Ohhh, m’gosh. Have the Puritans landed again? Did the calendar suddenly flip back 400 years and its 1623 not 2023? Are women at risk of losing their right to vote too or to own land or to open a bank account or to inherit?
Just checking…Because in September 2021 after the Texas legislature voted Senate Bill 8 into state law, I felt I was watching the social evolution of this United States regressing - fast. With a zero tolerance for rape or incest in most of the stricter states the insensitivity of forcing victims who experience a rude often violent invasion of their bodies ensures they never truly survive that invasion. They are reminded every day during the pregnancy knowing a child half theirs will be surrendered and they carry ‘that’ for life too. And do you think a newborn given up for adoption will go to a fine loving home? Think again. On any given day, over 391,000 children are living in the U.S. foster care system and the number has been rising. Over 113,000 of these children are eligible for adoption and they will wait on average, almost three years for an adoptive family. Most grow up in foster care in typically eight different homes.
Prior to Roe vs Wade [1973] I vividly remember the television reporting by CBS, ABC, NBC and Canada’s CBC of abortion clinic bombings. Various ‘Right-to-life’ groups across the country routinely harassed patients, threatened and caused serious injury and some deaths of support staff, nurses and doctors who worked at abortion clinics. [In 1970, the irony of a right-to-life seemed lost on those who sought to destroy every abortion clinic even at the risk of taking the lives of those already alive-and-grown.]
Having been born in Washington State, but raised in Alberta [Canada], when I moved back in 1990, I was constantly puzzled by the either-or of my birth country. Perhaps it’s the two-party system of Republican or Democrat - or the perpetual cultural black-white issue [though America has 11 distinct cultures] that keeps the consideration of any other options ignored. And this present one, ‘for-abortion’ or ‘against-abortion’ is no different…Let me suggest a third option and no it’s not joining a convent. It’s birth control - dah.
Ironically the morning after pill [there are three types] are still legal in Texas and Mississippi and most states. And, thankfully we have moved beyond ancient birth controls like honey and acacia, crocodile or elephant dung, olive and cedar oils, vinegar or lemon juice…In this century we have:
* two types of oral contraceptives;
*IUDs [Intrauterine Device];
*female sterilization/tubal ligation, male sterilization/vasectomy;
*cervical cap & spermicide;
*contraceptive sponge [of Seinfeld fame] and the diaphragm.
Each and every one of these choices are significantly cheaper than raising a child from birth to high school graduation, they are also emotionally easier than an abortion and less risk to the mother…Just saying…
But - what else is going on with this heart-beat debate? Prior to the 1973 Roe V Wade Supreme Court Ruling, churches weighed in big time. So, does abortion also have a deep religious root and if it does is it truly spiritually based or something else? A particularly loud voice was the Catholic Church lead ironically by clergy who were neither married nor parents. Since the Catholic Church’s sole/soul accepted method of birth control for centuries had been the rhythm-method women/couples could not use any other form of birth control or seek an abortion. They were stuck with big families and kept poor. Talk about ‘control’.
And is this debate also about control?
Since 51% of the live births globally are female how is it that in the 21st Century the female of our species is still not an equal social partner. The SHEs are still waiting for ‘permission’, but none of the HEs are.
At this point I think it’s clear that just as there is a separation of church and state there should also be a separation of medicine and state.
This separation is critical because the vast majority of legislators went to law school not medical school - or any other school and therefore are completely unqualified to make most decisions. Though you may have already noticed that…
Working Without A Net: REPRODUCTION IN AMERICA (workingwithnonet.blogspot.com)
Working Without A Net: WOMEN & MINORITIES IN AMERICA (workingwithnonet.blogspot.com)
Working Without A Net: HEALTH-CARE IN AMERICA (workingwithnonet.blogspot.com)