Disclaimer: The following does not represent the views, beliefs, and opinions of all Pagans. This is my personal opinion on the subject of abortion, in light of the new anti-abortion laws/bills.
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I went back and forth on it. I debated about posting anything on the topic of abortion and birth control. In light of the new anti-abortion laws/bills, the subject has become extremely controversial, political, and religious. Personally, I've never viewed the subject as any of those; only as an individual, emotional, and private decision.
But as these new laws/bills have popped up in 5 (that I've heard of) states, I have found myself surrounded by the subject. Social media is a war zone because of it. I usually try to stay away from the political and religious controversies, but the subject has a great impact on me.
As a woman.
As a survivor.
As a mother.
As a pagan.
So I'm posting about it. And let me tell you, if you are in favor of these laws/bills, you're not going to like this post.
The past few days, I've been feeling ill. My stomach feels like it's upside down, my head throbs, my knees feel weak, and there's a knot in my throat that I can't seem to swallow. Why? Because anti-abortion laws/bills are popping up like weeds and people are actually supporting them.
I'm baffled. I'm hurt. I'm angry. I'm scared.
I wonder if people actually understand what is happening. So many are screaming "life at conception," that I question whether they know what is entirely being said.
Sure, I could argue about what is considered "life." We all could. Is it a heartbeat? Is it brain function? Is it ability to survive outside the womb? Is it a fertilized egg? To each their own I suppose. Personally, I think the definition of "life" is a complex combination of the previous mentioned. It's hard to explain, but I do believe that a part of it has to do with the difference between
living and
being alive.
What do I believe?
Do I believe a fertilized egg is considered "life?"
No. I believe it has the potential of becoming life.
Do I believe "life" is defined by a heartbeat?
Technically, yes. But without brain function, I don't believe it is
living, rather it is merely
alive. Think of it this way: a person can be on life support, with no brain activity. They are still considered
alive but they aren't
living. They aren't experiencing life because their brain is not processing it. Their body is simply going through the motions of being
alive. Many doctors and medical practitioners would say that without brain activity, a person is "medically dead." That's why it's ok to pull the plug on a vegetable-stated person with no brain activity, but is illegal to shoot your neighbor while he's mowing the lawn.
So when is it ok to end life? When is ok to take the life of another? Is it ok at six weeks when there's a heartbeat but no brain activity? These laws/bills would tell you no.
I disagree.
The big misconception.
There are two big myths I want to address here.
Myth: Women have abortions because it's convenient.
Humans, as a whole, take the life of living things every day, for sheer convenience. Not only does the food you eat, both meat and plant, come from living things, but so does the clothes on your back and the paper you write on. Does this make abortion ok? Is it really as simple as this? That's for you to decide. Let me tell you though, women do not have abortions because of convenience. It is never convenient to have an abortion.
A woman doesn't want an abortion like she wants ice cream.
A woman wants an abortion like an animal caught
in a trap wants to gnaw it's own leg off.
-Frederica Mathewes-Green
If a woman is considering/having an abortion, it is because she is in a desperate situation where she sees her only escape as an act of violence and self-loss. Abortion is self-loss. It is a sign of desperation because a woman is trapped. Abortion is not a convenient solution to a simple problem of "I don't want kids." No, it's evidence of an even bigger problem: lack of sufficient birth control and sexual education.
The moral cry of anti-abortionists does not offer a solution. It only further traps women. If you want a solution other than abortion, you need to address the problem.
Use birth control or Plan-B. These are both expensive, and many times require a doctor's prescription. A low-income woman cannot easily afford $50 for a
single dose of Plan-B, or the copay/out of pocket expense of going to the doctor for a prescription.
Just keep your legs closed. First off, science has proven that sex (between consenting adults) is healthy. This argument is very one-sided, and this has never been said to males. Why is it we scrutinize women for being sexual but never men? Why is it when a man has sex, no one cares, and sometimes he's even praised for it, but when a woman has sex, suddenly she's a dirty whore and doesn't deserve happiness? Secondly, I dare you to say this in the face of a woman who has been raped, or a little girl who fell victim to incest.
Use a condom. Sure. That's a thing. But what people don't realize is that condoms are a form of
male birth control. It is put on a penis, it's male birth control. This in mind, using condoms is also a very one-sided argument. Condoms (male birth control) are many times, given away freely at health clinics. Where's my free Loestrin? Where's my free Nuva Rings? And ladies, raise your hand if a guy has given you some excuse, or pressured you into not using condoms!
Get your tubes tied. Get a vasectomy! Seriously though, do you know what it takes to get such a procedure done? A woman obviously has to talk to her doctor, she must be at least 21 years old, she must be evaluated to ensure she isn't "mentally incompetent," she must already be married and have children, and she
must have her husband's consent. The procedure must be done within 30 days of approved consent, or the approval process starts over again. It can also cost upwards of $6,000 and many insurances do not cover it. Do you know what it takes for a man to get a vasectomy? He has to tell his doctor he wants a vasectomy.
Myth: At six weeks, it is a living human being, with feelings.
Science and modern medicine say that at six weeks, a fertilized human egg is nothing more than a cluster of cells called a "zygote." It's not a human being yet. Does it have the potential to be one? Sure, but at this stage, it's a cluster of cells. These new bills are criminalizing abortion at six weeks or later.
Many women, me included, don't even know they are pregnant until they are eight weeks along. You might think a missed period would be clue, but you know what else causes missed periods? Stress. Excessive weight loss/gain. Exercise. Eating disorders. Illness. Travel. Medications or drug use. Hormone imbalances. You try figuring out if you're just eating too much ice cream or if you're pregnant.
In my own personal experience with pregnancy, I never had a regular period, so for me to skip one wasn't abnormal at all. When I was eight weeks along, I went to the nurse for nausea and what I thought was a stomach bug. Nope. Pregnant.
Pregnancy tests have a higher rate of giving false results if they are taken sooner than 2 weeks after intercourse. The best time to take them is 12-14 days after ovulation, which can easily be 3 weeks after intercourse. If a woman doesn't have any reason to believe she's pregnant until after her missed period, that is pushing the 6 week mark.
At six weeks, pain receptors haven't even begun to form. There isn't even a functioning brain at this point. No, it can't feel pain.
What else is in the bill?
These bills aren't just about abortions, though. They are about women's health, and access to healthcare.
Unfortunately, I reside in an area where these bills are popping up and passing. Recently an anti-abortion bill was passed here, drastically reducing the window for abortion. Now a new and even stricter bill is being proposed, and many of the bills popping up are similar.
This new bill would eliminate a woman's access to contraceptives via her insurance. This would mean insurance companies would not cover birth controls like oral contraceptive pills or implants like IUDs. A woman would have to pay out of pocket for these birth controls.
For example, when I was on birth control (an offbrand of the oral contraceptive Loestrin), I would pay about $25 a month after my insurance. Without my insurance, I would have to pay around $180 out of pocket. That's more than 7x what I would be paying.
But the bill doesn't stop there. It continues to classify female birth control, such as oral contraceptive pills and implants like IUDs, as "nontherapeutic abortion." Why? because it is a drug/device "used to prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum."
Section 9.04
"Nontherapeutic abortion" means an abortion that is performed or induced when the life of the mother would not be endangered if the fetus were carried to term [...]. "Nontherapeutic abortion" includes drugs or devices used to prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum. "Nontherapeutic abortion" does not include either of the following: a procedure for an ectopic pregnancy, that is intended to reimplant the fertilized ovum into the pregnant woman's uterus; a procedure, in an emergency situation, that is medically necessary to save the pregnant woman's life.
Let me explain ectopic pregnancy real quick. An ectopic pregnancy is when the fertilized egg attaches inside a woman's fallopian tube, instead of in her uterus. As the fertilized egg grows, it forces her fallopian tube to expand. This is deadly if the egg is not removed. Once it is removed however, it cannot be reattached.
So basically, if you're not dying, you can't have an abortion or take birth control.
I also want to point out that where the [...] is, used to make an exception for situations of rape and incest, but it was redacted.
As it stands right now, these bills would prohibit insurance from assisting women in the costs of birth control and abortions. I mentioned earlier how expensive birth control can be without insurance, and abortions are just as expensive.
Some of these bills criminalize abortions and birth control, giving women and the doctors who perform the procedure jail time (up to 99 years for some doctors). In some places, women could even face the death penalty.
How am I affected?
So how does this affect me so much?
It affects me as a woman. As a woman, my rights are being challenged. My access to healthcare is being limited so drastically, it is almost impossible. When abortions were illegal, prior to 1973, it didn't mean abortions never happened. During that time, women would find some back alley doctor, or even a stranger with no medical license, and an abortion would be performed by shoving a wire coat hanger into the woman. I'll spare you further details on the procedure. Back alley abortions were common, and many women died from them.
Roe vs. Wade wasn't the start of abortions.
It was the end of women dying from abortions.
The government is forcing women back into the alley.
As for birth control, I never took it to prevent me from getting pregnant. In fact, I didn't start taking it until after I had my kid. I took it to regulate my cycle, so I would actually have a normal cycle, instead of bleeding for 3 weeks each month.
62% of women use some form of birth control outside of condoms. 31% of women using birth control use it to manage menstrual pain, and 28% to regulate their cycle, like me. 14% of women using birth control use it to treat their acne. 4% use birth control to treat endometriosis, a deadly disorder that causes tissue growth outside of the uterus. More than 750,000 women who use birth control, have never had sex.
By extensively limiting access to birth control, you're not preventing abortions, you're ruining the lives of women who use it.
It affects me as a survivor. I am a rape survivor. I chose not to have an abortion after it. I recognize that it was my personal choice and that I have no grounds to make that choice for anyone else.
1 in every 6 women has been raped. That's more than 1 billion women worldwide. Out of all these, only 75% have been reported to police. That means, about 250 million women have been raped and chose against reporting the crime to police.
90% of pregnancies of girls ages 15 and younger, are due to rape/incest.
Anti-abortionists will cry that only 1% of all abortions are due to rape/incest, but what they fail to mention is that the 1% is only of rape crimes that have been reported to police. Even so, that adds up to over
7 million women who have had an abortion after reporting being raped.
Anti-abortionists will cry that it's "in God's will." If that is your view, you need a new god. I invite you to look every one of those 1 billion women, in the face and tell them that
your god intended for them to be violated. Look them in the eyes and tell them
your god wanted them to have their life shatter into pieces. Tell them
your god planned for them to be violently forced into sexual acts. You tell them
your god enjoyed watching them fill with pain and fear and desperation as men took what they wanted. Console them with "its ok, this is what
[my] god wanted."
No.
Just no.
I don't care what your religious or spiritual beliefs are, no god of any origin wishes such upon humans. Your god may flood the world and send plagues and pit brothers against each other, but no god has
ever said rape is a part of the plan.
I fall in this category. I am a part of these statistics. Being a rape survivor, I can attest to how hard it is; how out of control you feel. I made a decision for myself. I will never let you take that decision away from my fellow sisters.
It affects me as a mother. Body autonomy is something I teach as a mother. It is something I want for my children.
I love the "campfire rule;" the idea that you leave a place in better condition than you found it. That's my job as a parent. To leave this earth in a better condition than it was left for me. To help instill a brighter future for my children, and the generations after me. My generation and the generations before me are responsible for the horrid state our world is in. We all played our part on the downward spiral. It is our job, our duty, to fix it.
I want my children to be in control of their bodies. I want them to have the right to make their own decisions, because ultimately, they know themselves better than anyone else knows them. I want my children not to feel obligated, pressured, or forced to make private and personal decisions because someone else thinks their decisions are better. I want my children to have access to adequate and affordable healthcare, so they may take care of themselves. I don't want my children growing up in fear; fear of others, fear of not being in control, fear of having no say on their own lives.
It affects me as a pagan. These anti-abortion bills violate the separation of the Christian church and state. Christianity is being forced on the entirety of the pluralistic society that the United States was founded as. Denying women reproductive free-will is patriarchal, theocratic, and fascist. Anti-abortion is anti-American, anti-woman and anti-pagan.
Allowing the degradation of separation of church and state will only open the door to more infringements. The theocratic government that we are slowly evolving into will infringe upon "freedom of religion." Do you honestly think a Christian theocratical government will be ok with you practicing your craft? The United States was once a beacon of secular democracy. That is the whole reason it was founded. We have strayed so very far from what our forefathers intended.
Anti-abortion is a war on women. But it is also the first wave of infringement of personal freedoms for all people, men and women.
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