So now that Roe v. Wade is dead -- or at least in Schiavo territory -- what are we women going to do? I'm past being able to be pregnant, but I have friends and loved one's who aren't so lucky.
I've been urging all the women I know who either have all the children they plan to have or who do not want children to get sterilized NOW. Because they're going to make that illegal in a few short years, as well. A vasectomy for your partner is less expensive and less invasive, but doesn't provide the woman with enough control, IMHO. You can still become pregnant due to rape and, Goddess forbid, you may want to change partners some day.
But we know that teenagers and young women will continue to experience unplanned pregnancies. In fact, with the ineffective "abstinence education" that has replaced sex education in much of this country, and with the increasing difficulty that many women experience (which will get worse as the fundies implement Phase II - No More Birth Control) when trying to obtain birth control (fuck you Target!) unplanned pregnancies are likely to increase.
We need to start thinking now about how we'll cope. Charities that fund travel to Canada for indigent women? An underground railroad to get pregnant women to Canada? Offshore hospital boats that anchor just outside of US coastal waters? I don't know. I just know that WE CAN'T GO BACK.
What are you willing to do? What risks would you take for yourself, your sister, a Goth teenager you don't know?
And, along with my meditations this year on the word "thrive" -- what can we do to help women not only survive but thirve in a post-Roe world? What would that look like? What would it mean for you, for your sister, for that Goth teenager?
A New Era
11 hours ago
5 comments:
Well, I've had my tubes tied, and have gone through chemical menopause, so I'm out of the woods. My two daughters, however, are shit out of luck. Damn. You know, all I asked out of life was to leave the world a little better than I found it.
*sigh*
From the crazy ideas files: when the Supreme Court overturns Roe, should we encourage women who are forced to bear children they don't want to abandon them on the doorsteps of the Senators who voted to confirm Roberts and Alito? Until these jokers feel some personal pain, they're unlikely to do anything.
Hecate -- As you know, Tena from Eschaton brought this up a while ago, and I told her then that I'd be willing to help arrange an "underground railroad" sort of thing. I live on the Canadian side, and, for now at least (we'll see what happens ifwhen Stephen F*cking Harper gets elected), I'd certainly be willing to "make a lot more friends" from the US side. We're of course all going to Toronto to see whatever big-ticket musical is on, or something.
I was thinking something along the same lines as Elizabeth, though I was shouting back at the radio to Cornyn(I think that's which rethug it was) that he should go get himself pregnant if he is so fucking concerned about the "unborn." The hypocrisy of this issue sends me up the wall. You know damn well that if it were their daughter or mistress who was pregnant and he didn't want her to be, there'd be an abortion damn fast. It is truly terrifying to contemplate what could happen in the next few years.
Of course, discreet abortions will continue to be available for the Rethug upper class, because what is "slutty behavior" in the lower classes is a "tragic mistake" for them.
Interrogbang, I live on the U.S. side of the Canadian border and am a well-known as a Stratford booster and theater fan. I'd be more than glad to organize theater trips for young women. If one of them just isn't feeling up to attending one of the performances, well, those things sometimes happen.
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