Showing posts with label feminism. Show all posts
In Chile, HIV-positive women are lied to and coerced into consenting to sterilization. They are often reprimanded for ever becoming pregnant or desiring pregnancy. They are told that there is no hope for a healthy child (a blatant lie, given that the risk of HIV transmission can be reduced to just 2-5% with medical interventions). In many cases, women are refused counseling and basic information about the procedure. In others, the procedure is performed during cesarean delivery without the woman's knowledge or consent.
“I learned that they had sterilized me at the time of the cesarean when I awoke from anesthesia a few hours later. I was in the recovery room at the Hospital of Curicó when [the nurse] entered and, after asking me how I was feeling, told me that I was sterilized and that I would not be able to have any more children,” Francisca explained. “They treated me like I was less than a person. It was not my decision to end my fertility; they took it away from me.”-- Francisca
This is what can happen when women's rights are treated as a function of their reproductive status. And it's not by any means the only result: in the United States, women are being compelled - by their hospitals, and sometimes by court order - to submit to c-sections that they have not consented to. The rationale? Forcing surgery on an unwilling patient is sometimes acceptable if she's pregnant.
Except no, it's not. Women don't drop their basic human rights at the door when they become pregnant, or at any point along the way. At no point to their medical decisions belong to someone else simply because they have a different take on the ethics of the situation. It's important that we remember where this sort of thinking has taken us - and to fight it.
By Triptrain
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A pretty vital part of being a pro-choice feminist is accepting and supporting women who show a broad range of emotions after abortion, including relief, pain, indifference, sadness, and happiness. Being compassionate in this context requires understanding that women come from a damn-near infinite number of complex situations and abort for many different reasons. A choice that is almost unbearably difficult for one woman might be easily made by the next, and that's okay.
In the past couple years, it's become starkly apparent that a certain subset of self-labeled pro-choicers have somehow come to the conclusion that abortion should be legal, but that it can only be justified in cases where the women who have them exhibit a sufficient degree of self-loathing. These are the same "pro-choice" people who openly attacked Anti-Theist Angie for live-tweeting her abortion. They're the same ones who thought throwing a party to raise funds for an abortion was the single most callous thing ever done.
It's not abortion that bothers them, really; it's the idea that a woman could have one and skip out on the mandatory suffering. This is precisely the same mindset that you see so often in the anti-abortion crowd: she had sex, she got pregnant, and now it's time for her to be punished for it. Having an abortion and then happily getting on with one's life is cheating.
To the average well-read feminist, this seems ridiculous. If there's nothing inherently criminal about having sex or getting pregnant, there's nothing deserving of punishment.
Now, could someone pass the word on to our elected officials? Because they seem awfully good at pandering to this clearly misogynist idea...
In the past couple years, it's become starkly apparent that a certain subset of self-labeled pro-choicers have somehow come to the conclusion that abortion should be legal, but that it can only be justified in cases where the women who have them exhibit a sufficient degree of self-loathing. These are the same "pro-choice" people who openly attacked Anti-Theist Angie for live-tweeting her abortion. They're the same ones who thought throwing a party to raise funds for an abortion was the single most callous thing ever done.
It's not abortion that bothers them, really; it's the idea that a woman could have one and skip out on the mandatory suffering. This is precisely the same mindset that you see so often in the anti-abortion crowd: she had sex, she got pregnant, and now it's time for her to be punished for it. Having an abortion and then happily getting on with one's life is cheating.
To the average well-read feminist, this seems ridiculous. If there's nothing inherently criminal about having sex or getting pregnant, there's nothing deserving of punishment.
Now, could someone pass the word on to our elected officials? Because they seem awfully good at pandering to this clearly misogynist idea...
By Triptrain
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