A Modest Proposal
I am a woman of child-bearing age. My personal autonomy seems be under assault these days. So I have a modest proposal for all male congressmen, legislators, governors, and presidents who vote for or sign bills that limit my access to contraceptives, emergency contraception, HPV vaccines and abortion.
You have never been pregnant. You never will be pregnant. You can never know what it's like to be pregnant. But, since you seem determined to force me to be pregnant, I think you ought to give up some degree of autonomy as well. Every year or two, you should be required to take a homeless person into your home and house and feed them for nine months. Ridiculous, you say? What if they bring a weapon with them, you ask? Oh, they probably won't kill you. Sure, that stab wound might harm your health, but that homeless guy is a person, too! If you don't house him, he might die of exposure out there in the cold night. It's only nine months, after all.
I've never had an abortion, and hope to never have one. However, I do know there are conditions under which I would seek an abortion. Were I to get pregnant and discover there was a serious defect, such as anencephaly, with the fetus, I would abort the pregnancy. If I were raped and impregnated, I would want emergency contraception.
There are other scenarios I could imagine as well, some less clear cut than others. It would be a complicated, difficult decision, but it should be my decision, since I'm the one who has to live with it. I'm the one who has to go through pregnancy and the risks associated with it, if I don't choose abortion. How can you possibly know what the right decision is for me?
Do some women choose abortions in cases where I wouldn't? I'm sure they do. I'm sure some women choose to carry pregnancies to term is cases where I would choose abortion, as well. Limiting our access to contraception, whether it's by denying funding for contraception at public clinics or overriding state laws requiring insurers to cover contraception, just creates more difficult situations where that decision has to be made. Telling women to just not have sex if they don't want to be pregnant denies our humanity.
And taking the decision away from us denies our autonomy. So, until you're willing to give up your autonomy, or until you can figure out how to be pregnant, please respect our desire to have some control over what happens to our own bodies.
You have never been pregnant. You never will be pregnant. You can never know what it's like to be pregnant. But, since you seem determined to force me to be pregnant, I think you ought to give up some degree of autonomy as well. Every year or two, you should be required to take a homeless person into your home and house and feed them for nine months. Ridiculous, you say? What if they bring a weapon with them, you ask? Oh, they probably won't kill you. Sure, that stab wound might harm your health, but that homeless guy is a person, too! If you don't house him, he might die of exposure out there in the cold night. It's only nine months, after all.
I've never had an abortion, and hope to never have one. However, I do know there are conditions under which I would seek an abortion. Were I to get pregnant and discover there was a serious defect, such as anencephaly, with the fetus, I would abort the pregnancy. If I were raped and impregnated, I would want emergency contraception.
There are other scenarios I could imagine as well, some less clear cut than others. It would be a complicated, difficult decision, but it should be my decision, since I'm the one who has to live with it. I'm the one who has to go through pregnancy and the risks associated with it, if I don't choose abortion. How can you possibly know what the right decision is for me?
Do some women choose abortions in cases where I wouldn't? I'm sure they do. I'm sure some women choose to carry pregnancies to term is cases where I would choose abortion, as well. Limiting our access to contraception, whether it's by denying funding for contraception at public clinics or overriding state laws requiring insurers to cover contraception, just creates more difficult situations where that decision has to be made. Telling women to just not have sex if they don't want to be pregnant denies our humanity.
And taking the decision away from us denies our autonomy. So, until you're willing to give up your autonomy, or until you can figure out how to be pregnant, please respect our desire to have some control over what happens to our own bodies.
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