Well, it's International Women's Day, so I think it is quite fitting for me to spend a little time being pissed off about the state of Women's rights lately. It seems to me that we can't take a step forward in the realm of human rights (lots of progress for the gays), without then taking a couple of giant steps back (attacking Planned Parenthood). Is it so horrible or impossible to imagine a point at which all humans are treated like humans?
I seriously could not be more hurt by Mike Pence right now, the author of the bill to defund Planned Parenthood. Mike is a Representative not only from Indiana, but from the district I grew up in. When I was a kid, I would see him year after year in parades and at other city events, since my family has always been pretty involved in local politics. I've shaken his hand many times. I remember once, when I was maybe 12 or 13, being at some kind of political event and him talking to me and asking me if I would vote for him when I "grew up." Being the shrewd teenager that I was, I coolly told him that I would only vote for him if he was the best candidate. He patted me on the back and told me not to worry. That he had mine and my family's best interests at heart. Really, Mike? Do you really have mine and my family's best interests at heart? Because Planned Parenthood does have mine and my family's best interests at heart, and you're trying to take that away.
I gotta tell you, Mike, I'm not sure where your ideas about PP come from, but I think you need to explore some other sources. You must have this mental image of a young girl carelessly skipping into a clinic, having an abortion, and skipping out with a lollypop and smile. You must think that the thousands of women that make the choice to have an abortion each year do so casually, that they are cruel and heartless women, and that they should be protected from themselves. Has anyone close to you ever gone through an abortion, Mike? Because I can tell you, it's not quite the scenario I think you have in mind. Though I have never gone through an abortion myself, I do have close friends that have, and I don't think it was the careless jaunt you imagine. Indeed, I accompanied a friend to the clinic on the day of her procedure, and as we were escorted by a guard through the pouring rain and into the clinic with protesters screaming hateful things all around us, I felt like my heart had broken in half. I can't imagine what my friend was feeling.
Mr. Pence, the decision to terminate a pregnancy is never an easy or careless one, but unfortunately it is sometimes a necessary one. And defunding an organization that provides safe and easy access to it is not going to stop it. Indeed, it will instead send girls into back rooms and underground "clinics" where they risk their own lives at the hands of untrained and perhaps unscrupulous practitioners.
It seems to me that our government has a demonstrated inability to learn from the past. During Prohibition, when alcohol was illegal, a massive black market was spawned, and organized crime flourished. We see the same thing today with marijuana. It is banned, allowing black markets and drug cartels to wreak havoc. If we defund Planned Parenthood and make it even more difficult than it already is to safely terminate a pregnancy, again the black market will come in fill the void. And I think the result of that could be truly devastating.
That concludes my put-together argument, but I have a few more things to say: 1) It's easy for men like Mike Pence and like the majority of our Congressmen to make and pass laws like this because they aren't women. If they are ever faced with an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy, they could just walk away. They would be assholes for doing it, but they aren't the ones who are truly "stuck" in this situation, and it's ultimately not their decision whether or not to carry the pregnancy to term, so it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that they get to make all the decisions about whether or not it is legal or receives federal funding.
Secondly, I find it increasingly hard to follow the Republican party's logic these days. They claw and tear and clamor and even incite violence to defend the rights of corporations (even giving corporations "human" rights) and unborn zygotes, but if you're an actual, living, breathing human being (especially anyone who's not a WASP), I guess you're out of luck.
How are we tolerating this, America?
No comments:
Post a Comment