Blog for Choice

I know I do not usually talk about anything political on this blog – however, this topic I have been keeping a close eye on, and I feel that it is important enough to make a point of blogging about.

January 22nd was the annual Blog for Choice day – where a variety of blogs come together and blog about Roe v. Wade, and how much we continue to need that protection, as it seems as years goes on, Roe v. Wade gets weaker and weaker. I am a day late to the party, but wanted to put something thoughtful out there, so took a bit of time for me to get this together.

I come from a line of feminists – my paternal grandmother was president of the local Planned Parenthood chapter board for a few years, back in the 70’s I believe, my mom was strongly pro-choice, as well as the men in my family.

I remember clearly the moment when I realized that this was a hot button topic – I got in an argument with the teacher’s aide when I was like 12 or 13 – I believe it was right after a sex education class where we discussed abortion, and then a few of us went to the resource room and talked about it, and the aide was saying that it was murder, and that the pro-choice folks advocated murder – I remember retorting back that my family was pro-choice – that we supported the access to choice, not necessarily that abortion was the only choice. That if she thought that pro-choice people equaled to murderers, then she thought that my family were murderers. Needless to say, that did not go over very well with her.

Over the following years, I have helped a couple of friends get abortions, and the decision was always something that they had wrestled with for a long time, that they knew that they would suffer because of the procedure. One girl I took to a follow-up appointment said that she was upset because when she and her (at that time boyfriend, now husband) are ready to have kids, that the kids that they get would always be their second and third, and possibly fourth kids – never their first, and she was extremely sad about it. She knew that she could not possibly provide the life that the child deserve, and that was also a very difficult aspect of her and her boyfriend’s decision.

I have never understood the people who said that the women getting abortions made the decision easily and just popped in the local clinic and got the procedure done. Every time I see someone going though this procedure personally have made this heart-wrenching decision after thinking about it for as long as they could and figuring how the hell to deal with it. Naturally, there are exceptions to the rule, but in this case I really do not think there are that many.

There are a few other points regarding this that I have never understood – how the people that are against abortion feels that it is all right for their family to obtain in case of emergencies, and that it is not all right for others to do so. There is also the socioeconomic issue – research has shown there is a higher rate of abortion in communities that does not provide comprehensive sexual education and access to free or relatively cheap health care.

I have never thought that I would see the day when people are talking about repealing or appealing the Roe v. Wade, and it is happening in many parts of the country. I only hope for the sake of women all over the states that it never happen, in my generation, in my future children’s generation, or the following generations. This is why it is important to continue the conversations about this issue for the fight for equality for women.