Reproductive Rights Today: Still Not Safe [View all]

[theHandpuppet]

The fight goes on. More abortion restrictions were enacted in 2011-2013 than in the entire previous decade. Opponents of reproductive choice are counting on public apathy and silence in the face of their ceaseless attacks on women's health care. Speak up and FIGHT BACK!

Reproductive Rights Today: Still Not Safe
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/amelia-shroyer/reproductive-rights-today-still-not-safe_b_4587250.html

(excerpt)
In 2013 alone, 70 different restrictions on reproductive rights were passed in 22 different states. We've had more laws restricting reproductive rights pass in this country in the past three years than we had in the entire decade of 2000 - 2010. Despite this, the rate of unintended pregnancy in low-income women and in women of color at all income levels has been rising.

Regardless of the explanations that are given for these kinds of laws in official statements, the intent is to strip women (especially poor women and women of color) of their rights in favor of one viewpoint that is ubiquitous with one religious perspective. In the 21st century, we are still living in a patriarchal theocracy, where men in power will even bypass the democratic process to maintain their frantic control over women's bodies.

Women seeking abortions are painted to be fickle, flighty, loose women with no moral integrity. Not only is this categorization of women absurd and completely dismissive of the complicated and diverse situations that lead women to seek abortions, it also begs the question: If it were true, why would anyone in their right mind be in such a hurry to give said women the responsibility of shepherding a human life into the world in the first place?

More than this, however, is the inherent conclusion that an unborn child holds more value as a human being than a grown woman. We already fail as a nation to adequately care for every American child. As of 2010, there were 1.6 million homeless children in the U.S., another 1.3 million are living in foster care, and a staggering 16.4 million children are living in poverty. That is 22% of all American children under the age of 18, by the way. Personally, I find these figures absolutely shocking.... MORE