Blog for Choice Day


My generation takes a lot of things for granted. We have forgotten a time when a woman could only find work in a few fields, when she could be ruined on the whim of a man, when her life was forfeit to her husband or the church. We don't remember a time when we could not vote, when we were to be seen only and never heard.

I'm surprised at how nonchalant my generation is about women's rights and equality, especially considering how far we have to go. We have a woman running for president, yet we are not excited. We have drunk girls stripping on camera for the profit of lewd entertainment vultures, yet we are not outraged. We are paid seventy-five cents to every dollar a man earns, yet we are not on strike. Now our rights to our own bodies are challenged, yet not enough of us are concerned.

I sometimes think about how hard women fought, not just in the sixties and seventies, but a hundred years before. And now our hard-won rights are assaulted on all fronts. Our foremothers won these rights for us for a reason, and now more than ever, we need them.

Until girls in school are given free birth control as soon as they come of age, I believe in choice. Until at age eighteen a woman can elect to undergo tubal ligation, I believe in choice. Until birth control is 100% effective, I believe in choice. Until incest is wiped out, I believe in choice. Until rape is nonexistent, I believe in choice.

To condemn a woman to pregnancy when she is not ready is offensive to the gifts of humanity, the things that separate us from the rest of the animals. I know too many who have ruined both their own lives and the lives of their children by accidental pregnancy too early or too often.

Abortion is never easy or pleasant, and I know no one who has had one and not been deeply hurt by the experience. But how different their lives would have been if they had not the bravery to make this choice, the biggest and most important choice a woman can make. It is a grim decision to make, but it is still our decision. We could no sooner give up this right than allow our country to decide when we could not have children.

And mind you, having your reproductive rights removed at birth would be easy. Then you would have to show that you were fit to reproduce to have the effects reversed later in life. If your heart cries out at such an injustice, than I assure you, it is only the opposite extreme. Value your freedom to make the best life you can for you and your family. Fight for it. It cost us so much to earn it.

I realize that by posting this I could totally lose a job in my future if I'm applying to work for a company with a different viewpoint. However, this is a democracy, and the only way it works is if we communicate with each other and our government. By speaking out, I am exercising my rights and being a good American citizen.

My friend Leigh has also posted about it.

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