Thursday, January 22, 2009

Blog for Choice Day 2009

"Censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time. Write yourself. Your body must be heard." Helene Cixous The Laugh of the Medusa

The right to choose protected by Roe Vs. Wade isn't just about choice. It must be made about ACCESS to pregnancy control options. We need to change the way we think about Roe V Wade and so-called "birth" control. We must insist, through our own language our OWN bodies be heard, not manipulated.

In the words of Cixous:

"I shall speak about women's writing: about what it will do. Woman must write her self: must write about women and bring women to writing, from which they have been driven away as violently as from their bodies -- for the same reasons, by the same law, with the same fatal goal. Women must put herself into the text -- as into the world and into history -- by her own movement.

The future must no longer be determined by the past. I do not deny that the effects of the past are still with us. But I refuse to strengthen them by repeating them, to confer upon them an irremovability the equivalent of destiny, to confuse the biological and the cultural. Anticipation is imperative.

I write this as a woman, towards women. When I say 'woman', I'm speaking of woman in her inevitable struggle against conventional man; and of a universal woman subject who must bring women to their senses and to their meaning in history. But first it must be said that in spite of the enormity of the repression that has kept them in the 'dark' -- that dark which people have been trying to make them accept as their attribute -- there is, at this time, no general woman, no one typical woman. What they have in common I will say. But what strikes me is the infinite richness of their individual constitutions: you can't talk about a female sexuality, uniform, homogeneous, classifiable into codes -- any more than you can talk about one unconscious resembling another. Women's imaginary is inexhaustible, like music, painting, writing: their stream of phantasms is incredible."

Celebrate today, the 36th anniversary of Roe Vs. Wade.

It's not support of abortion.

It's support of female autonomy.

The celebration that ALL women have the "God given" right to self-determination. Our bodies, ourselves.

We must teach young women about their own person-hood beyond their bodies.

It is the persistent reminder of "birth" control that perpetuates the cultural attempt to distance woman from her own body, to move it beyond her own control.

Today, celebrate your womanhood, and the womanhood of others in your life. Please, check out the Center for Reproductive Rights.

We are all born with the right to determine what we do with our OWN bodies. May it be a reality for all women everywhere.

26 comments:

Aliceson January 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM  

Yes, yes, yes!!!!

I drove past an abortion protest around here a few weeks ago. Skinny men shoving vulgar signs in the snow along the highway. Sad really, that abortion is the image of womens health rights.

Sara January 22, 2009 at 4:21 PM  

It is all about controlling women through pregnancy and "punishing" the women (and the children) of those who dare to have sex.

Good post.

Anonymous,  January 22, 2009 at 7:03 PM  

Bravo Skyewriter. I clicked through and will donate. Great post as always.

Sidhe January 22, 2009 at 8:16 PM  

Wow! Excellent post. I love you!

Here's to women everywhere on this wonderful day!

Stacy Hackenberg January 22, 2009 at 10:11 PM  

Why is it you get all the good commentors and I get the loon? Why?????

Anonymous,  January 22, 2009 at 10:34 PM  

I wonder if you've ever had an abortion? I wonder if you've ever seen the product of abortion? Have you ever gotten up from the abortionist's table and had a baby body part fall out of you onto the floor? Have you barely made it home in time to vomit violently out of grief?

I have.

It's nice for you to be able to rant about women's rights, but unless you've suffered from an abortion, you'd never know why there are so very many women like myself against it. Unless you've seen the many pictures of tiny, bloody fingers and toes on limbs that were torn from the tiny bodies, you can talk all you want of women's rights, but you have no concept of what you are saying. Of what you are hoping that all young women will be able to have easy access to.

Today is not a day to celebrate. I know you don't believe that the fetus is a human being, but that doesn't change the fact that it is. I've seen the body parts, the beating heart...

There is a way to avoid abortion. It's foolproof. It's called abstinence. Works every time. And it's a choice! It just requires self-control, something that is sadly lacking in the world today.

Anonymous,  January 22, 2009 at 10:37 PM  

Fantastic posting! I've had friends who have had abortions for different reasons. Some health, other for reasons that were serious enough for abort. I am glad that we have a law on the books that affords women the opportunity to decide what happens to them and their fetuses without the arm of the Religious Right getting in the way of it all.

One movie that I think is good for both pro-choice and pro-life people to watch is "Vera Drake." It's a indie film that came out a few years ago. One of the most powerful movies I have seen.

Anonymous,  January 22, 2009 at 10:41 PM  

wow...excellent post!! i'm right there with ya!

skyewriter January 22, 2009 at 11:07 PM  

No worries, True Blue:
See the comment after yours.

Anonymous:
I know a great deal about this subject. Some knowledge comes from personal experience, some through friends, some through educating myself.

I am truly sorry for how what you have witnessed has damaged you. The person (I am assuming you went to an illegal facility) who performed YOUR abortion was obviously not qualified to do so. What you experienced would be the norm for ALL women who seek to terminate a pregnancy if not for the protection offered by Roe V Wade.

However, you missed the point of my post completely.

Perhaps a re-read might clarify-- and I am not ranting. The tone is serious, sober, and respectful of the issue at hand.

Today we honor women's rights to inhabit their own bodies in the way they choose. We honor the sanctity of the RIGHT to inhabit our bodies and control them--not have others outside ourselves tell us what to do with our reproductive choices.

I hope you seek some professional help for your trauma. You weren't with people who knew what they were doing. And I am very sorry for you that it happened that way.

But the vast majority of doctors who perform abortions are accountable to medical standards and licensing boards. Tissue and blood are carefully contained in properly coded receptacles determined BY LAW. You shouldn't have seen ANYTHING.

You might consider a law suit or at the very least, some psychological counseling.

Anonymous,  January 22, 2009 at 11:11 PM  

"Tissue and blood"? Did you read my post? We aren't talking about just tissue and blood. We are talking about a human being.

I'm glad that I saw what I did. It brought the truth of what abortion is to my complete attention. Thanks for your compassion, but I don't need any counseling. I have adjusted to what I did, and I have been forgiven.

But I will never honor a woman's 'right' to murder another human being.

Anonymous,  January 22, 2009 at 11:14 PM  

By the way, it wasn't an illegal facility. And there are scores of abuses that happen in the legal facilities.

Abortion is not nearly as safe as the abortionists would like women to believe.

Anonymous,  January 22, 2009 at 11:23 PM  

Oh, and I take back what I said about your compassion. I must have missed the part where you called me a loon.

Thanks. Really appreciate that.

skyewriter January 22, 2009 at 11:38 PM  

Anonymous, you are still missing the point here; but that's okay, because you aren't obviously the audience to whom I am writing.

You need to slow down a minute to READ what is being written instead of claiming victimhood at my hands.

And if my mere suggestion that you might seek counseling set you off (I NEVER called you a loon, never)--perhaps there is still some pain there. You shouldn't have to be ashamed that you had an abortion. That's part of the point.

Again, if it was a legal clinic you have the ethical responsibility to report your experience to the state medical board. Let that be on your conscience. That what happened to you might happen to other women who go to the same clinic.

Abortion is a medical procedure strictly governed by state, federal and medical boards. You cannot NOT file a complaint.

Stacy Hackenberg January 22, 2009 at 11:38 PM  

Well, at least they're sharing. Sorry to have brought them with me.

Anonymous,  January 22, 2009 at 11:46 PM  

Hm, let's review.

True Blue Texan said...

Why is it you get all the good commentors and I get the loon? Why?????

skyewriter said...

No worries, True Blue:
See the comment after yours.


I guess since mine was the comment after hers, that makes me a 'loon'. Why is it that I'm a loon just because I don't agree with you? I guess commenters are only 'good' if they pat you on the back and congratulate you for your every thought.

And you say you don't put people in little boxes.

Whatever. I'll leave you ladies to celebrate the mighty right of women to murder.

Anonymous,  January 22, 2009 at 11:51 PM  

By the way, your suggestion of counseling didn't 'set me off'. Some women really need counseling after abortion -- which really should tell you something about how wrong it is.

I just don't appreciate your lack of respect for any view other than that which mirrors your own.

skyewriter January 23, 2009 at 8:41 AM  

Anonymous (since you refuse to leave even a screen name)
All I can say to that is:

Sorry for your trauma. Really. I mean it.

I'll remember you the next time someone comes to MY blog, does everything short of damning me to hell and them plays the victim when they SO obviously DON'T EVEN GET THE POINT OF THE POST! Nor, to continue, DOES THAT PERSON EVEN UNDERSTAND THIS IS NOT A PRO-ABORTION DISCUSSION! Can you read without being defensive?

My very, very, very best to you.

Anonymous,  January 23, 2009 at 10:38 AM  

I just had to laugh when I read this. i understand the poor girl had a very bad experience, but because she had a bad experience all of the women in the US don't have a right to make the same choice that she did? Where's the logic in that.

What to pro-lifers want to regulate is contrary to the individual rights established by the Constitution. There is a huge difference of opinion on whether it constitutes murder and that is religion-based. You keep your faith and I will keep mine.

My faith is in a woman's right to do with her body as she pleases and that no one, absolutely no one, should tell her what to do with her with her won body.

Finally, O really wish the right wingnut religious extremists would not try to shove religion down people's throats. It is not convincing and only makes people want to run like the wind.

Sidhe January 23, 2009 at 11:48 AM  

Call me a cynic and even cold-hearted if you must, but I'm not buying anonymous' story. In fact, I bet anonymous is a man.

Sorry, that's my own personal opinion...

skyewriter January 23, 2009 at 12:42 PM  

You know, Sidhe, I'll bet you're right.

Stacy Hackenberg January 23, 2009 at 1:40 PM  

Just as Anonymous didn't get your point, Bret/Anonymous didn't get mine.

I hope no offense was taken by anyone here who may have entered into discussion with Bret on my blog, but I felt we weren't getting anywhere and it was time for everyone to return to their corners.

And Sidhe, I was just thinking that this might be a man. Wouldn't be surprised. Especially since they won't use even a screen name.

skyewriter January 23, 2009 at 2:55 PM  

No worries, True Blue.

This is a debate people won't budge on anytime soon.

I know I'm not changing my mind.

Anonymous,  January 23, 2009 at 3:16 PM  

First of all, I am not a man. Why would a made up screen name convince you anyway? Ok, I've used my middle name. People who know and love me don't even know that I had an abortion, so please pardon me for not using my full name.

I did not play your victim. I don't even feel like a victim at all, but isn't it convenient that you have to look at me that way? The reason that I'm not a victim is because I made my own choice -- it's on my own head. Even though, at the time, it wasn't an informed choice...

But wouldn't anyone find it a bit offensive when they pour out their heart and it is implied that they are a loon? Couldn't you just take what I said for what it was instead of accusing me of playing the victim?

I do understand your post. You celebrate the legislation that gives you control over your own body. I got it. But Roe was, in fact, about abortion.

I just presented the idea that abortion is not the easy solution to the little problem of a pregnancy. Since I had mine, I really understand now that it's not just tissue and blood, but a tiny little living human being. I killed my child. That's what abortion is.

Why is it so hard for you to believe that a woman would speak of her abortion this way? Why must you assume that I am a man? And I didn't 'damn you to hell' or anything of the sort. Who's playing victim now? It seems that you are all too willing to vilify men around here.

And I don't even recall mentioning God in my posts. I spoke from simple facts of my own experience. It's not just some fabrication of 'religious wingnuts' that the baby is a living human. It's simple, scientific fact.

skyewriter January 23, 2009 at 3:56 PM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
skyewriter January 23, 2009 at 4:11 PM  

Dawn:
I am sorry for you. I will not think of abortion is murder, nor aborting a fetus, unviable outside the womb, as murdering another human being.

That's where I stand.

As far as your comments, you were very defensive from the start (aggressive even) and that did not pre-dispose me as a reader to think of you as someone who I could have a rational conversation with. I was right.

My original post was intended to help women learn to respect each other and their choices. To call women to change the discourse so that women's voices, silenced for most of history may be heard and respected.

You obviously don't want anyone to have a choice about what they do with their own bodies, but would rather have a government that tells us to have unwanted, unsupportbale children.

We disagree. I support the woman, not the fetus.

I wish you only luck.

Anonymous,  January 23, 2009 at 4:30 PM  

I can't imagine why you are saying that I haven't been rational. I wasn't aggressive at all -- I'm sorry if you misread me that way. And I was not defensive except maybe in the fact that I don't love being referred to as a loon. But if you must label me that way, I guess you must.

I just wanted to present to you the fact that abortion doesn't just get rid of a 'fetus', it can also deeply affect the life of the woman. It affected me for a long time until I came to terms with it. And some women never really recover. If you've ever read support groups for women struggling with this, you'd understand how pro-woman I really am.

You only support women in their 'right' to do whatever they please with their own bodies. I support women in their 'right' to excellent mental health, unmarred by the potential guilt for something they may someday come to see as murder. How much more pro-woman could I be?

I also support the life of the baby. There are other alternatives. There is abstinence. There is birth control that is non-abortive. There is adoption. There doesn't have to be death.

I copied the following comment from another place on the net because I believe this is true:

".the definition of "living" is....."exhibiting the life or motion of nature , growing"
therefore, ...upon conception when the egg and sperm , meet and begin to grow .....is when it is considered "alive"..."living".........
...if it were not, ..there would be no action at all, no change, no growth, ..no anything.
Life begins at conception."

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