Full Frontal Feminism_ A Young Women's Guide to Why Feminism Matters - Jessica Valenti [30]
For any of you who haven’t been in an emergency room, that shit takes forever. I used to volunteer as a rape crisis counselor, and let me tell you, victims are in the hospital for hours. Imagine you’ve just been raped and you manage to gather the courage to get to a hospital. You wait for a couple of hours to be processed. Then, when a doctor finally sees you, you’re told (if you’re lucky enough to be told at all) that if you want to prevent getting pregnant by your rapist, you’ll have to go to a different hospital and repeat the same process. It’s beyond cruel. It’s a despicable thing to ask of someone.
So now that I’ve depressed you sufficiently, what to do? Again, look into the policies at your local hospitals. Make sure that your friends, classmates, parents—everyone—knows about EC: that it’s not abortion, that you have the right to get it at the pharmacy, and that it won’t make you spontaneously burst into sex-crazed fits.
The Scarlet Letter
Obviously the Big A issue—abortion—is the most controversial one in repro rights, and maybe even in women’s rights as a whole. Doctors and pro-choice volunteers have been killed over it. Women have died getting illegal abortions, and we’re well on our way to having the right taken away. This shit is no joke.
77% of likely voters say that the government should stay out of a woman’s personal say and decision about whether to have an abortion.
I’m not going to go into the whole moral argument over abortion, because honestly, it seems like a waste of time. Some people are going to believe what they want to believe, and that’s that. All I can say is that I think there’s nothing wrong with abortion, that the right to control our bodies is one of the most important there is, and that those who are seeking to end that right are concerned not about “life,” but about control.
Abortion has become the new scarlet letter—the shameful secret that women are supposed to hide. Even though it’s a legal medical procedure. Abortion means that you’re selfish, that you’re a slut, that you’re a murderer. The truth is, one-third of American women will have an abortion in their lifetime. Are one-third of women morally deficient? Are they selfish sluts? Methinks not.
Women don’t get abortions out of convenience or selfishness, though that’s what the anti-choice movement would have you believe. They want you to think that abortion is an easy way out for “loose” women.
The truth? A study by the Guttmacher Institute shows that while women offer many reasons for choosing abortion, a huge reason is concern for children that they already have. Get that—concern for children. According to Researcher Lawrence B. Finer:
❂ There is a misconception that women take the decision to terminate a pregnancy lightly. . . . Women’s primary reasons for making this difficult decision are based on a lack of resources in light of their current responsibilities. Typically, more than one reason drives the decision, and these reasons are frequently interrelated.5
Abortion is a moral choice. (Not to mention that preventing unwanted pregnancies is a priority for pro-choicers—we’re the ones fighting for contraceptive choices and commonsense sex ed, not the folks who are anti-abortion.)
But no matter what the reason behind a woman’s decision to have an abortion, it’s none of anyone’s business. Try telling that to legislators! They’re fully convinced that they know what’s best for women. Keep in mind most of the people making these decisions are old white guys. Who will never be pregnant. (Unless, of course, they’re Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior, the weirdest movie of all time.)
Never mind that we’re well on our way to Roe v. Wade (the case that legalized abortion in 1973) being overturned; there are so many restrictions in place right now, abortions are near impossible to obtain anywhere. Eighty-seven percent of counties in the United States have no abortion provider, and even if they