We are finally in the last stages of this interminable election. There are quite a few women I know who are voting for Trump or a third party candidate.
The women who are voting for Trump--all of them that I have spoken to which is in no way a scientific survey--cite the Supreme Court and anti-choice views as their reason.
When life begins--at conception, at sometime in utero, at birth--I don't know, I don't pretend to know.
When I did IVF and I saw those little dots on the screen--they were real to me. I was overwhelmed at how protective I was of those little dots. They were mine. When the IVF failed I was so despondent I can't put it into words.
That being said, I can't and won't use my beliefs and how I felt to say how others can and should feel.
I should say this. Pro-life is not the right term.
Anti choice is.
If you are voting for someone so that he will put forth justices that will force women to have babies that they don't want, and it doesn't bother you that he has no problem sexually molesting these self-same women--you are not pro-life, you are anti-choice.
If you do not see that there should be mandatory maternity and family leave, you are not pro-life you are anti-choice.
Please understand that, according to the Jewish religion, when the health (physical or mental) of the mother is in danger the pregnancy must be terminated. Not should, not can, must. If you can't embrace that because of your religion, you are not pro-life, you are anti-choice.
Do understand, if abortion is outlawed--there will still be abortion. It will just be unsafe.
Towards the end of her life my mom opened up about her college friend, Julie. She died because she had an unsafe abortion. My mom said that Julie was her best friend in college. Had she lived, I would have called her Aunt Julie. She was taken away from me because men in the 1940s didn't want to trust women with their own bodies. I would have liked her, my mom said. When I think of mom in the afterlife I like thinking of her with Aunt Julie, eating chocolate and drinking wine. She died horribly.
If you want to force women into this situation, don't you dare call yourself pro-life. You are anti-choice.
Bravo. Thank you for this. 100% agree.
ReplyDeleteStrongly agree.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what hurts more during this election - my heart or my brain. That said, I feel much the same - I can't imagine forcing my beliefs on someone, and anti choice is a much more accurate way of stating it.
ReplyDeleteSo well said. Yes, this is it exactly. It reminds me of that old column which ends "I am right to life, not right to live." Now I have to go dig that up via Google.
ReplyDeleteGah! It's driving me crazy. I can't find it anywhere online, and the column was so so so good. I know I have it in a box in the basement. It's a matter of whether I have the energy to go through all the boxes to find it.
ReplyDeleteWell said. Pro-life is a term that I hate because it's dictating that one person's life is worth more than another's.
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