Choosing Abortion Over Child Abuse

Welcome - My name is Ellen, and I am passionate about life, equality, women's rights, freedom, privacy and spiritual growth. I love photography and writing.   I am the PR/Media Director for the Florida chapter of UniteWomen.org.  A big thank you to The Rude Pundit allowing me to be here today. You can follow me on Twitter @Victrisselle

Choosing Abortion Over Child Abuse

My blood is boiling. I barely sleep anymore. Who the hell do these legislators and governors think they are that they can put so many women's lives and mental well-being at risk by their pernicious legislation? Who are these self-designated arbiters of decisions that should only be decided by a woman and her doctor?  The new laws in Florida, Texas, Ohio, North Carolina and many other states are cruel and inhuman. I believe some are also unconstitutional because they take away my civil rights and my sovereignty over my body.

Worse yet, the new laws are based on one group's desires to hold on to the patriarch at ALL costs, and on another group's RELIGIOUS beliefs. Beliefs that do not coincide with my religious or moral beliefs. So who's religious beliefs take priority, mine or theirs? Separation of religion and government was foremost in the minds of our founding fathers when crafting our Constitution. It was structured this way to avoid the long, bloody history of religious wars in Europe and elsewhere. Yet, here we are 230 plus years later, at great risk from a small fanatical, religious, ignorant minority. I say "ignorant" because, when you lack education and knowledge....you ARE ignorant - as opposed to stupid. These changes in our laws are fueled and financed by religious groups, the Patriarchy, ALEC, the Koch Brothers and others. They will go to any lengths to further their agenda and enact legislation. And in the process of forcing their beliefs on others, they are putting many lives at great risk. I will not obey laws based on another person's religion. EVER.

When people put more stock in a Biblewritten eons ago by a group of misogynistic Arab men than in science and facts, they are ignorant. When people put more stock in religious beliefs than in citizen's civil rights, you are also dangerous. I respect all individual choices - even if I do not agree with them. Just like I support freedom of speech - even if I do not agree with the opinions being expressed. I believe there are many paths to God. This planet has room for all views and paths, including the path of not believing in God. Some of the most caring, compassionate, moral people I know do not believe in God.

If I had gone through with any of my pregnancies, I think it is very likely I would have ended up in jail for child abuse, or worse. I did not grow up in ideal circumstances. My childhood included incest, emotional abuse, verbal abuse, divorce and abandonment. My mother and step-father sold our house and moved to Florida at the beginning of my senior year of high school. They left me with a car so I could get to school. I ended up living in a coed house on Youngstown State University's campus. I feel robbed of my childhood. I lost the ability to trust or to be truly intimate with people. It also left me with intense, uncontrollable rage. When deep hurt remains unresolved, it turns to rage. My father terrified me so much that, in spite of no physiological causes, I did not get my first period until 9 hours after leaving the funeral home for the first time the day after my father died. I was 29 years old. I did not want to be a woman while my father was still alive. That is deep fear.

When I got married, I wanted to have children. I always assumed I would in spite of having a career. After long and painful consideration, I realized that I could not allow myself to have children as long as I had uncontrollable rage. I did not want to take the slightest risk I might harm a child in any way. I could not live with having harmed a young soul. I did not have abortions because I did not want children. I had them because I love and respect children. I had them because I was fairly certain I would physically hurt them in a blind rage. I will never know for certain, but I can live with not knowing more than I could live with the horror of hurting a child, physically or emotionally.

Had I been forced to have a child when I got pregnant, due to laws or lack of affordability, it would have put myself and the child at great risk. I doubt the courts or public would show leniency to me if a child was badly hurt or dead. The pro-life people could care less what happens to either of us after the child is born. They are not for life, only the birth. If they did care, our social services would be strengthened, not cut. The Food Stamp program would not be at risk. If they were truly pro-life, they would not be taking away women's access to affordable contraception or reproductive health care, which will result in deaths. In their smugness, they claim they are preserving life. Whose? Theirs?

Florida only passed one abortion-related law in the 2013 that addressed the birth of a live birth during an abortion attempt. Florida women got lucky in 2012. No abortion laws were enacted - though not for lack of trying. Republicans introduced 11 bills to restrict abortions, but all failed to pass.

Women's abortion rights in Florida took its biggest hit in 2011. Gov. Rick Scott decided that hurting women and restricting their civil rights is something worthy of celebrating.  He threw a big party at the governor's mansion on August 1st to celebrate the four tough new abortion bills that went into effect on July 1, 2011. I found it painful watching dickhead Scott celebrating with his cohorts in a mansion paid for by all of Florida's citizens when I knew the newly enacted laws would actually hurt women and could result in bad outcomes or deaths. I guess it could have been worse. Republicans introduced 18 bills to restrict abortions in 2011.

After seeing some of the new laws in other states, I am starting to think that Florida fared just a bit better than other states -- like Texas.  The only way we can fight these draconian laws is to get out of our homes and into our communities to educate and register voters. Grassroots organizing does work and is very effective. If we do not take actionto create change, we will get what we deserve. I urge everyone to volunteer and drag along a friend or ten.  It is a dire situation and women are at great risk in many states - not just Florida. Take action. Volunteer. Please. Lives depend on it.

Texas, Women's Rights, and the Elephant in the Womb

It's July in Austin, Texas. The calendar says it's the 21st century, but S.B. 5, the legislation that has just come out of the Texas Capitol, has set women's rights back decades, if not centuries.

First, a disclaimer: I'm not a Texan. I'm a 51-year-old medical librarian who moved to Texas from Boston when I was nine. I'm often told "Well, surely you're a Texan *now*!" - and maybe I should be - but whenever something like this abominable attack on human rights happens here in Texas - and it happens far more frequently than news coverage would indicate - I'm ashamed to admit to being a Texas resident.

When I was a young woman, a college student with a marginal income, I understood the importance of general health, sexual health, and women's health, and I was able to make use of the excellent and affordable services provided by Planned Parenthood. If I were a young woman today, I would have to amend that to say "...and I hope I'm lucky enough to be able to make use of..." those services. And luck should never have to be part of anyone's well care.

The recently approved bill professes to have the best interests of women's health at heart, but reducing the number of clinics in which women can access services - all services - will not improve anything. In fact, this could very well have a devastating effect, returning us to the days of backroom abortions - except, of course, for the female companions of wealthy men who need to take care of their indiscretions.

Now I, personally, never had a need for abortion services. I've never had any children, by my own choice. I feel very strongly that people who want children should endeavour to have them, and those that do not should not be forced either by societal pressures or circumstances to do so. I do, however, know several women - smart, thoughtful, responsible women - whose circumstances brought them to need abortion services.

Proponents of S.B. 5 would have us believe that anyone who gets an abortion, nay, anyone who would even consider an abortion is a baby killer, a godless welfare queen, a slut who uses abortion as birth control. I am astounded that anyone lives in a world that is unequivocally black and white. Not a single woman I know who has been through this experience treated it as anything less than one of the most difficult physical and emotional decisions of her life.

That doesn't mean there aren't women who treat having an abortion dismissively. There are also men who treat it equally dismissively - and this is not an attitude exclusive to "god-hating liberals." There are thoughtless people everywhere.

Further, there are those who would otherwise eschew science claiming that “The baby can feel pain at 20 weeks!” First, very few abortions occur at 20 weeks (fewer than 2%) and those that do are almost all done for the safety of the mother.

And now for a little science lesson: First, it's not a baby yet.

From the time of conception until the 10^th week of gestation, it's an embryo. From then until birth, it's a fetus. Once it's born, then it's a baby. Using less than clinical terms may be fine for planning a nursery, but if you're going to talk about science, then using terms designed to elicit an emotional reaction is less than authoritative.

Also, about that pain thing: In a meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers concluded that fetuses are unlikely to feel pain until the third trimester. Research that makes conclusive statements about fetal pain are extrapolating from research on premature babies which, to my mind, makes as much sense as studying fish which live in shallow waters and presuming you've got a handle on deep water fish.

Oh, and why all the screaming about Plan B birth control? I'm astounded by the idiots (no, this is not an ad hominem, this is an accurate assessment of those who embrace ignorance) who insist Plan B is a form of abortion. It's not. Plan B (levonorgestrel) cannot prevent implantation of a fertilized egg. It works by inhibiting ovulation and is used in emergency situations. I've also heard the ranting that anyone of any age can buy this product over the counter. Why yes, that's true. But I would suggest you be more concerned about your nine-year-old daughter buying a large bottle of gummy multivitamins (which are also available over the counter to anyone of any age) and eating them like they're candy than about the remote possibility that she'll grab a Plan B box off the shelf. I can only presume this is yet another effort to control women via a reproductive anchor.

When I hear someone say they'll do whatever it takes to "save even one baby", a great many questions come into my mind. How many children has this person adopted or fostered? Do they support efforts to help children after they're born, such as public education, school lunches, pediatric health care, etc.? Hell, do they help provide support in the form of prenatal care for mothers with less wherewithal while they're pregnant? Why does it seem like the fetus is more valuable than the actual child? Why is the fetus more valuable than the woman who is carrying it?

But, strangely, so many of the people I know who believe the contents of any woman's uterus is their business also scream at the prospect of background checks for guns. They'll do whatever it takes to save even one baby, but if those babies can function out of the womb and happen to be slaughtered by someone exercising their god-given right to firearms then it's all hunky-dory.

The hypocrisy blows my mind.

View from Inside the Orange Microscope Slide - part 2

View from Inside the Orange Microscope Slide - part 2


 This is part 2, my personal anecdotes and the highlights reel of my three weeks of protest. --TexBetsy from Relaxed Politics and The Head On Radio Network

Photoshopping by Texteen

On a personal level, most of the protesters were pleasant.  Everyone generally used their southern manners -- doors were held and pleasantries exchanged.  But the tension was palpable as busloads of the anti-choice protesters in blue clothing walked into a room. 

Perhaps the most disturbing experience was on the first Sunday of the protests, my first trip to the capitol for this particular issue in the legislature.  I was waiting in line to enter the gallery and a woman walked out with a tiny green-shirted infant in a stroller.  When she paused to adjust her diaper bag, I looked over and cooed “Oh how adorable!  How old?”  Her response floored me.  “He’s five days old, which means that six days ago YOU PEOPLE would have been just fine with letting me MURDER him.”  Then she sauntered away as my eyes bugged out, like in cartoons.  I asked the people around me, “Did that just happen?”  Someone conjectured that she had been invited into the gallery with her prop.  Only later did I recall that when my own son was five days old, he hadn’t had any vaccinations yet and was not allowed out of the house except to go to the doctor.  Even on an individual level, the health of the pre-born outweighs the health of a living, breathing, and adorable newborn. Which of us really values life?

The other really bizarre incident occurred on the day that hundreds waited in hours-long lines to sign up to give testimony to the senate. I heard a woman in a blue dress ask in Spanish if anyone could interpret for her. In the interest of bipartisan camaraderie, I agreed, then realized that I couldn't stand the whole morning, so I looked for her to offer my twitter handle if she wanted to contact me when she got to the front of the line. I found her a few minutes later, speaking English as well as I do.
Over the course of the three weeks I made new friends and reconnected with old ones as I watched my state house become a police state, with more and more DPS troopers materialize every ten minutes. Our access to electricity and wifi became intermittent and unpredictable, even as the guidelines about where we could sit and stand grew. The fact that, by the final night, we could carry permitted handguns into the gallery but had tampons and medication confiscated is more of a Texas feature than a bug.

One of my new friends stayed in the same hotel as many of the troopers from East Texas. She befriended them over breakfasts and was told that the troublemakers who got arrested Friday night were actually hired to make trouble while wearing orange shirts. I believe her, but have not heard this elsewhere.
On a side note, I am also a disability rights advocate and an education funding activist, I am horrified at the myriad ways that the capitol and the legislative rules themselves discriminate against the mobility-impaired. I had occasion to advise two other women on ramp locations, drop-off points and a secret elevator on the supreme court side of the annex, but that sort of thing shouldn't be left to twitter and happenstance. But that's an entirely different post.

In no particular order, other highlights included:

• Meeting some of my new favorite legislators, including Senfronia Thompson and Jessica Farrar. Farrar was kind enough to allow large groups of us to accept pizzas and baked goods, and watch the proceedings from her office.
• Going onto the senate floor the last day as part of a tour group, then staying behind to take pictures of Senator Wendy Davis's desk. I even asked a photographer to snap a pic of me near her desk, and was trying to leave her a thank-you card when the troopers and bomb-sniffing-dogs came to clear the chamber.
• Seeing two hours of Davis's filibuster from the gallery, then being part of the group that stormed the rotunda with screams after her third strike.
• Meeting Tampon Lady, who decorated her hat with tampons and gave each of us tampon-brooches for entry into the capitol Friday evening.
• Wearing bright Ohio Northern University t-shirts that a good friend sent me, only to have at least one person daily ask me where in Ohio I'm from, what year I graduated, or whether I was here to learn about the protests so I could teach friends "back home" how to be activists.
• Having a state trooper inform me that I had to remove my hat before entering the house chamber, standing up for my rights and traditions, and having him back down when I walked past him and took a seat, hat firmly on my head.
• Hearing two of my rabbis speak eloquently from the stage, and hearing Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks sing "Not Ready to Make Nice" all in the same afternoon.
• The food and water that arrived in great quantity and with greetings from pro-choice activists from other states. Someone made a point of sending vegan pizza and donuts to Representative Farrar's office.
• Having my son and his girlfriend protest with me for the first time ever on any issue. Of course I put them both to work via the Planned Parenthood volunteer table.
• Finally getting my own official "Stand with Texas Women" shirt at about ten minutes until midnight on the final night.
• Getting a chance to blog about my experiences right here! (Thanks Rude Pundit!)

Assorted pix and videos from the whole three weeks:

View from Inside the Orange Microscope Slide - part 1

View from Inside the Orange Microscope Slide - part 1


This is part 1, my philosphical musings about the abortion debate in general and the results of  three weeks of protest.

 --TexBetsy from Relaxed Politics and The Head On Radio Network


 I'm an Austin resident, and a sometimes blogger over at Relaxed Politics, a blog that has fallen from its glory into a definite relaxed state.  Texas, on the other hand, is NOT a relaxed state. Not when it comes to women's reproductive rights. Over the three weeks of abortion rights hearings and legislative sessions, I think I spent most or all of seven days wearing orange and protesting at the capitol. Three of those days went late into the night.  I saw parts of Wendy Davis's filibuster live and in person.  I stormed the rotunda that night and screamed myself hoarse at least four times. Here are a few of my reflections.

I got discouraged a few times over the course of the protests, especially during the second special session, as it became obvious that the bill would pass in spite of our best efforts.  So why continue? What was the point?  Why wake up early, dress again in a color that makes my skin look like I'm related to Boehner, pack up an electronics bag, snacks, and take the bus down to the capitol; the results are a foregone conclusion with the party line votes and the supermajority in both chambers?

As I am sure you know, this is NOT a debate about women's health or about life, at least not in the sense that the republicans are framing it.  If it were any of these things, the legislators would have adopted the amendments that might actually keep women and babies healthy, or prevent unwanted pregnancies to begin with. A  truly “pro-life” cause does not reject federal medicaid money, cut WIC benefits, or deny TANF to pregnant women. Pro-life must be pro-Quality Of Life for all those involved. This is something more than pro-existence.

I am a professional in what a friend refers to as "the religion industry" and my religious beliefs inform my politics and most aspects of my life. (In my case, my religion teaches that the life and health of the mother take precedence over the developing fetus in all cases.) As important as it is to me, religion should not inform public policy, and no lawmaker has the constitutional right to devote his or her floor speeches to how the legislation under consideration aligns with the Baptist Convention. No legislator speaks for God, and I resent that even the pro-choice democrats feel the need to talk about and name their savior while opposing a bill. Is this a theocracy?

So why continue to protest when we had no chance of winning in the second session? The effort matters because the world is watching.  Our orange marches and protests and screaming matches focused the eyes of the world onto the abortion politics and the insanity in this country.  Our Twitter feeds and Facebook pictures and YouTube posts showed the rest of the world exactly how corrupt and conniving the pro-birth politicians are, not just here in Texas but all over the country.