion on this very personal issue on someone else.
Here's to joining hands on birth control! It is my deep desire that your BunnyBright and my LittleVixen will have dependable, affordable, accessible birth control.
DV
Re: Keeping the proceedure legal, yes, but--
Date: 2007-01-26 12:46 am (UTC)I just don't want to be wrong about it :-)