How Rick Perry Made me into a Women's Libber
Lately, if you read my facebook posts you would be shocked to hear that abortion has never been an issue I cared about. That I would never have one. Or that, honestly, I wish that other people wouldn't either.
I read an excerpt once from the book "Freakonomics", about crime rates going down dramatically in areas that abortions had become more available in. To me, this means that life is really miserable for people whose parent's never wanted them. And that's a good enough reason for me to assume that there are some good things about access to abortion. I also know how difficult it can be to live with a parent way too young for that role. But that doesn't mean I ever thought it was something I would consider an option if I ever had the choice.
Then, I watched the live stream of Wendy Davis filibustering SB5, and the blatant actions of the officials afterward who changed the time and date stamp to pass the bill. These people felt so entitled, so unconcerned with any accountability to their constituents, that they were comfortable breaking their own rules in front of 180,000 observers.
On top of that, there was no media coverage of it, though everyone knew it was going on, and was important. The obligatory press releases were completely wrong. The international press had better coverage!
In a "democracy", THAT IS SCARY.
That night, I felt a moral obligation to make noise about it on every social media outlet I had access to, and I am a little resentful that abortion is the issue that I had to get political about. But the events surrounding this make it absolutely necessary. That was made abundantly clear by Rick Perry's comment: “The louder they scream, the more we know that we are getting something done.”
This is the kind of rapist verbiage that turns moderates into liberal activists. Perry's intention to use whatever force in his power to implement his will on his constituents introduced me to a whole new concept. . . the concept of political and social rape. I understand now, how those of us who would never get pregnant, who have never cared about politics, who have never been raped or harassed, who don't even have vaginas, can be raped as a group by radical politics.
Myself, I actually believe that abortion should be regulated, but under some of the following conditions:
1. Regulation by a moderate government capable of legislating based on what is best for the people, and not by it's desire to punish those who deviate from it's stated code of conduct.
2. A subsidized adoption system that operates to support women carrying unwanted pregnancies to term, and also the families who want to put in the tremendous effort and commitment of adopting these babies. They may not be able to afford the exorbitant price tag. That doesn't mean they can't afford to love and support a child.
3. Universal anonymous access to birth control and contraceptives.
4. Universal access to thorough sex education.
5. Subsidized campaigns to help teach young men what the definition of rape is, and how they may have received the wrong messages about it socially and in the media.
6. Castration as a sentence for repeat sex offenders.
I love Texas, and Even though I was not born here, I consider Austin my home town. I don't want to see Texas turn into a crime ridden war-zone of people raised by a parent that do not want them 15 or 20 years down the road. And, if I had children that I raised lovingly, I would not want to bequeath to them a society where they were likely to become the victims of these unwanted ones.
I would love to see a world without abortions. But the last place that it would be suitable to start, at this point, is Texas. Obviously this state government cannot be trusted to allow necessary abortions, or to provide the support that young people need to keep from getting pregnant. . . the support that is especially necessary for students who have been taught "abstinence", which has clearly been shown to create shame based avoidance behaviors where sexually active people do not get the contraceptives they need.
I would love to support abortion regulation, but the irrational behavior of the right wing politics here do not make that possible. . . they make it terrifying. It is my most sincere hope that supporting the women's rights activists in this state will save many, many unborn babies from entering into a life of dependency on parents who resent them, or are otherwise incapable of caring for them the way they deserve.
