Back to the 1850s

Welcome to the 1950s, women of America. Or is it the 1850s? Or maybe it's the 1750s.

The leaked draft decision of the US Supreme Court that appears likely to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that has been in effect for close to 50 years is about to remove a woman’s right to decide if and when she is to give birth. How fortunate we women are to have this learned group of people, most of them old white men, to decide our future childbearing plans for us. Whatever would we do without them?

All of these so-called pro-life people are not pro life at all. They are nothing more than pro birth. They don’t care what happens to the women who are forced to give birth to children that may be the result of rape or incest. They don’t care about the children that may be born into lives of abuse or poverty. They don't care about the women who simply cannot afford to raise yet another child. Or maybe these women simply don't want to have children. Birth control is not 100 percent effective.

How many of these so-called 'right to life' people have ever fostered a child? How many have adopted a child? I am pro-choice, and I have an adopted daughter who is now a 28-year-old mother of a baby boy.

The bottom line is, it’s nobody’s damn business if and when a woman chooses to have a child. 

I made a decision many years ago when I got married that I did not want to have children. That was my decision. It was not made for me by a bunch of presumptuous people who thought they knew what was best for me. 

No judge or justice or religious leader should have anything to say about women’s reproductive choices. How about we start mandating vasectomies for men? How about if women whose husbands or boyfriends believe it’s OK to force a woman to give birth to a child, start denying sex to those men? Maybe when men start paying child support for each child they father from the child's birth through age 18 they will come to their senses. And I would love to know how many of the male Supreme Court justices have paid for abortions for their mistresses. The same goes for anti-choice politicians.

I don’t care what religion someone follows, or if people follow no religion at all. It’s not my concern. But person and no religious institution should be allowed to force me and others to live according to their religious beliefs. If you think abortion is a sin or an affront to God or whatever, fine. Don’t have an abortion. But keep your religion out of our law-making process. And judges at any level are supposed to keep their personal beliefs and biases out of our judicial system. Religion has no place in American laws, nor does it belong in schools. Religion should be private.

Abortion is a deeply personal matter, or at least it should be. The government and religious institutions should have nothing to say about a woman’s personal health care decision. 

Whenever a 'pro-life' person is asked to state a reason to oppose abortion that is not based on religion, nobody can come with anything. Religion and government should be -- are supposed be to - separate. We should not permit any legislation that is based on or invokes any religion. Religion needs to get out of the legal arena and it needs to get out of government. 

And spare me the BS about 'my body, my choice' when it comes to the horrendous imposition that comes from mask mandates to help prevent the spread of a disease that has killed millions of people. But it's apparently OK to disregard that sentiment when it comes to women's reproductive choices. If it’s your body your decision, it should be 'my body, my choice' when it comes to whether or not to have a child.

If the anti-abortion argument were really about the children, there would be free, universal pre-natal care. There would be free, universal health care for both mother and baby. There would be free, universal child care. There would be free, universal college. But the anti-choice crowd has shown time and again that it is only pro-birth. Once the child is born, mother and baby are on there own.

I am not of childbearing age, but that doesn’t mean I’m any less disgusted by so far successful efforts in several states to control women’s bodies. Where will the ultra-right wingers stop? There already are mutterings about working to make gay marriage illegal? How about outlawing birth control, as the Catholic Church would prefer? Or what about interracial marriages? Will women no longer be allowed to get a credit card or buy a car without a man's signature?  We are on a very slippery slope if the court's thinking about overturning Roe v Wade comes to pass.

Women, it's time to rise up and object in the strongest possible ways to protect the advances we have achieved over the past decades. Women are just as capable -- or more so -- than men. We are not second-class citizens. 

The stakes are too high for each of us, and for our daughters and granddaughters, to sit quietly while others dictate our decisions.