Every time I think about cancelling my New York Times subscription, another doozy event turns up and I find myself wanting, needing to go behind the paywall to find out just what is going on the other side of the Pacific. It's a good newspaper. One of the few I trust which comes out of America (Along with the Washington Post and one or two other banners from the larger cities).
There is something about the possible, strike that, probable repealing of Roe vs. Wade which has me quaking. It's wrong. It's inherently unfair to women and society in general. And it's a very, very polarising topic.
Here in Australia, where abortion is legal and accessible (unless you count the fact that in Tasmania there is next to no provisions for abortions and women often have to travel to the mainland to find this care...which is in itself a travesty.). We are lucky. Here in Victoria, they've thankfully stopped the morons who picket the abortion clinics - they're not allowed within a decent distance from these places, who provide compassionate, non-judgmental heath care to all women - not just those seeking a termination. Have you any idea how horrible it is passing by these ranting people when you're off to to the doctor for some other minor ailment? It's happened to me. It's crap.
Okay, I'm not a rabid religious nut. I'm not a Roman Catholic. I'm not a fundamentalist Christian. I firmly believe in a woman's right to choose, yet I certainly don't think that abortion should be used as a form of regular contraception.
But abortion is a form on healthcare. Pure and simple.
For what ever reason a woman chooses to have an abortion, it is exactly that. Her choice. Whether it be that the contraception she and her partner were using failed, or she was raped, or that the foetus, for whatever reason, is unviable, or the child barely out of their own childhood, or the family cannot afford the extra mouth to feed, or....
There is no right or wrongs in the decisions to terminate a pregnancy. It's a decision and a choice which should be available to all women. Ask any woman who has had one and there will be no regrets. There might be a bit of sadness, but the overwhelming feeling of not carrying an unwanted pregnancy is relief.
Here in Australia we can only watch on in horror as America lurches towards this strange, fundamentalist state, akin to Margaret Atwood's Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale. We've read about where in Ohio, women who have ectopic pregnancies have been subjugated to having the embryo implanted in their wombs. This isn't something which is medically viable. Ectopic pregnancies kill women on a daily basis. Who are these morons bringing such things into law? This is also a country that also limits women's access to information about sex and contraception.
We've seen what happen when the state meddles with these rights in Ireland. In a well known case, a woman who was miscarrying was refused an abortion because there was still a foetal heartbeat. The woman later died of septicemia. This can't have been an isolated case.
If you want to get a view of what happens when abortions aren't legal, have a read of the first chapter of Louise Swinn's Choice Words. This chapter details what it was like for women early last century, where they regularly died from backyard abortions. Or the joys of people finding dead babies in the streets. Horrible, harrowing stuff.
You have to remember, that in most Western Countries, around one in three women will terminate a pregnancy. One in three. Got it. Look around you. Look at the women around you. One in three will have used these services. **
Why is there so much shame attached to something so common? There's nothing to be ashamed about.
Have access to safe, legal abortion taken away, then think what that will do to your friends and family. Think of how it will change their lives having another child around - whether wanted or not. Think of how it impacts their lives - if they live on at all, depending on the circumstances.
I'll stop my rant now. This is one issue that I am passionate about. It's not about what "god" wants. It's not about human life and its sanctity - because until a child is born alive, it's really only potential - I don't care what anybody says.
That women are being treated like this in American (and many other countries - look at how the women rose up in Poland when they tried to ban it) chills me to my absolute core.
Abortion should be seen like voluntary assisted dying. You may not like it as an option. But don't stop other people from accessing these forms of healthcare. It is just that. Healthcare.
Rant over. For now.
This is all too frightening for words.
** I am one of the one in three. I have no regrets about terminating a pregnancy in my late twenties. Never have, never will.To think about what life would be like if the service was not affordable and accessible at the time doesn't bear warrant. It was the right choice at the time.
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