Today is the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and so it is also Blog for Choice Day. In order to examine "why I am pro-choice," I have necessarily been thinking a lot about what being pro-choice, or being a pro-choice activist, entails for me--beyond believing that abortion should be safe and legal. Here is a list of twenty things, in mostly random order, that I've come up with so far:
1. A very important element of being pro-choice is to have the courage to actually refer to your ideology as pro-choice. To neglect this important step, is to tacitly support the belief, which is fundamental to anti-choice ideology, that abortion is immoral, or should be taboo, or that having an abortion renders a woman immoral or "anti-life."
2. Speaking of the term "anti-life," I think it is important for pro-choice women to use the term "anti-choice" rather than "pro-life." This is because using the term "pro-life" tacitly implies that pro-choicers are somehow anti-life.
3. I think really being pro-choice means supporting every woman's right to choose, no matter what her situation. It means supporting a woman's right to choose abortion or abortions, as well as her choice to bear 2.5 children, many children or zero children. No one but a woman herself should determine what is best for her own body or her own life. I think it is a part of anti-choice ideology to make statements like: "Abortions are just too easy to get"; "women should only be allowed to have abortions with their husband's permission"; "abortion should be legal, but women shouldn't use abortion as birth control"; "a woman shouldn't have more than one, or more than two, or more than seven abortions"; or "only women who have been raped should have abortions." These statements are problematic for so many reasons, but this is the one that stands out most to me: Who, if not the woman herself, should judge whether she will receive safe and legal medical treatment, which is a basic human right?
4. Pro-choicers should make every effort to support inclusive, thorough sex education programs that teach people around the world how to safely prevent pregnancy, and protect themselves from sexually transmitted diseases.
5. I think it is important for pro-choice people to vote pro-choice. I also think it is important for pro-choice people to donate and volunteer pro-choice, if possible.
6. I think it is important for pro-choice people, specifically pro-choice medical professionals, to educate women about the stages of fetal development, how and where to have an abortion, should they ever have the need, and what exactly different kinds of abortion entail.
7. I think that if women who are seeking or have had abortions are being attacked by Christian fundamentalist or any other group, those women should be defended and supported by pro-choicers. Women who have had abortions are marginalized, degraded and attacked in many ways, some apparent, some subtle.
8. I think it is important for pro-choice women to be cognizant of the way religious dogma supports and often authors anti-choice ideology.
9. I think, if an opportunity arises, it is important to challenge women who have had abortions, but identify as pro-life for "religious reasons," to examine the way their holy text is being interpreted by men in power in order to oppress and control women. I think women in this group suffer profound emotional and "spiritual" trauma because they are made to think of themselves as "murderesses." To read an excellent article by Chris Hedges on a related subject, click here.
10. I think it is important for pro-choice feminists to refrain from making the following comment, if possible: "I've never had an abortion and, for ethical reasons, I would never have one." First, because the comment implies that abortion is immoral, which supports anti-choice dogma. Second, because it demonizes women who have actually had abortions (and there are millions). And third, because as anyone who has ever worked in a clinic will tell you, countless women who are about to have abortions say, "I always said I would never have an abortion." And I'm sure every pro-choice woman can imagine at least one reason why she might not want to carry a pregnancy to term.
11. I think it is important to revisit the idea that a woman’s body is her own property, not the property of any man or state, and that anti-choicers subvert women’s agency and humanity with their votes, their funding, their actions, their politics, and their words. Words have power and women, especially young women, are listening. Pro-choicers should do what we can to provide a pro-choice point of view when possible.
12. I think it would be helpful to refer to abortion as a safe and legal minor surgery from time to time, to remind people of the reality of the procedure.
13. Pro-choice activists should make an effort to expose clinics that claim to provide this safe and legal minor surgery, but actually entrap, trick, or intimidate women in order to convince or shame or force them to remain pregnant. I think pro-choice activists should also work to expose the flaws of abstinence-only education that precludes teaching students about birth control.
14. Pro-choice parents should educate their daughters and sons about birth control.
15. I think abortion should be covered by insurance. I think all women should be provided with health insurance on the off chance they might become pregnant. Just as pregnancies that are carried to term are costly for many women, abortions are costly for many women. There are, in fact, women who need financial assistance in order to receive safe, legal, quality medical treatment.
16. I think it is important for pro-choice women to educate other women that, despite what they may have heard, women actually do know whether they are emotionally, physically, financially and psychologically prepared to carry a pregnancy to term, give birth or raise a child.
17. I think it is important for pro-choice women to understand that not every woman considers carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term, giving birth, and giving a baby up for adoption to be a viable choice.
18. I think it is important to remember that for many women, abortion is a choice they need to make to preserve their own health. I think it is important to remember that this is not the only valid reason to have an abortion.
19. I think women should be considered people with rights rather than "hosts."
20. I think, at its core, the purpose of anti-choice ideology, rhetoric and action, whether defined as a part of religious dogma or not, is to control women's bodies. I think pro-choice people must encourage, support, organize, fund and otherwise facilitate the resistance.
