Blows To The Body
Mood:
not sure
Now Playing: Napalm Death - "Order Of The Leech"
I just found out today marks the 33rd anniversary of Roe v Wade - the Supreme Court decision that ruled state restrictions on abortions to be illegal. With abortion being a controversial issue thest days (even though it shouldn't be), it felt right to mention a few thoughts about the topic.
I'm worried about the current state of our society on a lot of issues. This one is especially important given that state legislatures have been busy trying to chip away at a woman's reproductive freedom. From parental consent laws to the battle over emergency contraception, forces are underway to protect what they feel is an attack on "the culture of life."
But is that really what they're after? Some people who claim themselves to be "pro life" are sincere. However, I get the feeling a lot more of these people are in that camp more as an attempt to control women and their bodies rather than out of concern for potential life (or even worse, the babies actually born). The latter I get suspicious of when they claim that label yet support the death penalty and the latest wars without question. When you add in the emergency contraception issue, the issue of control appears to take on even more clairty.
The main lynchpin of the "pro life" attack on abortion is the claim that abortion is murder and that the fetus is a complete person? However, whils a fetus is DNA, conception doesn't make it a complete human being. A poential life, yes (especially after the point of viability) - but it's not a complete person once the sperm and egg meet. With that in mind, claiming abortion is murder is inaccurate at best , a sick joke at worst.
So this leave us at the control issue. One of the anti choice movement claims on the issue is that people who get abortions are being selfish or irresponsible. However, there are times when a dificult decision has to be made - unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancies are amongst those situations. To make getting either abortions or emergency contraceptions more difficult doesn't make people allegedly more responsible, it only adds to the difficulties of the dilemma. For men to rant about parental notification or a father's rights makes things even worse, overlooking that many women facing this decision will likely seek the advice of their family in making this decision and gettign laws on the books in many states that protect the worst case scenario of a woman in this situation over the realities of the issue.
So what now? At a time when the Bush administration and their neocon allies are willing to throw the rights of living human beings on the scrapheap, their commitment to the "culture of life" must be seen as the farce it is. The right to reproductive freedom goes beyond abortion into issues such as birth control, family planning, and even the decision to remain childless. By trying to outlaw procedures in the name of protecting potential life, it takes away from women the circumstances and decision making that should be theirs alone - not the church or the governments.
All this over something that in a truly rational world wouldn't even be an issue. In a perfect world this would be seen as a situation involving a woman and her doctor - no one else. It should be obvious that making abortion illegal won't make it go away, but certain politicians and religious figures seem to overlook that in the name of keeping power (religious, political, over women, etc).
There are a lot of different tangents I could look at related to this issue that are important, but unfortunately couldn't get to. I also know that many people who read this post may disagree with me (that's their right) but I stand by what I've posted.
I'll leave this post with a quote from the English grindcore band Napalm Death's 2002 song "Blows To The Body"
"Controlling the womb/Doesn't make her a vehicle/ She dictates the terms."
That pretty much sums it up.
Posted by thetroublewithnormal
at 2:00 PM CST