I don’t feel really comfortable with the “warped mind” part, but otherwise…

fracturedrefuge:

So I am involved in this group called Voice of Choice.  Their mission is to counteract the hate and violence of the anti-choice movement by employing some of the same tactics that anti-choicers themselves use.  This namely involves calling people who are involved in anti-choice activities and asking them how they like people offering unsolicited opinions on their activities or intruding into their private lives.  From their website:

For too long, the abortion discussion has been dominated by angry, nasty protests fueled by individuals and organizations that thrive on sensationalism and extremism. Now it is our turn.

“Voice of Choice” was established as a calm, measured response to anti-abortion activists who engage in misguided, raging protest tactics that are often ill-informed and only serve to victimize women, pro-choice professionals, law-abiding businesses and unaligned bystanders.

We use email, telephone and social media in peaceful, person-to-person counter-protests against groups that target abortion facilities, providers and patients, as well as their families and communities. We don’t question anyone’s right to express opinions and ideals; we challenge their bullying tactics and their contempt.

So here is my question.  You can sign up to be a volunteer on their website.  When you do this, you will receive e-mail alerts for current campaigns.  Usually, they give you a situation and the names, phone numbers (home, work, cell) and e-mail addresses of the people involved.  You are encouraged to politely call them and express your opinions on their actions, just as they have done to the pro-choice crowd.

I understand that some people may be hesitant to sign up and give out personal information, so here is my question: Would people be interested in a Tumblr that posts these alerts?  VoC encourages people to share the information you send them, so there is no issue there.  You could skim, choose which alerts to respond to, get the information out.  I would include information on how to keep your e-mail or phone number private if that was a concern.

So should I make this A Thing?

(Also, feel free to signal boost this. Maybe get it out to more than just my followers?)

Rebageling for the night crew!

So I am involved in this group called Voice of Choice.  Their mission is to counteract the hate and violence of the anti-choice movement by employing some of the same tactics that anti-choicers themselves use.  This namely involves calling people who are involved in anti-choice activities and asking them how they like people offering unsolicited opinions on their activities or intruding into their private lives.  From their website:

For too long, the abortion discussion has been dominated by angry, nasty protests fueled by individuals and organizations that thrive on sensationalism and extremism. Now it is our turn.

“Voice of Choice” was established as a calm, measured response to anti-abortion activists who engage in misguided, raging protest tactics that are often ill-informed and only serve to victimize women, pro-choice professionals, law-abiding businesses and unaligned bystanders.

We use email, telephone and social media in peaceful, person-to-person counter-protests against groups that target abortion facilities, providers and patients, as well as their families and communities. We don’t question anyone’s right to express opinions and ideals; we challenge their bullying tactics and their contempt.

So here is my question.  You can sign up to be a volunteer on their website.  When you do this, you will receive e-mail alerts for current campaigns.  Usually, they give you a situation and the names, phone numbers (home, work, cell) and e-mail addresses of the people involved.  You are encouraged to politely call them and express your opinions on their actions, just as they have done to the pro-choice crowd.

I understand that some people may be hesitant to sign up and give out personal information, so here is my question: Would people be interested in a Tumblr that posts these alerts?  VoC encourages people to share the information you send them, so there is no issue there.  You could skim, choose which alerts to respond to, get the information out.  I would include information on how to keep your e-mail or phone number private if that was a concern.

So should I make this A Thing?

(Also, feel free to signal boost this. Maybe get it out to more than just my followers?)

speakfortheweak:

If a single living cell was found on some other planet, scientists would exclaim that we have found LIFE elsewhere in the universe.

So why is a single living cell found in the womb of a pregnant woman not considered LIFE? 

Okay, speakfortheweak, let’s run with your theory, but let me change one thing.  Say it was an asteroid.

So we find “life” on this asteroid.  But let’s say that asteroid, instead of staying with its other asteroid-y friends, wants to come chill with us on Earth.  Only thing is, this asteroid is huge.  If it hit Earth, it would, at the very least, cause destruction and property loss.  At the worst, it would kill untold numbers of people.  I am pretty damn sure no matter how much single-celled “life” there was on this asteroid, we would try to destroy the shit out of it.

I really don’t see people arguing that embryos and fetuses aren’t alive.  Of course they are alive, just as tumors are alive, bacteria is alive, viruses are alive.  But we kill those every day because, hey, the issue is not whether or not they are alive, the issue is that nothing has the right to inhabit my body without my consent.  

And, no, sex ≠ consent, and not just because not all sex is consensual.  We engage in behaviors every day that could have potentially unwanted outcomes.  Let’s use bacteria and viruses as an example.  I go outside almost every day.  I interact with people - mostly kids, since I am a mom and a nanny (for a family where the mom works in a hospital, no less).  Hell, I ride public transit.  The point is, I am exposed to a lot of germs.  A lot.  As a matter of fact, for the past 4 days, I have been dealing with a horrible stomach bug I caught from the kids I watch…who caught it from their mother…who caught it from a patient who vomited on her.  It is one cold person that could sit there, look me in the face, and tell me, “Well, you chose to go out into public, you chose to interact with people, what did you expect would happen?”  I like going out - especially now that it is spring.  I like interacting with people.  Should I refrain from that for the rest of my life so I don’t risk getting sick?  There are doctors and medicines out there that can help keep me healthy, and that can help cure me if I do become sick.  You best believe I am going to utilize the shit out of them and there is absolutely zero hypocrisy there.  I have the absolute right to engage in things that are enjoyable to me, and I have absolute the right to do something about it when engaging in those things has undesirable results.

It’s the same with pregnancies.  There are lots of things out there that allow people to enjoy sex without becoming pregnant.  And there is nothing wrong with using them, because there is nothing wrong with not wanting to be pregnant.  But sometimes, those things fail, or people don’t have access to those things for whatever reason, or the education needed to know how to use them properly.  And they become pregnant because, hey, to a lot of people, sex is enjoyable.  And they have the absolute right to engage in things that are enjoyable to them, and the absolute right to do something about it when engaging in those things has undesirable results.

ladyatheist:

private-revolution:

prolongedeyecontact:

inchristhopeisfound:

You had your 15 minutes of fame many decades ago, please stop.

I am so sick of seeing politicians and talking heads using the death of this teenager to their benefit. Mr. Sharpton if you care about this one African American boy being killed, how come you show no interest in the MILLIONS of African American lives that have been ended by abortion? Even today, in 2012 there are hundreds of African American unborn humans being destroyed in the womb. And though there’s nothing that could make that any worse than it already is, Mr. Sharpton many of these lives are being ended by white doctors, who are making good money off of slaying what is your people.

I don’t know who you’re trying to fool. You support a president who supports abortion at ANY stage in pregnancy, including late term abortions. You support a black man, who supports the PAID MURDER OF HIS OWN PEOPLE.

Do you cry for the souls lost to abortion?

Do you protest outside of clinics that purposely target poor black communities?

Are you angered by Planned Parenthoods dark, racist past? 

Are you supporting pregnancy centers, so women can access free resources for their children and families?

If Travon Martin’s life was ended for $450 dollars at an abortion clinic, would you still fight for him? Would you still hold rallies? Would you still weep and pray?

Travon Martin’s life was cut tragically short, no doubt about it. Thankfully, he got to experience life, even though he only had a short 17 years to do so. But will we turn a blind eye against the Travon’s that are still in the womb? 

NO. You are complete and utter SCUM for making Trayvon Martin’s murder by a racist man and a racist society about you and your RACIST FUCKING ANTICHOICE AGENDA. You think I can’t see through you? You think PoC can’t see through you and your disingenuous lies? This is just further proof that white, christian antis don’t give a fuck about Black people once they’re born. You gotta use their deaths for propaganda so you can control pregnant Black people. Let’s get a few things straight right now:

Spell the kid’s name right, first off. TRAYVON MARTIN. Learn it, burn it into your memory, and ask yourself why you feel entitled to take such a stance against MoC like Rev. Al Sharpton and President Barack Obama.

There is no “black genocide” happening when pregnant people of color get abortions. They don’t have it in for black embryos. They aren’t aiding in the destruction of their own people. They are utilizing their reproductive rights! JFC.

Planned Parenthood was not founded by Sanger to exterminate black people.

Planned Parenthood does not “target black neighborhoods.” This idea that abortion clinics are targeting black neighborhoods is patently false and has been thoroughly debunked. Guttmacher has a report that found that fewer than 1 in 10 abortion clinics are in neighborhoods that are predominantly black. Further, they found that 63% of clinics were in neighborhoods where one half or more of residents were non-hispanic white. They also have a followup report.

Planned Parenthood doctors are not in a lucrative business. Does the term NON-profit mean nothing to you?

CPCs are shit.

Black pregnant people do have higher rates of abortion, but that’s because they have higher rates of unintended pregnancy (67%). And that’s a result of INSTITUTIONALIZED RACISM, poverty, discrimination, lack of access to healthcare and contraception and sex education, among other things. In addition, in terms of total numbers Non-Hispanic Black pregnant people make up only 30% of total abortions whereas Non-Hispanic White pregnant people account for 36%. Lastly, the fertility rate of Black and White people capable of being pregnant are on par with one another and the population growth of the Black community is not in decline due to high abortion rates.

Here’s what a WoC thinks of your offensive and derogatory billboards and racist claims about black people killing their own people with abortion [again, burn it into your memory, you might learn something]:

“Billboard Babylon” by Cherisse Scott

Black Children Are An Endangered Species?

Every 21 Minutes The Next Possible Leader Is Aborted?

The Most Unsafe Place For An African American Child Is In My Womb? 

I Guess You Assumed You Could Say What You Wanted In Jesus’ Name 

And I Would Let It Slide

Let It Ride Like You Rode A Ship And Talked Some Shit 

To Bring Me To A Land That Wasn’t Mine

Told My King I’d Be Fine And That You’d Be Kind 

But As The Story Goes 500 Years Later 

And You Still Lying

You Wasn’t Trying To ‘Make Me Betta’

At Night Together We Conceived That Child 

Forced Me To Breed That Child 

More Stock To Tend More Crops For Your Hard Labor

Back Broke, Culture Choked 

Vilifying Me ‘Cause I’m Trying To Survive

Blaming Me Of Committing Genocide?

I Just Been Trying To Live Inside America And This Dream

Trying To Keep Hope Alive While You Keep The Pope Alive

And The Pedophiles Who Would Rape That Same Child And Sweep It Under Rugs

Hail Mary’s And Hugs With Hues Of Red White And Blue

With Liberty And Justice For Only You 

My Womb Produced All The Leaders You Constantly Kill

Every 21 Minutes A Black Child Is Faced With The Real Deal 

On 58th & State 

Swallowed The Blue Pill But The Matrix Is Hate, Racial Profiling, And Rape

Prayin’ For A Clean Slate After Bargains And Pleas

Endangered In A Land Of Thieves, But A Species?

Insensitivity At Its Best 

Culturally Incompetent

Civil Unrest

Misinformed

Unworthy To Lead A Charge Then Charge Me With Murder!

Where Are You After Our Babies Are Born?

You Scorn, Jack Welfare & Health Reform

Sons And Daughters Mourned Over Caskets And Graves

But Not By My Hand

Ain’t Never Been My Plan To Kill The Next Black Man

Yet You Stand Blameless As If You Really Give A Damn

You Eating Filet Mignon, Baby Eating Spam

Food Deserts, Polluted Air

Shit Schools Setting Rules For Ritalin Ridden Babies

You Take A Time Out! 

And Put Some Time In  

Cause You Don’t Comprehend My Beginning Or My End

Covering My Roots Like Thieves Cover Tracks

One Nation Under God

Indivisible ‘Til We Visualized A Leader 

Targeting Me Again As A Breeder

With His Picture To Mock Me

Billboards To Shock Me 

This Ain’t Shit But The Next Plan To Block Me

But I See You…Pharisee.

Black Preachers Gon’ Wild 

Crucifying Queens 

Pimpin’ King James For Fame

In Jesus’ Name Pitting Blame

Like God Is Pleased 

You The Disease In The Village That We Just…Can’t…Shake

But My Back Is Something You Just…Can’t…Break

Flexible Like The Willow

Bosom Soft Like A Pillow That Was Used To Nurse

Yo Foul Ass

If I Wasn’t Spiritual I’d Curse 

Yo Foul Ass

But You Already Done

Til You Do Right By Me The Race Ain’t Run, The Spin Ain’t Spun 

You Think You’ve Won But It’s Only Just Begun

Like A Sucka Punch When You Least Expect It

I’ll Be There

Leading A Healthy Life In Spite Of Your Hypocrisy

I’ll Be There

Raising A Healthy Family Rooted In Democracy

I’ll Be There

Doing What Black Women Have Always Had To Do In Spite Of You

Rebuke That Shit…

And Continue.

Excerpt from Is Abortion ‘Black Genocide’? by Kathryn Joyce:

The argument leaves Black women facing the accusation that they are either fools or murderers—and either way complicit in what Mark Crutcher says is Planned Parenthood’s sinister plan for “convincing the target group to commit mass suicide.” The accusation cuts to the heart of an intersection of sexism and racism for Black women, who have historically been pressed to choose allegiance between two aspects of their beings: their gender and the race.

It continues today. Maame Mensima-Horn, an African American activist based in Miami who consulted for SisterSong, says that the “Black genocide” argument has remained a male-driven conversation that shuts out women of color and ignores the role they have played in the reproductive justice movement. MensimaHorn sees a new generation of male activists relegating women to “breeder” status and blaming them for a deficit in the Black population.

It seems a neat return to the 1920s debate in the Black community about how to best uplift the race. W.E.B. DuBois argued for “quality versus quantity,” saying that Black interests were best met by family planning that allowed parents to invest more in fewerchildren, not by simply birthing greater numbers. In 2010, Catherine Davis of Georgia Right to Life seems to take the latter position, saying that if Black women hadn’t had abortions, “we would be 59 million strong.”

The emphasis underscores a history of sexism in the Civil Rights Movement and its institutions, says Gray, in which Black women’s intellectual and physical labor was the backbone of the movement yet was rarely acknowledged. To day, “Black genocide” movement leaders, such as Childress and King, emphasize male leadership in both the movement and church—not surprising in conservative circles, but the destructive effect on women of color continues.

For Gray, this kind of sexism is a result of White fundamentalist outreach as well as a symptom of a larger problem: the breakdown of political education in Black politics.

He says, The result of it is that we have people claiming that the maafa is the abortion of black kids, instead of what it really is: the great catastrophe related to the slave trade. It means a bunch of frauds can rewrite your history and make it everything that it’s not. The freedom movement, which is what civil rights is about, is about the freedom of citizens to determine their lives for themselves and make their own opportunities.

And not, Grays says, to become a mother “because these people think you ought to be a mother. ”

How about what Sister Song thinks of your bullshit?

Our opposition research revealed how data and facts were mis-used by anti-abortionists to posit a “conspiracy theory” based on a historically racist past to claim that policymakers, black leaders, health officials, and community activists who support reproductive justice are all part of a scheme to kill off the black race. The cornerstone of their genocide theory is the fact that the black birth rate has declined over a number of years. While birthrates for all races of women have also declined for decades because of educational and economic opportunities, and increased reproductive health services, abortion opponents never mention the decision making of black women and how our improving educational and economic status influenced our reproductive choices.

Black women have always controlled our fertility when we could, even during the horrific conditions of enslavement. We brought knowledge from Africa as midwives that helped us practice birth control and have abortions. After the end of slavery, we were more determined than ever to end the forced breeding of our bodies, and we cut our birth rate in half in the first 40 years after the Civil War, 110 years before abortion or birth control was legalized. We continued this intentional decline as part of our racial uplift strategy, to have fewer children to provide more opportunities for the ones we did have. Ignorance of our history and lies about our agency malign the memories of our ancestors.

Black women, however, do have three times more abortions than white women, a statistic anti-abortionists use to demonize abortion providers. In fact, black women do have more unintended pregnancies, have less access to contraception, stay single longer, often have sex earlier, are poorer, are more vulnerable to childhood sexual abuse, and experience single motherhood much more than their white counterparts. Sixty-one percent of black women who have abortions already have children. The higher rate of abortion is an understandable outcome of the social context in which we find ourselves.

Higher unintended pregnancy rates are not a new phenomenon for black women. Before the legalization of abortion in 1973, African American women were thirteen times more likely to die from illegal abortions than white women. For reproductive justice activists, the solution to reduce the need for abortions is to help black women have fewer unintended pregnancies and to eliminate the obstacles that interfere with personal decision making.

We emphasized the agency and decision making of black women to refute their “disappearing race” narrative. Using historical data and current work by black women’s organizations, we projected the image of strong black women in defense of our own bodies, not the puppets of either the medical industry or the anti-abortion movement.

Another anti-abortion tactic was to claim that abortion clinics are “always” located in African American communities, especially by Planned Parenthood. In Georgia, we were able to easily refute this claim by presenting demographic data that proved that of the 15 abortion clinics in our state, only 4 are in predominantly black neighborhoods. Abortion opponents frequently use this “geographical” tactic against providers to bolster their conspiracy theories. While we were in the middle of the fight in Georgia, we were contacted by a Planned Parenthood clinic in Nashville that had recently relocated near an African American community for economic reasons that had nothing to do with race, but they were also accused of selecting their location to “kill black babies.” An accusatory billboard was erected directly across the street from the new clinic.

We retold the story of Margaret Sanger and her allegedly racist agenda. Left unchallenged, their narrative about genocide would powerfully echo in the black community. We decided to do our own research on Sanger and present the facts from the perspectives of black women.

We contacted Sanger’s biographer, Ellen Chesler, and asked Joyce Follet, an expert on Planned Parenthood’s archives in the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College, to provide original source materials and information. They provided a wealth of historical evidence that belied the allegations of our opponents. Most importantly, we were able to prove that African American leaders, particularly women, had worked with Sanger in the 1930s to ask for clinics to be opened in black communities. We challenged their historical revisionism by citing famous leaders like Mary McLeod Bethune, W.E.B. Dubois, Walter White, Mary Church Terrell, Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Sr., and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and organizations like the NAACP, the National Urban League, and the National Council of Negro Women. We dared them to call these icons of the civil rights movement pawns of a racist agenda. In the eyes of the black community, our opponents had an uphill climb to prove they knew more about helping the African American community than the famous legends they were maligning.

Go read the whole thing. Seriously, I’ll wait.

Now let’s listen to Loretta Ross, “Re-enslaving African American Women”:

[…]

African American women who care about reproductive justice know that the limited membership in the Black anti-abortion movement doesn’t represent our views and we are not fooled into thinking that they care about gender justice for women. In fact, if they had their way, we would be re-enslaved once again, based on our fertility.

[…]

They tell African American women that we are now responsible for the genocide of our own people. Talk about a “blame the victim” strategy! We are now accused of “lynching” our children in our wombs and practicing white supremacy on ourselves. Black women are again blamed for the social conditions in our communities and demonized by those who claim they only want to save our souls (and the souls of our unborn children). This is what lies on steroids look like.

[…]

The sexism in their viewpoints is mind-boggling. To them, Black women are the poor dupes of the abortion rights movement, lacking agency and decision-making of our own. In fact, this is a reassertion of Black male supremacy over the self-determination of women. It doesn’t matter whether it is from the lips of a man or a woman. It is about re-enslaving Black women by making us breeders for someone else’s cause.

I am reminded of the comments of Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman in Congress, who dismissed the genocide argument when asked to discuss her views on abortion and birth control:

To label family planning and legal abortion programs “genocide” is male rhetoric, for male ears. It falls flat to female listeners and to thoughtful male ones. Women know, and so do many men, that two or three children who are wanted, prepared for, reared amid love and stability, and educated to the limit of their ability will mean more for the future of the Black and brown races from which they come than any number of neglected, hungry, ill-housed and ill-clothed youngsters.

[…]

But mostly, we need to let the world know that they do not speak for Black women. As my mother would say, “they might be our color, but they are not our kind.”

“Rep. Moore (WI) Tells Anti-Choice GOP Where to Shove Black Genocide Lie”

Click link for transcript and background info from Colorlines^.

In conclusion:

TRAYVON MARTIN was 17 years old. He had hopes and dreams. He had friends. He had a family that loved him, a family that is grieving for him and STILL haven’t gotten justice for his brutal and cold-blooded murder. Don’t you dare compare this young man to a fucking embryo. That’s disgusting and dehumanizing and a belittling of what PoC are feeling right now. How dare you co-opt a murder and use it against Black people capable of getting pregnant to insinuate that their desire to not be pregnant is destroying their entire race and is the same as a racist piece of shit killing someone’s child?! 

This is a fellow white person telling you to get off your self-righteous high horse so PoC don’t have to deal with your racist ass ever again, especially not during their time of mourning.

You.Are.Disgusting.

That is all.

Epic takedown is epic.

I just need this complete and utter thing of beauty on my blog right now.

fracturedrefuge:

Note: This was written in reaction to the “Mommy, I am your baby” post that is currently circulating around Tumblr.  Thought it was about time we hear from the person who is actually self-aware and not just the clump of cells residing inside of them.

Hi, Fetus,

My name is Bria and I am the person whose uterus you are currently residing in. I am 28 years old and I actually have beautiful brown eyes and brown hair. Like, right now. Not “will” in nine months or so, but have it currently. I already have one child. His name is Ryatt and he has my beautiful brown eyes and brown hair. He is three years old and loves Thomas the Tank Engine. You? You don’t love anything, because right now, you are really just a clump of cells that has no cognitive development. You can’t love anything. Not me, not Thomas the Tank Engine, not flowers and birdies and sunshine. You get all your sustenance from me and cannot live on your own outside of my uterus.

But enough about you, let’s talk about me. Like I already said, I am 28 years old. This puts me in the majority age range for people who get abortions. (People in their 20s account for more than half of all abortions; people aged 20–24 obtain 33% of all abortions, and people aged 25–29 obtain 24%.) Like I said, I already have one child to care for (like 61% of people who obtain an abortion) and I currently have no place of my own and am living with my mentally and emotionally abusive mother. I have no job and don’t even qualify for social services because I have not lived in the state I am currently residing in for over 3 months. This is also pretty common among people who obtain abortions - 42% have incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level and 27% have incomes between 100–199% of the federal poverty level. I am looking for a job, but the economy is tough and there is not a lot out there. It’s even tougher for me because I was forced to drop out of college due to mental health issues that I am still dealing with today. So I have no college degree, which qualifies me only for menial jobs in retail or food service. Because these jobs pay so very little, I would never be there to raise you and would have to rely on others. This would probably be a complete stranger at a second-rate daycare center, as I am unwilling to leave you with my mother, have no other family and I can’t really afford to put you in a fancy, bells-and-whistles daycare.

These are all actually pretty common reasons why people obtain abortions. Three-fourths of people cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

Because I know when I am supposed to get my period, I knew I was pregnant almost right away. Turns out, this is pretty common, too, as over 61% of abortions are performed at less than 9 weeks from a person’s last menstrual period (which would be about 7 weeks from conception). At this point, you really have no thoughts or feelings because, remember when I said you were a clump of cells? I meant it. Those are pictures of what an abortion looks like when done between 5 and 6 weeks. Pretty stark contrast from the gory images that are normally shoved down your throat, huh, fetus?

And, fetus, while I may be a little sad after you are gone, a lot of really smart people have done a lot of really intensive studies and they have concluded that “post abortion syndrome” as a wide-spead occurrence is myth. Also, some more really smart people have assured me that abortion is pretty much one of the safest medical procedures I can undergo in the United States today and, that when performed in the first trimester, it poses little to no long-term risk to future pregnancies, should I ever decide to become pregnant again.

Fetus, as you can see, this is really the best decision for me and for the beautiful little boy who is sleeping with his arms curled around me. I want to go to school to become a sign language interpreter so I can hopefully get a place of my own and not have to rely on other people for my food and shelter. I want to provide a good, healthy, stable life for the child I already have and for any children I may have in the future. And I have thought about it a lot (because abortion is not something anyone enters into lightly) and I could not do that while caring for another child. I would apologize, but there is really nothing to apologize for. I am doing what I know in my heart is the absolute best thing for me and my son. You will not feel any pain, as you are not able to do that until about 24 weeks old, and you don’t even know you exist, so I doubt that you know that you are now gone.

Every abortion is just…

One more person exercising their right to bodily autonomy and self-determination based on what they feel is the best choice for them.

REBLOG IF YOU ARE PRO-CHOICE.

(All statistics, unless otherwise linked, have been provided by the Guttmacher Institute.)

Reblogging because, apparently, anti-choicers can’t even keep their mouths shut on their “day of silence”.  

Pro-choice always and forever.

janelleleigh:

Ambler Bambler: Hi, fetus, I am your parent

I’m pro-choice but this is shitty. If you don’t want to have a kid or kids, stop sleeping around and/or use more than 1 method of contraception since they aren’t 100% effective. Abortion is NOT birth control…unless this Bria was raped-then cleansing herself of any reminders should be her choice.

Love seeing people who could not possibly care less about “a clump of cells” who shit their pants when anything remotely upsetting happens to an animal. That clump is just as innocent as any animal.

I hate everyone, and this shit just makes my hatred stronger.

Hi, “this Bria” here.

If you feel that abortion is only acceptable in certain cases, then you are not pro-choice.  Sorry.  “Pro-choice” means being supportive of a person’s choice, even if it is not the choice you would make for yourself.  Slut-shaming a person (and telling some one to stop “sleeping around” is slut-shaming them) for the situation that led up to them to seeking an abortion, then you are not being supportive and, ergo, not really being pro-choice.  Seriously, when you say things like what you said up there, you are no better than the people who stand outside abortion clinics and yell at the clients going in.  I am a clinic escort and if I had a nickel for every time I heard a protestor yell or mutter something about how clients should “just stop sleeping around”, I could retire now and live a long and comfortable life.

Also, I have a very, very dear friend who was on two different types of birth control (condoms and the pill) and who got pregnant anyway.  My own pregnancy (because the kid I wrote about is actually my real kid) was a result of rape.  I refer you to my previous post about shit happening.

apostolicfaith:

Depressing Facts: Hi, fetus, I am your parent

fracturedrefuge:

Note: This was written in reaction to the “Mommy, I am your baby” post that is currently circulating around Tumblr. Thought it was about time we hear from the person who is actually self-aware and not just the clump of cells residing inside of them.

Hi, Fetus,

My name is…

EVERY excuse cited in this “letter” was true of my mother. Ever hear of adoption? She was a poor woman already raising a two-year old son. She had to do less legit work in order to make it from paycheck to paycheck. She couldn’t care for me, no matter how badly she wanted do. Instead of killing me and preventing me from having a life, which I know God has a purpose for now that I am alive, she decided to do the right thing and put me up for adoption. Sure she wasn’t the best looking woman in the world for a few months. She went through hell for a few hours as she gave birth to me. Her heart was broken as she said goodbye - but she gave me the greatest gift anyone can give: the life God intended for me. At 18 years of age, we reunited. She never once regretted her decision not to get an abortion. She ended up losing both of her other sons due to financial problems, but loves them both and knows they are in a good home. She loves me, she knows me, and she is proud of the life I live. 

Anyone considering an abortion should certainly have the choice. But hopefully, they will have the conscience to do what is right, as my mother did, and do as God intended. If you have protected sex, take the morning after pill, and still are pregnant - God has a plan. The sin isn’t murder, its pride. 

Be a true mother. Make a sacrifice for someone you don’t know - your child. Give him or her a life. I promise you that he or she, though they can’t thank you now, will thank you later. There is no greater gift in the world than such a selfless love.

Cool story, bro, but I’ve got a couple of pretty significant bones to pick with you.

Bone the first: “Be a true mother”? *side eye* Seriously?

Bone the second: Not every adoptee is thankful to their birthparents.  Do some reseach.  There are countless adoptees who carry some pretty heavy emotional issues stemming from being adopted.  I am not an adoptee, so I will not speak for them, but they are certainly out there and they are not hard to find.  Listen to their stories, and then let’s talk.

Bone the third: While you have The Google all fired up from my previous point, do some research on the emotional/psychological impacts of having an abortion vs. making an adoption plan.  I bet you didn’t know that it is adoption that is more likely to cause negative emotional/psychological consequences.  True story.

Bone the fourth: “Make a sacrifice for some one you don’t know - your child.”  And sacrifice the child I already have in the process?  You know, the one who is laying next to me and needs food and clothing and a roof to sleep under (all things I would not be able to afford if forced to carry a pregnancy to term)?  What about him and the things he would have to suffer through?  How is it in any way fair to elevate a clump of cells who has no emotions, no cognitive awareness, no feelings, no nothing over a child who has all of those things?

Bone the fifth: Adoption doesn’t magically make you unpregnant. There are still nine whole months that you have to carry the child and, for some, this is not possible or desirable.  What about all the time you have to take off for prenatal appointments and the birth of the baby?  For some one in school, this could mean failing classes from lack of attendance.  Don’t keep that GPA up and you could run the risk of losing scholarships or grants.  Without that money, you may not be able to attend school, which will put you at a decided disadvantage in the job field.  For people with low-paying jobs, that day (or, hell, even couple hours) that you need to take off from work to go see the doctor, can be the difference between whether or not you or your children who are already alive can afford to eat or pay your rent or bills.  And you don’t want to be taking too much time off of work.  Bosses want people that can be there and be there with a smile.  Take too much time off and you run the risk of getting fired.  And, while that may be technically illegal in some places, as long as your boss doesn’t tell you that is what he is firing you for, he can do whatever he wants.  If you do manage to make it through your pregnancy without getting fired for the amount of time off you have to take, did you know that companies do not have to offer parental leave?  You take too much time off - even if that time is for perfectly legitimate medical issues like having a baby - and many companies are perfectly within their legal rights to replace you.  This, as you may imagine, may impact negatively on the people in your family who already breathing oxygen.

And what about those people that are pregnant as a result of rape or incest?  Should they be forced for nine freaking months to live with a daily reminder of the trauma they experienced?  Sexual violence is already horrific enough for people who have lived through it.  Now you want to force them to carry their rapist’s baby?  And I would think long and hard before you responded to this point.  The child that is currently laying beside me is a product of a rape by a stranger.  So unless you have been in that situation, I would be very fucking careful of the words you chose to use when addressing me, a survivor.

Note: This was written in reaction to the “Mommy, I am your baby” post that is currently circulating around Tumblr.  Thought it was about time we hear from the person who is actually self-aware and not just the clump of cells residing inside of them.

Hi, Fetus,

My name is Bria and I am the person whose uterus you are currently residing in. I am 28 years old and I actually have beautiful brown eyes and brown hair. Like, right now. Not “will” in nine months or so, but have it currently. I already have one child. His name is Ryatt and he has my beautiful brown eyes and brown hair. He is three years old and loves Thomas the Tank Engine. You? You don’t love anything, because right now, you are really just a clump of cells that has no cognitive development. You can’t love anything. Not me, not Thomas the Tank Engine, not flowers and birdies and sunshine. You get all your sustenance from me and cannot live on your own outside of my uterus.

But enough about you, let’s talk about me. Like I already said, I am 28 years old. This puts me in the majority age range for people who get abortions. (People in their 20s account for more than half of all abortions; people aged 20–24 obtain 33% of all abortions, and people aged 25–29 obtain 24%.) Like I said, I already have one child to care for (like 61% of people who obtain an abortion) and I currently have no place of my own and am living with my mentally and emotionally abusive mother. I have no job and don’t even qualify for social services because I have not lived in the state I am currently residing in for over 3 months. This is also pretty common among people who obtain abortions - 42% have incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level and 27% have incomes between 100–199% of the federal poverty level. I am looking for a job, but the economy is tough and there is not a lot out there. It’s even tougher for me because I was forced to drop out of college due to mental health issues that I am still dealing with today. So I have no college degree, which qualifies me only for menial jobs in retail or food service. Because these jobs pay so very little, I would never be there to raise you and would have to rely on others. This would probably be a complete stranger at a second-rate daycare center, as I am unwilling to leave you with my mother, have no other family and I can’t really afford to put you in a fancy, bells-and-whistles daycare.

These are all actually pretty common reasons why people obtain abortions. Three-fourths of people cite concern for or responsibility to other individuals; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.

Because I know when I am supposed to get my period, I knew I was pregnant almost right away. Turns out, this is pretty common, too, as over 61% of abortions are performed at less than 9 weeks from a person’s last menstrual period (which would be about 7 weeks from conception). At this point, you really have no thoughts or feelings because, remember when I said you were a clump of cells? I meant it. Those are pictures of what an abortion looks like when done between 5 and 6 weeks. Pretty stark contrast from the gory images that are normally shoved down your throat, huh, fetus?

And, fetus, while I may be a little sad after you are gone, a lot of really smart people have done a lot of really intensive studies and they have concluded that “post abortion syndrome” as a wide-spead occurrence is myth. Also, some more really smart people have assured me that abortion is pretty much one of the safest medical procedures I can undergo in the United States today and, that when performed in the first trimester, it poses little to no long-term risk to future pregnancies, should I ever decide to become pregnant again.

Fetus, as you can see, this is really the best decision for me and for the beautiful little boy who is sleeping with his arms curled around me. I want to go to school to become a sign language interpreter so I can hopefully get a place of my own and not have to rely on other people for my food and shelter. I want to provide a good, healthy, stable life for the child I already have and for any children I may have in the future. And I have thought about it a lot (because abortion is not something anyone enters into lightly) and I could not do that while caring for another child. I would apologize, but there is really nothing to apologize for. I am doing what I know in my heart is the absolute best thing for me and my son. You will not feel any pain, as you are not able to do that until about 24 weeks old, and you don’t even know you exist, so I doubt that you know that you are now gone.

Every abortion is just…

One more person exercising their right to bodily autonomy and self-determination based on what they feel is the best choice for them.

REBLOG IF YOU ARE PRO-CHOICE.

(All statistics, unless otherwise linked, have been provided by the Guttmacher Institute.)