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1.22.2008 ||> Blogging for Choice
Today is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and this date is looked at with either celebration or revulsion depending on whichever side you happen to fall on. I think women my age sometimes don't believe this case really matters much, because we have lived it all our lives. If we get pregnant, we automatically have the opportunity to abort or keep. This is a right that not every woman has in the world, and it's an important right to keep.
When I was 16 years old, I played a pretty nasty (but hilarious!) April Fool's Day joke on my mother. I convinced her that I was pregnant, and when she finally believed me, I told her I wanted an abortion. Poor mom. Thinking through the joke in order to make it the most realistic, I thought for awhile as to what I would really do if I had become pregnant, and that would have been the most logical choice for me. I never would have wanted to become a mother at that age, and abortion would have been the best choice for me.
Ironically, three years later, my sister wasn't playing a prank when she told our mom she was pregnant. She made a far different choice than I would have. She kept my beautiful niece and has sacrificed a lot to raise her, adding my other niece and nephew to the bunch. And her choice, although it was not something I would have chosen to do at 17, was the best choice for her. It was a choice demanding of just as much respect as mine, and not something anyone should have taken away either.
This power we have over our own bodies here is in stark contrast to places like Nicaragua and El Salvador which have no-exception laws on abortion. A woman can't even abort a ectopic pregnancy to save her life or fertility. Any woman that does so can face from 6 years to 30 years in jail. Police there can take out search warrants for a uterus to search for tissue indicative of abortion. Because of this, women are killed in illegal abortion, jailed and turned into criminals just to have something that we take for granted.
There has been a shift in public opinion in the last 35 years on whether or not Roe should stand, with many people forgetting what it was like before. The truth is that Roe protects all women, and has helped them to live the lives that they needed. This decision has allowed us to keep our sovereignty, and protected us all from death, mutilation and criminal activity. So please, give some thought today about what this landmark case might have meant to you.
Labels: politics
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