Pro-Choice NC
The campaign and election woke me up to the fact that I live in a red state now. And that red is for Republican and not my father's Republican party.
Well the point is, I found out that those inroads on women's health and reproductive freedoms are growing in strength and repressiveness. I realized I've been congratulating myself on the results of work feminists accomplished in the 1970s while present-day pro-so-called-"life" politics has been putting on a squeeze:
--Voting to de-fund Planned Parenthood
--Requiring parental consent for some abortions
--Misinforming women about the consequences of abortions
--Enacting legislation to require a woman seeking an abortion face a transvaginal ultrasound.
This last isn't just in Virginia. Last year, in 2011, "while I was sleeping" so to speak, the NC legislature, Republican for the first time in decades, passed the "Women's Right To Know Act" (don't you love the 1984-speak).
All of the above is upsetting to proponents of women's equality, to those who believe a woman should decide, not the government, about the whether to carry a foetus to term.
The argument is this: nobody is happy to see a pregnancy terminated, but sometimes it is necessary to do this. Even if you think abortion is evil, it is still a necessary evil. Even if you think a 2-cell organism has rights, those rights should not overrule the right of the woman to make a decision about her own body. I'm just throwing a few arguments out there in case someone hasn't given choice much thought.
Personally, I have thought all this through years ago.
But with the wakeup call of the election I realized although I'm old and a bit frail, I still need to get back out and DO something. So I contacted NARAL -- Pro-Choice NC. (I think NARAL stands for National Abortion Rights Action League.) Yesterday a young lady from there called me and filled me in on our political situation in NC. Which is not pretty (See bullet points above). I did some reading on the NARAL web site and then on the NOW web site, and now I'm beginning to think.
What can I do? Well, I am doing it. What I can.
Stay tuned.
Well the point is, I found out that those inroads on women's health and reproductive freedoms are growing in strength and repressiveness. I realized I've been congratulating myself on the results of work feminists accomplished in the 1970s while present-day pro-so-called-"life" politics has been putting on a squeeze:
--Voting to de-fund Planned Parenthood
--Requiring parental consent for some abortions
--Misinforming women about the consequences of abortions
--Enacting legislation to require a woman seeking an abortion face a transvaginal ultrasound.
This last isn't just in Virginia. Last year, in 2011, "while I was sleeping" so to speak, the NC legislature, Republican for the first time in decades, passed the "Women's Right To Know Act" (don't you love the 1984-speak).
All of the above is upsetting to proponents of women's equality, to those who believe a woman should decide, not the government, about the whether to carry a foetus to term.
The argument is this: nobody is happy to see a pregnancy terminated, but sometimes it is necessary to do this. Even if you think abortion is evil, it is still a necessary evil. Even if you think a 2-cell organism has rights, those rights should not overrule the right of the woman to make a decision about her own body. I'm just throwing a few arguments out there in case someone hasn't given choice much thought.
Personally, I have thought all this through years ago.
But with the wakeup call of the election I realized although I'm old and a bit frail, I still need to get back out and DO something. So I contacted NARAL -- Pro-Choice NC. (I think NARAL stands for National Abortion Rights Action League.) Yesterday a young lady from there called me and filled me in on our political situation in NC. Which is not pretty (See bullet points above). I did some reading on the NARAL web site and then on the NOW web site, and now I'm beginning to think.
What can I do? Well, I am doing it. What I can.
Stay tuned.
posted by Pat at 10:06 AM
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