Hello Middle Ages.

[anghara]

The United States Supreme Court has just put one more nail into the coffin of progress and the kind of thinking that signifies enlightenment.

It's always nice to know that I, as a woman, am part of a subspecies of the human race which ranks lower than a zygote, or a handful of cells with the potential to become something... in time... but is at its inception no more sentient than my liver. But it is still considered more important than the woman within whom it resides.

I would guess that anyone contemplating a third-trimester abortion is *in dire need of one* - perhaps an essential one in terms of the health of the woman herself. NOBODY waltzes up to a clinic at 28 weeks and announces, "Sorry, changed my mind, don't want to be pregnant any more". But the "not even if there is concern for the woman's health" language incorporated in this particular ruling makes it impossible to contemplate even an emergency option any more.

Already, especially in the more conservative States and often (although not exclusively) those in the Deep South, it is very difficult if not completely impossible to obtain a safe and legal termination. What this means, in practice, is that rich people who are in this predicament can travel to a different state or even a different country, if necessary, to deal with the problem. The ghetto sixteen-year-olds, the lower-income-group women who might have got pregnant as a result of rape, the women who already have five or six kids under the age of ten and are finding it hard to find the wherewithal to keep the entire family fed and clothed - those walking incubators are plumb out of luck.

First the CDC decides that all American women are pre-pregnant, and require "interventions" so that they are in a position to bear early and bear often. Now the Supreme Court decides that even if my life is in danger, a life forty years in the living and the making and the shaping, forty years of achievement and dreams and loving and being loved, that apparently counts for nothing, is vastly outweighed, by the spectre of a life not yet begun.

As far as I am concerned, the Government's fiat ends where my body begins. Whether or not I bear children, or when I do so, should be *my own choice*. Not subject to a vote by apparently addled middle aged men (IS there still another woman on the Supreme Court?) who seem to think that they are in charge of my life and how I live it.

Children should be born where they are wanted, and where they can be loved and cared for. Not just because they can be. Least of all because someone who is not their mother or father decides that they *have* to be.

Comments

[guinwhyte.livejournal.com]

Ruth Ginsburg is still on the court, and was part of the dissenting opinion. This is from a CNN article on it:

In a bitter dissent read from the bench, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the only woman on the high court, said the majority's opinion "cannot be understood as anything other than an effort to chip away a right declared again and again by this court, and with increasing comprehension of its centrality to women's lives."

She called the ruling "alarming" and noted the conservative majority "tolerates, indeed applauds, federal intervention to ban nationwide a procedure found necessary and proper in certain cases" by doctor's groups, including gyncecologists.

Eliminating the option in cases of medical necessity for the woman is crazy. Then again, it's the same mentality that led to women having to fight to have birth control pills covered by insurance, when Viagra and its cousins were virtually universally covered.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

There is only one female supreme court justice left. Ruth Bader Ginsberg. And she voiced her very strong outrage and opposition from the bench. She agrees with you that this is chipping away at the rights of women.

We need her desperately to stay on that bench for as LONG AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE.

My only hope is that the next time a position on the court opens up, the sitting president will not be a criminally insane chimpanzee like the one we have now.

It frightens me, frankly, to think about how much ground American women are losing.

I agree with you completely, and it's nice to know that I'm being classified as an incubator rather than a person who has their own rights.

First the CDC decides that all American women are pre-pregnant, and require "interventions" so that they are in a position to bear early and bear often

The thing about that was that if the CDC had somebody working for it who knew what they were doing, they could've gotten what they wanted and still not offended women as a whole.

I think at it's heart, the "pre-pregnant" thing had good intentions, but hey, it's the CDC. Great with viruses, bad with people.

They could've avoided being so terribly offensive and medieval sounding if they'd said: "women who plan to become pregnant should be urged to take certain measures as early as possible, even before conception".

The difference being that it leave the choice up to the woman if she will become pregnant and what measures she wants to take.

*shakes head*

I am so, so scared for my country sometimes.

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

First the CDC decides that all American women are pre-pregnant, and require "interventions" so that they are in a position to bear early and bear often

What was this?

[anghara.livejournal.com]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060606_sunsara_taylor_preconception/

in response to

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5506a1.htm

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

And imagine a father hating a child for being born at the cost of the life of the woman he loved.

I am ready for a better world!

[evolvenow.livejournal.com]

Aren't you?

Anyway, I am going to be woo-woo and hokey and make an affirmation to help with this situation:

I am delighted that women are now trusted to make intelligent choices that they feel are best for the higher good!

I am grateful that our country elects leaders who respect, honor, and seek out the wisdom of women as well as men and children in order to make positive and life affirming choices.

Ahhh! That's better. What a wonderful world we are creating! Thanks for caring and speaking out for justice!!!

Warmly,

Heather Flanagan
www.visualizepossibilities.com

[eneit.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many of them would make this kind of ruling if they were afterwards required to personally be accountable for anything that might go wrong as a result of this ruling?

A recent court case had a woman in her early 50s having had to have an abortion because of the brutal bashing, robbery and sexual assualt that occured when someone broke into her home. She had several medical conditions, all of which, when combined with a high risk pregnancy, could have resulted in her death. If a similar case occured in the States, and the victim could not achieve the medical intervention she needed to retain her life - wouldn't it be nice to see her family challenge each and every one of the men who forced that ruling through for the manslaughter of their family member?

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

Arrrrgggghhh!! Stupid, stupid, stupid! I will NOT be considered of lesser value than any kid I may potentially carry. I am NOT an incubator. My body is MINE and I decided what happens to it not anyone else.

A big ol' FU to the conservative, MALE, not ever at risk of being pregnant or raped, religious zealot, control freaks that are trying to tell me what I need to do with my own body. I don't think so.

*furiously lashing tail*

[twiglyt.livejournal.com]

Yikes. I remain thrilled to be a Canadian.

Oh Canada!!

[tagscats.livejournal.com]

Hey, do you have some room in your home for me? I'm moving to Canada! Or France....I can never decide....

I echo all of the above, it is outrageous. But then, I expect nothing less from this administration and the stooges he appointed to the court.

[dichroic.livejournal.com]

In some ways it would scare me less if it weren't a 5/4 ruling. When it's not close, I figure, OK, there's something wrong with the law and they're trying to send a message. When it's like this, I can't reach any conclusion but that the hyperconservatives on the court, both the new and the old ones like Clarence Thomas* are trying to push an agenda of control.

*I have never seen any rulings from Thomas that disabuse me of the lingering idea that he's trying to punish women because one of us was bave enough to oppose his nomination, out loud and in embarassing ways. I *still* believe Anita.

[aliceaudrey.livejournal.com]

This is what happens when you let church get involved in state. Someone else's morality suddenly takes over. Stuff like this tends to make me more political than I want to be. Grrrrrrr.

Alice