You. You there. You, wearing the business suit and boring tie. The one carrying the Bible around and talking about Baby Jesus. Yes, I am talking to you.
What makes you think you have any right to talk about what I do with my uterus? That is disgusting. You don't even know me. You don't know my motives for doing what I do. Why would you think you're a better authority on my genitalia than I am?
Do not talk about my vagina, my uterus, or my ovaries. Do not even think about them. That is beyond revolting. You should be arrested for sexual harassment. Why the hell would you think it's okay to discuss my body parts? Why would you think it's okay for you to make medical decisions for me?
And don't try to tell me that it's because you care about potential life. That is bullshit and you know it. You don't care about life. If you did, we wouldn't still be involved in a major war. We wouldn't have supporters of the death penalty. We'd have adequate medical care for everyone and paid-for childcare programs. That's what it would look like if you cared about life, alright? This isn't about "protecting life." This is about control. This is about shaming women who have, for one reason or another, gotten pregnant. This is about keeping the glass ceiling firmly in place.
And don't you dare try to tell me that some of your best friends are women. I don't care. Half of the world's population has ovaries, so chances are pretty damned good you're acquainted with a few card-carrying vagina-owners.
Do not try to tell me that your mother thought about aborting you. You were not "you" at that point, and obviously she decided to keep you. She decided to give up almost a year of her life to be an incubator of sorts. You were a parasite; I know, it's hard to think about. You leeched your mother's health from her. You made her sick, you compromised her immune system, and you fucked with her social life. And she made the decision to do all of that, which resulted in your existence. You should be grateful for your mother, and how dare you try to claim that other women should be forced to give up all of that. That is unconstitutional, and that is inhuman.
And don't you fucking tell me that it's only nine months. Are you willing to be held hostage and potentially jeopardize your life for nine months? Are you willing to pay the expenses involved in a healthy pregnancy? It's nine months that will change the course of her life forever. She might miss school. She might miss the opportunity to excel in her career. She might miss the opportunity to earn money that will make the difference between having a home and being on the street. She might suffer social stigma. She might suffer mental damage from the experience and never be the same person.
But you don't care about any of that, because you do not care about women. You do not care about maintaining access to reliable healthcare for women. You do not care that places like Planned Parenthood are often the only healthcare providers available to women. You do not care that the chances of dying during an abortion were drastically reduced when abortion was legalized. This is not about trying to help the lives of women facing serious medical decisions; this is about maintaining patriarchal dominance.
If you are morally against birth control or abortion, that's fine. I don't care. I don't care if your religion states you have to slather yourself in strawberry preserves once a month to maintain the holy spirit. That's your business. But the moment you claim that my access to any medical service should be altered because you have a morality problem, I care. Whether or not I use birth control or get an abortion is between me and my doctor, not between me and the Catholic Church, or me and the Republican Party. It is no one's goddamned business but mine. You trying to make it your business makes me want to destroy everything within reach.
You know what would be a more worthwhile debate? The national debate. Legalizing marijuana. Banning cell phone use while driving. In fact, there are all kinds of topics that are worthwhile. But trying to take rights away from women because your celibate priest thinks sex is icky? Go fuck yourselves.
It shocks me that there are people who think they have any right at all to discuss what I am allowed to do with my uterus. I don't try to pass legislation that controls their medical options. I'm not interested in any law that limits the rights of individuals. I have no problem with those who are against abortions, nor do I have a problem with anyone who morally objects to anything else. The moment that objection goes so far as to limit my rights, when I do not share those moral objections, I will have a problem. As long as I am not harming anyone else, I should be free to do as I like. I don't use hormonal birth control because I like to have sex with strangers, I do it because I have a hormonal imbalance and it makes me functional. So the notion that some fuckhead named Rick Santorum or Foster Freiss thinks I don't deserve access to birth control because it will enable me to be a whore makes me SO MAD I cannot even express it in words. I do not hate men, and I would never generalize this about the entirety of the male population, but men who think they have any right to discuss my medical decisions should really just go shut the fuck up.
