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• Wednesday, March 8, 2006 07:43 AM

  Amusing concept but wrong way to think about this issue

  This is an amusing concept, because it would reveal to the wilfully ignorant average American the vast numbers of everyday women who obtain abortions-- why do people never talk about how common it is? We act like it's some secret moral crime when in fact millions of women in sound mind choose it every day. Probably every person in America would see someone they love off to prison in such a scenario, and it would dawn on them that abortion is a common experience for a huge segment of the female population --ordinary people that you love, not moral criminals-- a fact which seems strangely absent from most debates about abortion, esp. now that fundies seem to have the mic in every aspect of this debate, including this ridiculous theoretical idea of sending women to prison-- even entertaining this theory is just reactionary and not worth the time of people who defend the right to choose.

  I can't believe women are even going on the defensive about something so clearly essential and widespread; it shows you how much power the fundies have gained in recent years that such an essential and common procedure as abortion is even up for question, and pro-choice women are spending their time pondering a world where women go to prison for having abortions. These same ideas come from people who think god will tractor-beam them to heaven while people who question dogma and prejudice will be left to BBQ in the inferno. And we are seriously debating and entertaining their viewpoints?

  I think women who support the right to abortion need to stop being reactionary to religious wingnuts who don't want to think rationally about social problems, and focus instead on reinforcing reality: women need abortions. They always will. Massive tides of unwanted pregnancy will not magically go away just because fundies deny women access to safe medical procedures. We will either provide them safely in this country, without hand-wringing and apology, or we won't. Which side would you like to fight on?

  —cheryl Read cheryl 's other letters
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