[speechlesstx]

Maybe now we can have an honest debate on the issue?

I Love Abortion: Implying Otherwise Accomplishes Nothing for Women's Rights
Author image

by Jessica DelBalzo

March 14, 2012 - 11:32am

I love abortion. I don't accept it. I don't view it as a necessary evil. I embrace it. I donate to abortion funds. I write about how important it is to make sure that every woman has access to safe, legal abortion services. I have bumper stickers and buttons and t-shirts proclaiming my support for reproductive freedom. I love abortion.

And I bristle every time a fellow activist uses a trendy catch-phrase or rallying cry meant to placate pro-lifers. The first of these, “Make abortion safe, legal, and rare!” has been used for decades as a call for abortion rights.

Safe and legal are concepts I fully support, but rare is something I cannot abide. I understand the theoretical mindset: it is better for a woman to prevent an unwanted pregnancy than to bear the physical and financial burden of an abortion. While my own abortion involved very little pain and a minimal financial expense, one which my ex-boyfriend was willing to share with me, even I can admit that using condoms or the pill is preferable to eight weeks of nausea and weight gain. Contraception is a valuable tool.

However, there is no need to suggest that abortion be rare. To say so implies a value judgement, promoting the idea that abortion is somehow distasteful or immoral and should be avoided. Even with affordable, accessible birth control, there will be user errors, condoms that break, moments of spontaneity. The best contraceptive access in the world won't change the fact that we are merely human and imperfect in our routines. The best access in the world also won't change the fact that some women are raped, while others find that even wanted pregnancies sometimes need to be terminated for the woman's well-being or to avoid birthing a child with painful or unmanageable disabilities. Women who find themselves facing any of these situations shouldn't feel guilty for failing to keep the numbers low.

It stands to reason that if we ensure contraception is both readily available and easily affordable for sexually active women of all ages, the need for abortion may decrease as a result. That would be a laudable accomplishment and an indication of social progress for an America otherwise plagued by anti-feminist, religious conservatism known for shaming women's sexuality.

Nevertheless, even in the face of such (hypothetical) strides, we must remember that extenuating circumstances like health, contraceptive failure, and rape mean that abortion will always be a normal, necessary, and reasonable choice for many women. As such, we must avoid stigmatizing it in any way. No woman benefits from even the vaguest insinuation that abortion is an immoral or objectionable option. That's the weak argument made by misogynistic, forced-birth advocates, and it has no place in a dialogue about reproductive freedom. Terminating a pregnancy is not an unethical act, yet suggesting that abortion should be rare implies that there is something undesirable about having one.

Similarly, I've heard reproductive rights activists claim that “no one likes abortion,” in an attempt to find common ground with anti-choicers. While it may be true that no one likes the physical act of having an abortion (any more than she may like her yearly mammogram, life-saving chemotherapy, or temporarily uncomfortable dental surgery), a great many women like abortion itself. They like knowing that an unwanted pregnancy does not have to yield an unwanted child. They like knowing that their mental and physical health take precedence over an embryo. They like knowing that they own their bodies. Many medical procedures are physically unpleasant, but that doesn't lessen how grateful we are to have them available when we need them.

Suggesting that abortion be “safe, legal, and rare,” and crowing that “no one likes abortion,” accomplishes nothing for women's rights. Pandering to the anti-choice movement by implying that we all find termination distasteful only fuels the fire against it. What good is common ground if it must be achieved at the expense of women who have had or will have abortions? Those women need advocates like us more than we need support from anti-abortionists. Rather than trying to cozy up to the forced-birth camp, women who value their freedom should be proud to say that they like abortion. In fact, they should venerate it whole-heartedly. Abortion is our last refuge, the one final, definitive instrument that secures our bodily autonomy. What's not to love?

Was that so hard? Why dance around the issue? By the way Jess, contraception is already both readily available and easily affordable. You even admitted your abortion involved "a minimal financial expense." So why should I have to pay for it?

Thanks for admitting what we already knew, Planned Parenthood and other anti-baby groups have been lying through their diaphragms about making abortion "rare". They love it, they venerate it, they are proudly anti-baby.

P.S. You pay for your condoms and abortions, I'll keep my constitutionally guaranteed freedom and still fully adore and appreciate female sexuality. Deal?

[Fr_Chuck]

I have a constitutional right to bear arms, so should the government not pay for me a weapon, I think my rights have been violated.

[Beardedsumo]

"The best contraceptive access in the world won't change the fact that we are merely human and imperfect in our routines"

Thusly the concept of striving for higher ideals is dismissed by the lazy, making corrective action not only necessary, but moral.

[excon]

Feminist finally admits the obvious, "I Love Abortion"

Maybe now we can have an honest debate on the issue?

Hello Steve:

We're off to a good start. While I suspect there are SOME wacky feminists who "love" abortion, to paint ALL women who get one with the same brush is an inaccurate portrayal. In fact, it's highly offensive.

But, it DOES expose the underlying reasons for your right wing WAR on women. You're just misinformed... I don't know why.

excon

[Beardedsumo]

to paint ALL women who get one with the same brush is an inaccurate portrayal. In fact, it's highly offensive.

Yet you continually use the broad brush to be intentionally offensive. Is this your debating technique or are you really that bigoted?

[excon]

Hello sumo:

Here on THIS board, if we're going to accuse somebody of something, we usually provide an EXAMPLE. SHOW me where I've been offensive OR been bigoted?

excon

[paraclete]

Making rules too ex, for example you call me a racist all the time whenever my opinion on certain subjects differs from yours

[excon]

for example you call me a racist all the time whenever my opinion on certain subjects differs from yours

Hello clete:

Yes, and I SHOW you where you were.

excon

[Beardedsumo]

Hello sumo:

Here on THIS board, if we're gonna accuse somebody of something, we usually provide an EXAMPLE. SHOW me where I've been offensive OR been bigoted?

excon

From Today:

"That's GOTTA disgust you SMALL government wingers, right??

No??? How come?"

"Were you set up by FOX?? You betcha."

The last question you posted:
"So, given the evidence that right wingers are CLUELESS about a women's reproductive system, should they be making laws about it?"

So much for offensive use of the broad brush.

As for bigotry, you claim to be a "L"iberal. Have you not seen the descriptions of the "Welfare Plantation?" Star Parker described it better than I can.
CURE | Back on Uncle Sam's Plantation

The Lefties seem to view people as groups and classify them by one characteristic: skin pigment, gender, religion, locality, income. You never hear about rich Hispanic ranchers or poor Western European descended urbanites. You yourself use the term "wingers" to describe everybody that argues with you. I repeat my question: Is this just your debating technique or are you that bigoted?

[NeedKarma]

Yet you continually use the broad brush to be intentionally offensive. Is this your debating technique or are you really that bigoted?

Have you not noted the same issue with the original post??

[excon]

So much for offensive use of the broad brush. I repeat my question: Is this just your debating technique or are you that bigoted?

Hello again, sumo:

It's my debating technique... Get a thicker skin, or move along.

excon

[Beardedsumo]

Hello again, sumo:

It's my debating technique... Get a thicker skin, or move along.

excon

Was that so hard to admit?

[paraclete]

Hello clete:

Yes, and I SHOW you where you were.

excon

You have never been where I am ex

[speechlesstx]

Hello sumo:

Here on THIS board, if we're gonna accuse somebody of something, we usually provide an EXAMPLE. SHOW me where I've been offensive OR been bigoted?

excon

As how I allegedly painted women with some broad brush?

[speechlesstx]

Have you not noted the same issue with the original post????

I specifically targeted "Planned Parenthood and other anti-baby groups". They have an agenda which has been proven time and again, this activist finally acknowledged what we already knew.

Ex is the one painting the broad brush in willfully ignoring the facts in claiming I'm involved in some mythical war on women. In fact in the OP I also said I will "still fully adore and appreciate female sexuality", in response to the author's spurious charge that pro-life Americans are "shaming women's sexuality."

Go ahead, try and weasel your way out of being proven wrong as usual.

[excon]

As how I allegedly painted women with some broad brush?

Hello again, Steve:

I thought I was pretty clear, but I'll try again...

If one had to choose whether women LIKE abortion or they DON'T, your OP suggests that you'd pick, women LIKE abortion.. I think that's a broad brush, and I think it's WRONG.

excon

[NeedKarma]

I specifically targeted "Planned Parenthood and other anti-baby groups". They have an agenda which has been proven time and again, this activist finally acknowledged what we already knew.

Does she set policy for PP? Nope, she's not affiliated with them at all: Jessica DelBalzo | RH Reality Check She writes a blog and this is her opinion.

[speechlesstx]

Hello again, Steve:

I thought I was pretty clear, but I'll try again...

If one had to choose whether women LIKE abortion or they DON'T, your OP suggests that you'd pick, women LIKE abortion.. I think that's a broad brush, and I think it's WRONG.

excon

I thought I was pretty clear, too. I specifically targeted (for the third time now) "Planned Parenthood and other anti-baby groups".

First of all, our local anti-baby group was founded by a man and is currently is run a man. Planned Parenthood's chief proponent and protector is none other than one Barack Hussein Obama. According to their own figures they perform an abortion roughly every 95 seconds.

I'm not now nor have I ever waged a "war on women". I'm waging a war against lies, infanticide and those who love it.

[speechlesstx]

Does she set policy for PP? Nope, she's not affiliated with them at all: Jessica DelBalzo | RH Reality Check She writes a blog and this is her opinion.

Thanks Captain Obvious.

[NeedKarma]

Thanks Captain Obvious.

No problem. Just had to clear up that she is in no way speaks for all feminists nor Planned Parenthood. Anybody can dig up a website with a post by a person who's opinion is contrary to our own. No need to ascribe that opinion to a whole class of people.