Today is Blog For Choice Day

[kitsap_charles]

I'm not a woman, so I can't know first-hand the worry of whether I'm pregnant, or the need to Make A Choice. But at least I know the choice is there, thanks to Roe v. Wade.

It wasn't always there.

I remember back in high school, in my junior year. The prettiest, brightest girl in class was Kelly Ferrari. I worshipped her from afar, never having enough courage to ask her out. I probably realized she wouldn't have gone out with me anyway; she was pretty and popular enough to go out with seniors and jocks and really popular guys, while I was a geek/nerd/dweeb/band kid and therefore beneath contempt.

Anyway. During our junior year Kelly vanished for a few months, and when she came back to school she wasn't Kelly Ferrari any more, she was Mrs. Steve Delozier. Steve was in his twenties, and was the golf pro at our little town's little nine-hole sand-green golf course. Oh, and the new Mrs. Delozier was a mother. A sixteen-year-old mother,

It was shocking, it was scandalous, and it was so completely unnecessary— if only she'd had a choice. But at that time, and in that place (the sixties, Missouri) she didn't.

So. Go read this article, and work hard to make sure this generation's Kellys (and all future Kellys, whereever and whenever they may be) have the same capacity for choice that women do today, thanks to Roe v. Wade. Then go work your butts off to thwart the schemes of the religious fanatics who think their hateful little god ought to be America's god, and their little god's hatred of women ought to be enshrined in America's laws. Especially the ones who want to make that vile hatebag, Samuel Alito, into our next Supreme Court Justice.

Call your Senators today. Tell them you support women's right to choose, and that you vote. And if you can, donate to causes that continue to support women's rights; donate money if you have it, donate your time if you don't.

Because otherwise, someday Kelly might be your daughter.

Comments

[drcruel.livejournal.com]

I'm probably not going to make any friends by saying this, but I'm more than a little tired of the pro-abortion rights side acting as though women get pregnant through some random and totally unforeseeable set of circumstances. Abortion is neither the solution nor the problem; it's a reactive measure. We'll have grown up a lot as a culture when we stop reacting with jingoism and turn the focus to preventing unwanted pregnancy through a combination of education, birth control options, and personal responsibility. Abortion should be legal, but it is not a form of birth control.

[kitsap_charles]

Abortion isn't birth control, true. But restricting access to abortion is a rather different kind of control, and one that I think we as a society ought to be beyond imposing on women.

[drcruel.livejournal.com]

I agree. Bill Clinton was right when he said that "abortion should be safe, legal, and rare."

Then again, he was right on a lot of issues...and our country and world were much better places when he was the President.

[kitsap_charles]

Hear, hear.

[varushka.livejournal.com]

You were born far too early. Geeks are cool now.