February 22, 2006

My body, my self

Exactly.

I don’t know if I can accurately convey my feelings about being an adult women, with a good mind and a purpose and a family and a home (all of which is one way of saying I have a life that’s important to me), who stands to have fewer rights and less value under the law than an unwanted fetus. That if I am raped, or my health is under threat, my soundness of mind and body are worth less than an unwanted fetus. That there are people who do not feel my uterus should be under my own control.

It’s insulting. It’s belittling. It’s unfair. It’s infuriating. And none of that matters to the people who would seek to protect a life that doesn’t exist at the expense of mine, which does.

This issue is not just about women who may, at some point, want or need abortions. It's about all women—and our standing in society, our autonomy. Control over my own body, of which legalized abortion is a significant part, is part of how I define and understand myself and my role in our culture. Taking that away from me is taking away a part of myself, and make no mistake, that's what this fight is really about.

Posted by Cleis at February 22, 2006 11:04 PM
Comments

You can not be serious. Funny how you assume everyone agrees that the baby inside you is not yet a human being. Your quote is downright frightening: "Control over my own body, of which legalized abortion is a significant part." Absolutely not. Will you then agree that anyone has the right to do what they will with their body? Anything they please? Drugs? Suicide? Lighting themselves on fire in a crowded theater? Strapping a bomb to their chest and riding the bus until it detonates? What a slippery slope you lead us on my friend. The right for you to swing your fist ends where the next man's nose begins. The deeper more meaningful argument is that the rights of unborn Americans deserve as much protection as the rights of us already born. Your attitude is no different than the AIDS ridden crack-whore who continues her debaucherous, drug hazed lifestyle long after becoming aware of the human residing inde of her. How selfish and undeserving you all are.

Posted by: Kris at February 27, 2006 04:28 PM

Coincidentally, I am an AIDS-ridden crack whore. How'd you know?

Posted by: Cleis at February 27, 2006 06:29 PM

I ask you:

"What if your mother had been pro-choice?"

Posted by: Mandy at March 8, 2006 10:42 PM

Mandy: "What if your mother had been pro-choice?"

Actually, my mother was an abortion provider.

Thanks for trying, though.

Posted by: Rad Geek at March 9, 2006 01:25 AM

Whoa, Geek, I'm glad you commented here, since it helped me discover that all the "Cleis" comments except the first one were written by someone else - apprently by the same person who wrote the "Mandy" comments. I hadn't noticed them. Obviously, I deleted them.

That's a first for this site.

Posted by: Cleis at March 9, 2006 09:34 AM