The Reproductive Right

(Response to If These Uterine Walls Could Talk)

            “Thirteen states have introduced laws that would allow pharmacists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to refuse to distribute medication that goes against their moral, ethical, or religious beliefs.” (Valenti p. 86)

     We live in a society where doctors can refuse to treat us if it goes against their morals.  This seemingly innocuous idea can actually prevent women from getting the abortions and contraception that they need.

     We live in a society where women do not have essential rights concerning their own bodies.  Since Roe vs. Wade, which advocated abortion rights, additional legislation has essentially made abortions largely unavailable to women and girls.  The truth is, 1/3 of women have abortions and 99% use contraception.  The problem is driven by anti-sexuality, as exemplified by Dr Janet Woodcock of the FDA when she said:

“(I) could not anticipate or prevent extreme promiscuous behaviors (resulting from public access to the morning after pill), such as the medication taking on an ‘urban legend’ status that would lead adolescents to form sex-based cults centered around the use of (the morning after pill) EC.”(Valenti p. 89)

     Sex based cults?  No cults, to my knowledge exist, and those fears are urban legend and or Hollywood based.  But we can see the problem is that our government officials are against teenage promiscuity, and they believe that abortion and contraception add to that problem, which is an essential problem for the religious right who want to prevent teenage sex (and essentially punish women by forcing them to get pregnant and remain pregnant) and for the republicans who want the religious right vote.

     Essentially we are facing an anti-sex movement, and it manifests itself in the debate around abortion.  Eleven states are trying to ban abortion.  Some have mandatory waiting periods that prevent and discourage mothers from receiving the abortion they want.  Lawmakers in Alabama and South Dakota both pushed for anti-abortion laws that made no exception for rape and incest related pregnancies.

     In certain states where abortion is illegal, a teen can still appear before a judge and petition for her right.  These women are sometimes battered and or psychologically stressed and in no condition to appear before a judge, yet that’s the only way they can achieve bodily sanctity.  A proposed law in Virginia stated that women would be unable to receive fertilization treatments, while another law simultaneously outlaws gay marriage.  Effect:  Lesbians, as “single women,” cannot receive fertility treatments or acquire help with conception.  There’s some definite anti-gay agenda in state legislation in that case.

     A lot of the anti-sex argument is that contraceptives and abortions will turn women into sluts.  Women however probably take the issue more personally and seriously than the old white rich men who theorize about young slutty pregnant women.  As stated, these are individual cases of pregnant women with real needs, and real assessments of their possible children’s future welfare, not just general cases.  It’s less important whether individual babies are killed or saved, what’s important is that the mother has the choice.  Even if the husband or legislator wants the baby to come to term, it’s not really their right to tell you “you have to undergo this arduous 10 month process where your body gets hijacked by a fetus.”

     Sometimes, advocates for birth control go too far.  An organization calling itself “Project Prevention” pays women to receive sterilization or long term birth control.  They put up signs in neighborhoods where there are female addicts that say things like “Addicted to Drugs?  Want $200?” (Valenti p. 106).  This kind of abuse of those who are addicts has to stop.  No one should hand an addict $200, that’s not good for their welfare and is unconscionable.  These women need serious help, not just a drug fix.

     Even conscientious adults who acquire birth control are in danger of complications from an improperly administered morning after pill called RU-486.  In Europe it is less dangerous, because they monitor women closely for complications.  In one woman’s private experience, entitled Personal Belongings, a local clinic misdoses her with RU-486 and does not do proper blood tests and preventative examinations that could have given her a better experience.  Even when contraception and abortions are available, they are sometimes not properly administered.

     It makes me wonder what exactly is at the root of the anti-women’s-sexuality argument?  I get that our culture doesn’t want women as sluts (while simultaneously worshipping their sexuality in the media), but I’m mystified.  I get that this is a problem, but I’ve never been one of those people.  I’ve never said to myself, “Gee, certain women shouldn’t be allowed to have babies”, or “Women shouldn’t be allowed abortions in general.” It seems like a lot of the pressure is coming from conservative Christianity, and also old money conservative republicans in general.  I think the problem is that there are people who try to play to the masses.  First, let’s convince people that abortion is bad.  Then let’s promote my candidates leadership by campaigning against abortion.

     The story of the woman in Accidents is revealing.  Aunt Joan is retarded and suffering, should she have been aborted?  And what if I had been aborted?  The fact is I am lucky, my mother did not consider an abortion when I was born. But had she been considering it, it would have probably been in lieu of my future welfare, of and her own future welfare.  I stand up for my mother’s right for abortion, and it is also the right of the unborn child not to be born into a crappy life.     Overall, our society is in a tenuous place.  Will Roe vs. Wade be overturned?  What new definitions and distinctions about abortions will our society adopt?  Let’s hope for our mothers and sisters that the religious right and republican conservatives do not get their way.  Let’s hope for a future where women have sanctity over their own bodies – indeed, the right to decide what can live in their uterus, and when and for what reasons pregnancy should be prevented or aborted.

     Finally, I wanted to add that parental consent is an issue with abortion - in cases of incest or abuse, the parents consent to abortion is not always relevant, yet some states have those parental consent laws.  Are there parental consent laws for masturbation?  After all, you're killing all those sperm, all those unborn babies.  More evidence of gender stratification.