Absolutely not. The past couple days I came across some articles online that really got me furious. The first was a bullshit article from askmen.com entitled "Why Women Can't Be Bosses." It's amazing that shit like this can even get aired. What's even more amazing is that according to the comments, this trash can get 44% approval. It's mind-blowing. The only thing I could think of was, "Wow, our patriarchal society is literally imploding before our eyes. The 'dudes' are getting desperate." I realized that this utter crap will soon be turned on me full force, when I enter the workplace as a dynamic female scientist with a PhD.
And then I came across another gem, scans of a how-to book for anti-choice evangelists to bring the undecided over to their ban-abortion stance. The thing that gets me is not their stance on abortion, because if you don't want one, that is 100% fine with me. What's really disgusting is the constant reminders to fake concern for the woman, which implies that it's not natural for these dregs of humanity to consider the woman as a human being outside of her capacity to bear children. Plus, there are gross scientific mistakes in it. Eclampsia, for example. Bedrest does NOT cure it. If it's really severe, the only "cure" is an abortion.
One good thing coming from this Dr. Tiller murder is that women are coming out of the woodwork and sharing their late-term abortion stories. If it's a case of a detected anencephaly (the brain of a fetus failed to develop; see the wikipedia entry on it), conjoined twins, an infection due to leakage of water, thank goodness these women are speaking up. My grandma told me that when Roe v. Wade passed, she felt an ineffable sense of relief despite being married with children. For her, it meant that a huge burden was off the female population. I believe that 100%.
When I was 11 or 12, my mom told me that if I ever got pregnant, she would take me to have an abortion if I needed one. It wasn't an invitation/permission to be wild and act irresponsibly (she made that very clear), but it was something that made me feel much more comfortable. I had a backup, no matter what. After that, my grandma told me that if I ever needed an abortion, I didn't even have to tell my mom or dad; she'd take me and wouldn't even tell my grandfather. It was like huge, deep, soft pillows were always underneath me as I wobbled along growing into a sexually mature adult. I didn't behave irresponsibly, but I always knew that no matter what, I always had a back way out. I could always reclaim my life and walk away from a man, the same way men could walk away from an accidentally pregnant girlfriend pre-Roe v. Wade. I would never be beholden to him. I'd never be that person, as long as I took care of the being smart in school/productive in life thing. I was on equal footing. I could throw myself into the fray, and I was going to come up grinning no matter what because I was equipped to handle everything, even if I made a mistake.
It's just so... I don't know, improbably nauseating to think that there is a group of people who want to take that away from future generations of women. Oh, and the anti-contraception argument? I'm chalking that up to a crazy Puritanical I-must-suffer-life-is-a-veil-of-tears attitude that I can't for the life of me ever hope to identify with.
And I'm not sorry about that at all.
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