Full Frontal Feminism_ A Young Women's Guide to Why Feminism Matters - Jessica Valenti [51]
Wyndi Anderson, also of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, says that “if we really want to provide an opportunity for women to have healthy pregnancies, then we need to think about ways we can support women and their families.”9 You know, as opposed to making things even worse.
These laws are a slippery slope, part of a larger trend that trumps the rights of a fetus over those of women. And as Paltrow points out in her article, where do they stop?
Could the police arrest a woman who doesn’t take prenatal vitamins? Throw her in jail for playing sports? And now, with this “pre-pregnant” nonsense, how long will it be until women who aren’t pregnant are charged with not taking care of themselves (in preparation for The Fetus)? It’s all just too much.
Teenage pregnancy has gone done by 50% in the last 25 years. Yay birth control!
If this were really about helping pregnant women and their babies, laws would be, well, helping them—not punishing them. But of course, it’s not about helping anyone. It’s about vilifying women in the name of perfect motherhood.
Unauthorized Mothering
As much as society wants women to have babies, it’s really only certain women who should be reproducing: straight, married, white women.
That’s why you see organizations like CRACK out there advertising specifically in low-income black neighborhoods. That’s why states are trying to enact laws that would prevent unmarried women (lesbians, wink wink) from accessing reproductive technology to help them get pregnant without the almighty penis.
That Quiverfull movement? Part of their belief system is that they are helping to prevent “race suicide” by having nice white babies.
So it’s important to remember that the expectation of motherhood is directed differently at different women. The myth of the black “welfare queen” having lots of babies for the “wrong” reasons is as alive as it ever was, as is the idea that gay people shouldn’t have families (you know, ’cause they don’t do it the “natural” way).
And when you see stories about the “mommy wars” (stay-at-home versus working moms), they’re overwhelmingly about white upper-class women who can afford to argue about whether to stay home or not.
Just something to think about.
Mommy Doesn’t Know Best
Once women make their own (hopefully) decision to have children, a whole new set of expectations and problems comes up.
Before they even have the kid—outside of the punishing-pregnant-women trend—women are subject to a whole medical profession telling them the best way to have their children.
An example? The rate of cesarean sections is at an all-time high in the United States: Almost 1.2 million C-sections were performed in 2005, up 27.5 percent from 2003.10 And what does this have to do with women making decisions about their medical care? Well, it seems that a lot of women are being pushed into having the procedure because it’s easier for doctors. Some hospitals have even banned vaginal deliveries after a woman has had a C-section in a previous pregnancy. (There’s also a fear of malpractice suits if something goes wrong in a vaginal delivery.)
For example, Lani Lanchester decided that she didn’t want a C-section with her second child; she had the procedure for her first birth and the recovery was difficult. Despite having a healthy pregnancy, Lanchester was told that her hospital had a policy change and was no longer allowing women who had had C-sections to deliver vaginally. Because of insurance complications, Lanchester couldn’t go to another hospital. “It feels very violating to have unnecessary major surgery. . . . I had no options. But at the end, I got tired of fighting the insurance companies, the hospital, and the doctors.”11
Given these policies and all the opposition to natural birth, it’s no wonder that more and more women are questioning whether