Women and Abortion

[polimicks]

According to the Guttmacher Institute (http://www.guttmacher.org/sections/abortion.php), 1/3 of American women will have an abortion in her lifetime.

The majority of women who have abortions are already mothers raising children (60%).

The reason most frequently cited for obtaining an abortion is economic hardship and preserving quality of life for the woman's existing children.*

According to the Guttmacher Institute "There is no evidence that abortion is being used as a primary method of birth control." http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2008/09/23/TrendsWomenAbortions-wTables.pdf

Late term (post 24 weeks) abortions make up only .2% of all abortions. Not two percent, but two TENTHS of a percent. None of those women who had late term abortions did so "Because, tee hee..." They underwent an arduous medical procedure because either they and/or their fetus would DIE or the fetus was already dead, or the fetus was so malformed there was no hope of life, i.e. anencephaly. All late term abortions are tragedies, but not for the reasons the Anti-Woman/Anti-Choice folks would have you believe. They are tragedies because those babies were loved and wanted, and ultimately either would have died and/or killed their mothers had the pregnancy gone to term.

Recently AntiTheistAngie (http://angietheantitheist.blogspot.com/) has caught a lot of grief for Livetweeting (http://twitter.com/antitheistangie) her abortion. Because of health, economic and other issues (she already has a special needs child) when her birth control failed, she decided on RU-486, a chemical abortion. In order to demystify the experience, because on researching it for herself, what little information and personal stories she did find freaked her the hell out, she decided to broadcast her experience to the world.

I applaud this.

However, in response she has suffered a whole lot of death threats from the "Pro-Life" faction. People have threatened the life of her four year old son. They've called her a whore and a liar. WWJD? Apparently he'd start screaming epithets and killing people. Funny, I don't really remember that part of the Bible.

She's also caught a fair amount of slut-shaming from "Feminists." I put Feminists in quotes, because slut-shaming is one of the least Feminist acts I can think of. Mary Ann Sorrentino to name one name, http://open.salon.com/blog/mary_ann_sorrentino/2010/03/08/abortion_as_self-promotion Because apparently all those Feminists who fought for the right of a woman to have an abortion, only meant if she was properly quiet and shamed about it. The fuck? Sorrentino also completely glosses over the fact that Jackson wasn't just gleefully having sex without protection, her birth control FAILED. She was being responsible, even if she didn't have a tubal ligation (which Sorrentino apparently thinks you can get just by asking for one. What world is she living in, and can I move there?)

Also, speaking out about abortion has a long history in Feminist circles, from the Redstockings Abortion speak-out 41 years ago this month, to the "I had an abortion" t-shirt campaign which began in the early 2000s, to sites like http://www.imnotsorry.net and the LJ comm http://community.livejournal.com/imnotsorry/

Sorrentino is unhappy because Jackson took a "private" matter and made it public, and she should have just kept quiet. In a subsequent podcast, she's likened Jackson's livetweeting of her abortion to the Paris Hilton sex tape.

Well, we all know how well keeping quiet works for socially charged issues, don't we? Seriously, is "Just shut up and maybe they'll let us keep our rights" the new party line? Fuck that. So once Sorrentino is done playing "No True Feminist," maybe she can take a look around and see that "keeping quiet and playing nice" has resulted in a near constant eroding of access to abortion since the 80s.

Personally, and I have been guilty of this in my younger and stupider youth, if I hear you slut-shaming a woman who has had one or many abortions, in my presence, I will call you out, loudly, profanely and probably with a lot of hand-waving and gesticulating.

Abortion is not "dodging responsibility", it is a responsible course of action. If you know you are not ready to have a child emotionally, financially or for whatever reason including just not wanting to have one, NOT HAVING THAT CHILD is a RESPONSIBLE DECISION. Not bringing another child into a country where thousands upon thousands of children are languishing in foster care and can't get adopted IS THE RESPONSIBLE THING TO DO. Not overburdening the financial capabilities of your family IS THE RESPONSIBLE THING TO DO. Fuck that, "Have the baby and the money will come" bullshit. What kind of responsible behavior is that?

Anti-Choicers are not about saving babies, because if they were they'd be for things like SCHIP, and school lunches, and subsidized daycare, and more money for education, and things in the new healthcare bill like all children are covered. Anti-Choicers are about punishing women for having sex they don't approve of. Anti-Choicers are about punishing women for attempting to control their reproductive capabilities and limit family size.

The number of children a woman has and how early is the strongest indicator that she will remain in poverty for the rest of her life. Married or not.

I've not had to have an abortion, because the one pregnancy scare I've ever had ended in a probable miscarriage (Woot! God aborted for me! Suck it, anti-choicers!) But when I thought I might have been pregnant, my first thought was, "Where am I going to get the money for an abortion?"

Now, I'm not including you in Anti-Choicers if you personally wouldn't have an abortion, but you still support the right of other women to CHOOSE FOR THEMSELVES.** No one says you have to have an abortion. It's not like we're out there rounding up pregnant women like cattle to meet our weekly abortion quotas.

Abortion is a deeply personal issue that no one else can make for you. Nine months is a long time to harbor a parasitical creature in your womb. And given maternal death rates in this country (worst in the industrialized world), I wouldn't want to play that sort of Russian Roulette with my health either, if I didn't have to.

Everyone wants to decrease the number of abortions. But how you do this is by increasing the availability of contraception and education on those contraceptive measures. You don't do it by forbidding women to have abortions, because that just results in a lot of dead women. But that's ok, right? I mean, dead or forced to give birth, they're punished, right? Fuck you.

Well, except for rich women, they'll just fly somewhere it is legal.

So you're for punishing POOR women.

It's funny that the most outspoken opponents of access to abortion are ALSO against contraception. This is point two in why we all know you're all about punishing women for being poor, dirty whores, and not about saving anyone. Seriously, pull your fucking heads out, ok?

That's all for today, and may I remind you all of my new, draconion moderation policy: http://polimicks.livejournal.com/27643.html. I will be generous with bahletion.

*Oh, and the tendency for even Feminists to buy into the "lying whores" trope drives me up a wall. I believe it was on Pandagon, in a comment thread over a year ago, where someone said, in response to the Guttmacher findings on economic reasons, essentially, "Well, I'm sure that women SAY it's for economic reasons, but of course they're probably lying to make themselves feel better."
Look, trust women, or don't. But shut the fuck up either way.

**Many women who would deny abortion to others, believe they have a "good" reason for having it, and theirs is the "only moral abortion:" http://mypage.direct.ca/w/writer/anti-tales.html

Comments

[tasterainbows.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

May I link to this?

[poptart1017.livejournal.com]

"Anti-Choicers are not about saving babies, because if they were they'd be for things like SCHIP, and school lunches, and subsidized daycare, and more money for education, and things in the new healthcare bill like all children are covered. Anti-Choicers are about punishing women for having sex they don't approve of. Anti-Choicers are about punishing women for attempting to control their reproductive capabilities and limit family size."

This is awesome (along with the rest of it of course). I only wish I could say it so plainly when I'm talking to anti-choicers, many of them my own family, so it's hard to say it in a way that gets the point across without starting an enormous fight.

[qweerdo.livejournal.com]

Excellent post.

[staxxy.livejournal.com]

I have also observed that a lot of the people who are anti-choice are the same people who are against there being any welfare system at all, would NEVER adopt a child of their own, and are against funding for education. Not *all* mind you, but a LOT.

and fuck them in their hypocritical ears.

the only acceptable course, in my mind, for those anti-choice fuckers who harrass women who go to abortion clinics is to adopt those babies instead. You want the child to live? You take responsibility for it for the next 30 years. (granted, I *personally* would not want any of these sick fucks anywhere near raising children, but I really think they should have to confront the emotional and economic realities that raising these children would mean)

When I was in highschool I went with 2 of my best friends when they had their abortions. I held the hand of one of them during the procedure, and stayed with them both for most of the day afterwards. Both of them were all kinds of emotionally torn up about having the abortions in the first place. Both them continue to be sad about having to make that choice. Both of them are absolutely certain it was still the *right* choice to make.

[garpu.livejournal.com]

I wasn't gonna post...I tend to avoid abortion if and at all possible, because the topic only brings out the worst in people. I do think if you could actually get both sides to sit down and talk to each other (Yeah I dream), then they'd find some sort of common ground.

I've come to refer to myself as neither pro-life or pro-choice. I really, really, really dislike the concept of abortion. I don't think I could ever have one. I do think life is sacred, and I really don't know when that starts. In my mind, it's better to hedge my bets. That having been said, back alleys scare the hell out of me, and I'm thankful that there's a safe alternative for women who don't have a problem with abortion.

I don't think the answer is as simple as "just don't have sex," like some of the pro-lifers claim. Abstinence only education doesn't work, but poverty reduction does. (As does access to adequate birth control, education and actually having rapes be prosecuted as opposed to the farce that is prosecution now.)

I also think if a person is going to put forth the idea that life is sacred, it's got to apply to all human life--including terrorists and people on death row. It urks me to no end when people claim to be pro-life and then try to weasel their logic around being pro-death penalty, justify torture, and are against basic social services. (We're one of the wealthiest nations on the planet and people starve on the streets? I don't even want to hear why someone thinks that a person shouldn't have access to adequate food.)

So you're for punishing POOR women.

goes back to the bullshit fundie Protestant notion of the prosperity Gospel. If you're good, God rewards you. If you aren't, then you're poor and bad. It's the same bullshit behind the healthcare debate--if you can't afford health insurance, then there's something morally deficient in you. It's so easy to demonize someone down on their luck. It's another form of victim blaming, you know? Only in the US is it a crime to be poor.

And, yes, I'm going back to the LISP compiler before you yell at me.

[acrimonyastraea.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this seriously awesome post.

[ayeshadream.livejournal.com]

I had this argument with my father on Sunday after I told them that Rob and I are finally pregnant.

My father (who cheated on mom for most of their married life) is adament that abortion is wrong because it's punishing/ killing the baby for the "sins" of the mother, but when I asked him about his responsibility once the mother was forced to have the baby, then it's not his business to feed, house or provide health care for that child. Totally fucking typical. I told him if he managed to spontaniously grow a uterus he might have grounds to discuss whether anyone else should have the right to decide about the contents of theirs, but that would be debatable.

This is also the same man who despite cheating with any available vagina once said "if God voted, he'd be Republican".

[onogoro.livejournal.com]

She was being responsible, even if she didn't have a tubal ligation (which Sorrentino apparently thinks you can get just by asking for one. What world is she living in, and can I move there?)

Ugh! There is absolutely no understanding of how that shit works, is there? Last summer, 39 weeks pregnant, I had to switch midwives because of insurance reasons. I told my new midwife that I wanted a tubal ligation immediately after birth, because that had always been the plan. There wasn't enough time for him to get it passed with a doctor (some nonsense about a 30 day wait time). I figured it wasn't a problem, I would have it done a month or so after. Except no, because I was in and out of the hospital constantly for surgeries to try to take care of hemorrhaging. After being told by 3 different doctors that my uterus is just defective I asked to have it removed. My insurance won't cover it, though.

Yeah, permanent sterilization is really easy to get. =/

Sorry. I know it's a bit off topic, but the people that I always hear bitching about it and how easy it is have no idea. None.

As usual, the rest of your post is fantastic as well.

[triedthistwice.livejournal.com]

This is...the most perfect post on the subject I've ever read.

Thank you.

[annetangent.livejournal.com]

Great post!

Reminds me of something so here, have a chart!

[shelestel.livejournal.com]

The number of children a woman has and how early is the strongest indicator that she will remain in poverty for the rest of her life.

Right, and some, if not much, of the same, I'd imagine, goes for men. So you have those who, mainly through contraception, but also occasionally through abortion, don't have kids and get to concentrate on career and get richer, and those who have kids early and don't get to develop their careers as much. If, instead, everyone had kids, wealth gradients would not be so steep. Maybe if no one had kids they would not be as steep either, but it is in the nature of humans to have children.