by Jocelyn Barrett
I keep talking to people about protecting our freedom of choice by voting no in November, but what exactly are we protecting when we say "choice"? It goes much deeper than just abortion.
The same conservative, right wing groups who oppose abortion are also the ones whining about how welfare for women with dependent children is a strain on our economy. Most of them, however, would never dream of giving women free, easily accessible birth control. And then, these groups love to spout their dangerous rhetoric, that women who have to work to support their children have no "family values" (oh, whatever –and who are they to define a family?), that women who have children without being married to a man are the very reason our country is going to hell.
So where does that leave us?
Basically what they are trying to convince us is that the only women who should have children are middle or upper class women who have a man around to "take care of them" so they can devote lives to puttering around the house and raising good little boys who will grow up to pound these rules into a new generation, and spineless little girls who let themselves be beat into the floor.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most women -- those I know, anyway -- think this vision of the future is about as appealing as being locked in a basement with a pile of Better Homes and Gardens magazines for the rest of their lives. Not to say that having children is a bad thing – if that’s what a woman chooses to do -- it’s having to follow rules someone else has set up for you about having children that’s sick. We will be making the choices that will define the future. That is what freedom of choice means, not just the right to make the decision to have an abortion.
Women are the only ones who can have children; that is a scary power we hold, and anti-women groups are panicking and trying to clamp down on us, because we are saying "I’m going to have children if and when I want to, with or without a marriage, with or without male partner as a part of the child’s life. Yes, I’m going to demand my right to have a safe abortion if and when I need to. I am going to make my own choices about when and if and how and who I have sex with, and having sex is a hell of a lot more to me than just a way to make babies – so yes, I am going to demand birth control and protection from STDs. You can push your ideas about abstinence on me all you want, but what it comes down to is that if I’m abstinent it will be because I want to be, and you really have nothing to do with the decision. As far as I know there’s no eternal principle saying I have to get married to have a child, and certainly not to have sex. If I do either I have my own reasons, and if I don’t I have reasons too and they’re not your business. If I want to have children and a career I will do so and not feel guilty, since I do in fact have a lot more to offer than the ability to reproduce at your convenience. If I have children and need to ask for state assistance, I will find a way to get it, since the reason I will need it in the first place is that this society makes surviving as a mother close to impossible if you’re not a middle class housewife."
Choice, it’s a beautiful thing. One choice we have that directly affects us all is whether or not we vote. Voting, especially in the November 2nd election and especially against the referendum is vital. Losing this referendum, would threaten any chance we have of getting safe abortions. When the right to safe abortions is gone, this victory for those who oppose our freedom will be fuel in a bulldozer that’s going to run down all the other choices I just talked about. And when these choices start being taken away it will happen fast; before we know what’s hit us we’ll have lost control over an important aspect of our lives. We have a chance to stop it before it starts (dump the fuel and rip the bulldozers gas lines to boot).
We’ve packed as much voting info into the centerfold as would fit – please use it. If you’ve never voted before there is no better time to start; if you are a regular voter please don’t let yourself forget. This one means everything.
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