Posted on 10/10/2005 9:48:46 AM PDT by curtisgardner
By the time this column is printed, Justice for All's cultish tribute to the fetus will have left the grass of our campus. While the right wing whack-jobs are now gone from our fading campus lawns, the ghosts of their messaging haunt me.
What we saw when Justice for All came to Auraria was complete and utter disrespect. Not only were we visually assaulted by an enormous display of gory images with questionable validity and undeniable shock value; the women who make up our student body, faculties and staff had the essence of their freedom questioned. This is not something that just came with the Justice for All fetus-fest; it is an ever-present violation of the privacy and liberty of women that is found in the media, politics, religion, entertainment and social interaction.
The fact that women's sexuality, their safety during sex and their health decisions that follow sexual relationships are debated as topics for broad consensus in the first place is misogynistic. When males are granted the right to make health choices freely while women have the same privacy and freedom denied due to biological characteristics, the sexism that runs rampant in our society is blatantly clear.
Now, self-proclaimed "pro-lifers" reading this column may venture to dub me a hypocrite, as I am opposed to war and the death penalty, yet I support abortion. They will most likely question my support of human life. This is where the error lies. I am not "pro-life" and have never claimed to be. I am opposed to oppression and violations of peoples' self-determination.
I stand behind abortion rights because I believe that no one can serve as a better governing body over an individual than that person. I believe individuals have the ability to discern what they will and will not do, as they are autonomous beings. For this reason, I am also vegan, against the death penalty, opposed to state power and fully supportive of individual sexual decisions.
Honestly, I do not care what a woman's reason is for having an abortion, as I am not in a place to judge. Economics, family, sex abuse, power disparities in relationships, education and many other factors I have no ability to begin to understand, play into a woman deciding to terminate a pregnancy. I do not care how many abortions a woman has or for what reason; it is her body and her choice, bottom line.
Of course, I will discourage one from undergoing numerous abortions as a casual affair. I would also encourage an individual from casually having root canals and open-heart surgery. Regardless of whether I think their judgment leading up to such a choice was the best or if I myself would make the same choice, it is a person's right to do so.
One may ask about the self-determination and autonomy of a child. Once a child is born, I wish it nothing but the best. I would love to see every child have an education, food, shelter and medicine. However, I fail to see how a mass of cells the size of a kumquat, with no nerve endings, or a potentially viable fetus that is so deformed it has no chance of surviving (plus, it may kill the woman carrying it) can qualify as self-determined individuals. I fail to see how one can even consider the aforementioned cellular growths to be humans.
I warn all advocates for an end to legalized abortion right now: you will never succeed in ending abortion. People like me will fight back. We will break any law and violate every social norm to ensure that our sisters can receive safe and affordable abortions on demand, without apology, because it is their right.
I, for one, am tired of having my legitimate decisions scrutinized in the name of morals and governance. I am tired of hearing those that undermine my autonomy, be they men or women, dubbed "pro-life." I refuse to live in fear any further that women will lose the ability to decide to go through a life saving procedure. No government, church, political organization or private citizen will take away my rights to my body, my uterus, my sanity and my safety. I encourage other women to adopt the same standard.
This leaves me to ask a question I once read on a button to Justice for All and their cultish following led by megalomaniacal religious fundamentalist privileged males. If you cut off my reproductive choice, can I cut off yours?
Honestly, I do not care what a woman's reason is for having an abortion
Huh?
Well, in 15 years, she'll no doubt be back on your campus as a fully tenured professor..head of the "Women's Studies Dept"
Well, in 15 years, she'll no doubt be back on your campus as a fully tenured professor..head of the "Women's Studies Dept"
Oh well, at least she's probably not going to reproduce.
She has a terminal case of PMS..Permanent Moral Shutdown...
Is there any cure for Baby Bulimia?
Satan does not have horns and a pointed tail. He disguises himself much more effectively than that.
In the warped world of this "woman's" mind, anything can be rationalized. Her thinking is sick and demented but in a sick and demented world it seems...well...reasonable.
When men can offer a woman half the cost of an abortion and not have their economic decisions debated by a woman and the courts with respect to child support, there might be some equality in abortion. As it stands now, there isn't. Only the woman has any "choices" after sex. If the pro-abortion feminists supported that sort of thing, I'd believe that equality was actually their concern.
Honestly, I do not care what a woman's reason is for having an abortion, as I am not in a place to judge. Economics, family, sex abuse, power disparities in relationships, education and many other factors I have no ability to begin to understand, play into a woman deciding to terminate a pregnancy. I do not care how many abortions a woman has or for what reason; it is her body and her choice, bottom line.
A few years ago, a woman in Patterson, NJ wanted to go out and party but was stuck with an infant child. After several failed attempts to find someone to take care of the child, she decided that it was her body and her choice and tossed her child into a river where he died. What I want to know is whether this author feels that a parent should have their choices restricted to take care of a born child or not if nobody else is available to take care of that child. Do adults have an obligation to take care of born infants or not?
Typical "it's all about me" rhetoric. If you don't want the public in your uterus, then you should think about keeping something else out of another part of your anatomy first.
Does anyone out there in cyberspace know of one kid named "Zoe" who's worth a hoot?
My experience is this: They're all whackjobs.
Oh well.
Back to the markets.
I have no ability to begin to understand
Mamma Mia, such a beauty!
Oh wait, I'm thinking of that cute Sicilian babe in The Godfather.
If this is the real headline, then the appropriate rejoinder would be, "Lady, given the moral situation, then be careful what you allow to be put in your uterus."
Hmmmmmmmmm....what this author is missing is the fact that if she does NOT WANT anyone interested in what is growing in her uterus, that being a 'human being', then she should keep the start of a life that may go 100 plus years in today's world from EVER ENTERING HER UTERUS if she intends to MURDER THE GROWING CHILD.
What she needs to keep OUT OF HER UTERUS is an UNWANTED BABY that is growing furiously according to the roadmap she and her sperm donor contributed.
"We will break any law and violate any social norm . ."
I've already called the fashion police. They're on their way with roll-on, razors and sensible shoes.
Yes, it's been a part of American political thought going all the way back to Jefferson:
"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern them? Let history answer this question." -- Thomas Jefferson (First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1801)
Of course it has limits. Each individual doesn't get to write his own criminal code. But the basic idea, that we should err on the side of individual liberty, is sound. Where that line breaks down in this argument of abortion is that there is more than one life involved.
Re my #34, I hadn't earlier read #30, which words it much better.
"What she needs to keep OUT OF HER UTERUS is an UNWANTED BABY that is growing furiously according to the roadmap she and her sperm donor contributed."
Come on now, you don't want to take away her constitutional right to have as much sex as she wants and as irresponsibly as she chooses with absolutely no repercussions do ya?
She wants a doctor to put her under an anaesthetic and get into her uterus with metal and plastic tools, scar her uterus, and possibly traumatize her cervix in the process. How is that "controlling your own body," much less staying out of it?
Do they really expect us to believe this crap? Liberals are such stupid people.
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