Been a bit of an eventful weekend for this goddess. Spent lots of it doing pro choice stuff. Leafleting, marching, shouting at pro life harassers of women. That sort of thing. Been a good one too. Empowering and knackering all at once.
And I am bloody knackered.
Yet here I lie on a sunday night full of thoughts that won't let me sleep. The following is my attempt to put them in order and get some kip. Fair warning, it might get ranty. It will definitely be sweary. But I will, as ever, be honest.
When I was at the excellent Carnival for Choice with the fantastic Brighton Pro Choice (@BrightonPC) I heard an exchange that has had me thinking. Summed up, it was about abortion being murder. 'Even in the case of rape?' was the question asked. Got me wondering why rape was a special case when a woman is seeking an abortion.
Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not underplaying rape. I'm a survivor of it myself, the first time it happened I was 14. Luckily I didn't get pregnant, but if I had, I'm sure that I would have had access to safe, legal abortion and only the fundamentalists would have judged me.
The thing I am uncomfortable with is the idea that there are abortions that are more 'justifiable' than others. If you think that, then quite simply, fuck you. I don't want you to feel pity for me because I got pregnant after rape. I want your support because I got raped in the first place!
Abort67, the nasty, fuckwitted organisation who have been harassing women outside abortion clinics in Brighton use pictures of aborted foetuses to 'persuade' women not to go through with their abortion. These images are graphic and upsetting. Not just to women who are seeking abortions though this is pernicious and misogynistic enough. What these narrow minded, holier than thou IDIOTS don't seem to take into account is the amount of women who miscarry every year. I have never had an abortion, but I have miscarried. Twice. I went for my 12 week scan to be told that I had been carrying a dead baby around for 4 weeks. Twice. The procedure they used to 'evacuate' my womb is EXACTLY the same procedure they use for early abortion. So how do you think those pictures make ME feel you cunts?
*sigh*
This blog was supposed to help me get my thoughts in order, not be a messy rant, so here goes. My idiots guide to why I am pro choice.
1. Personal autonomy. It is my body so I get to say what goes on in it.
Yeah, that is about it actually. My body, my choice.
'But what about the father?' I hear some idiots cry. 'It's half his so he has rights too!' I even had someone say to me today that if the man wanted to keep it that the woman should be made to keep it so that the man can bring it up.
Do me a fucking favour! Firstly, the foetus is not chattel. Nobody 'owns' it. Nobody gets to call dibs on it. And that goes at least double for the woman. She is not chattel. Nor is she a breeder put here to be an incubator for 'your' progeny. The role of the man in this is to listen to the woman, offer his opinion and then support her in HER decision.
Seriously men, when you can get pregnant and give birth to a baby then maybe you will get a say. Even then , I would support YOUR right to choose.
I never met a single woman who took this decision lightly.
I never met a single woman who uses abortion as a contraception.
I never met a single woman who didn't have the right to make her own choices about what happens to her body.
Now fuck off out of my womb and my decisions. There is no room for your hatred there.
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