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In reply to the discussion: "NO": The Second Part of Trump's Answer That Got Audible Gasps From the Audience [View all]maddiemom
(5,106 posts)You cover just about everything there is to be said for the pro-choice defense. I've been struggling to put this into words (and I taught English) for years. To me, you just nailed it. I was already married at the time of Roe vs Wade, thankfully had never been pregnant before, and was fortunate enough to have been able to afford an unplanned pregnancy thereafter. I was into ( fairly early) menopause at the time I was divorced. I realize, psychologically, that the two events may have had some relationship. Like many in my generation, I'd had at least one experience with a friend or dorm mate, who'd nearly died from a botched illegal abortion and rumors of others who had unexpectedly died for the same reason. "Boys will be boys" was accepted in my generation, and the Sixties' "sexual revolution" was not completely accepted for girls in middle America. I was from a liberal family, politically, but they were still very uptight about my "reputation," I won't go into the volumes that I could, since I'm sure many other women of my generation know just what I mean. Suffice it to say, there was never any doubt in my mind (or my parents' ) that, once birth control pills began making "promiscuity" almost as easy for women as men, the truth was obvious: sexual standards were almost all about control over women: NOT only their bodies, either. My Dad went completely nuts, once, when a stupid adult male friend implied I was "a pistol." Afterwards I was nearly in lock-down for months. Decades later, I know my adult daughter has had things much easier. Nonetheless, the theory that girls/women can get scary if not kept under control persists. Since they are thought of as the recipient of sex and males the initiator; in conservative mindset it remains the woman's duty to maintain moral standards. I have known, as a teacher, a few very young promiscuous girls ( sadly often with also young, promiscuous mothers) who just consider abortion an easy solution. I've always been pro choice, but I've never doubted that, in my own case or my daughter"s, it would be an agonizing choice with many factors considered.