A Glimpse into the Future?

Amanda Ching has written a brillant short story that you need to read. It’s speculative fiction, imagining what the U.S. might look like if we keep incrementally rolling back reproductive rights.

This story answers the question that the naive citizens of a free democracy always ask: how do totalitarian regimes happen?

Go read it. Now.

As a writer, I can tell you that this is one of the best short stories I have ever read. Let me tell you, speaking from experience, writing a short story is hard. Amanda makes it look easy. I am extremely jealous of her talent.

As a feminist, this story scared the ever-loving shit out of me. It provides a hell of a lot of motivation to fight every single rollback of human rights, because this story highlights how, though human rights violations may start in one area, they always spread into other areas, until everyone’s rights are gone.

Doctors Against Anti-Abortion Laws: the Beginning of a Movement?

Last week, in the midst of a heartbreaking story about a woman who fell victim to Texas’ mandatory ultrasound law, we heard about the unwilling doctor forced to do the procedure:

“I’m so sorry that I have to do this,” the doctor told us, “but if I don’t, I can lose my license.”

…

“When you come back in 24 hours, the legal side is over. Then we’ll care for you and give you the information you need in the way we think is right.”

Then on Saturday, PalmD at WhiteCoatUnderground posted this:

“Doctors are notoriously poor organizers.  We generally operate independently.  The AMA represents less than thirty percent of American doctors.  When it comes to protecting ourselves and our patients, we are often on our own.  When it comes to the latest abortion bills we cannot afford to remain apart.  We must all speak out against this violation of our ethics and our patients’ rights.  How this might work isn’t clear, but perhaps we need target certain states, one at a time.  When one provider is shut down for honoring their patients’ rights, another must be willing to step up, and another.  There is a nationwide shortage of abortion providers so this probably isn’t realistic, but even so, we must try, we must advocate for our patients, we must defend them from the depravities of those who would violate their basic right to ethical, respectful care.”

Finally, yesterday, Anonymous Doctor at John Scalzi’s blog called for doctors across the country to engage in civil disobedience and refuse to perform mandatory ultrasounds:

“It is our responsibility, as always, to protect our patients from things that would harm them. Therefore, as physicians, it is our duty to refuse to perform a medical procedure that is not medically indicated. Any medical procedure. Whatever the pseudo-justification.

It’s time for a little old-fashioned civil disobedience.

…

When the community has failed a patient by voting an ideologue into office…When the ideologue has failed the patient by writing legislation in his own interest instead of in the patient’s…When the legislative system has failed the patient by allowing the legislation to be considered… When the government has failed the patient by allowing something like this to be signed into law… We as physicians cannot and must not fail our patients by ducking our heads and meekly doing as we’re told.

Because we are their last line of defense.”

We need more doctors to take a stand–to speak out, to share their stories, to call for and organize action. While the most important voices in this struggle remain the women who are affected by this anti-choice, anti-autonomy, anti-woman legislation, we need our doctors to speak up as well. We’re in this together.

If you’re a doctor, and would like to share your story, or your own call for action, I am glad to offer this space for you to speak. Contact me at brittanyannwick AT yahoo DOT com, if you would like to share your story, or if you already have on another website, send me the link–I’d like to share it.

OB/GYN on Forced Ultrasounds: Fuck That Shit

An anonymous doc calls for his fellow OB/GYNs to engage in some good ole’ fashioned civil disobedience.

From Whatever:

“Fellow physicians, once again we are being used as tools to screw people over. This time, it’s the politicians who want to use us to implement their morally reprehensible legislation. They want to use our ultrasound machines to invade women’s bodies, and they want our hands to be at the controls. Coerced and invaded women, you have a problem with that? Blame us evil doctors. We are such deliciously silent scapegoats.

It is our responsibility, as always, to protect our patients from things that would harm them. Therefore, as physicians, it is our duty to refuse to perform a medical procedure that is not medically indicated. Any medical procedure. Whatever the pseudo-justification.

It’s time for a little old-fashioned civil disobedience.”

Check out the whole piece here.

I hope every OB/GYN across the country reads this piece.

A Brilliant Observation on Anti-Choicers

A commenter named GWPDA made a very good point on this post:

“It’s about eliminating women from their positions as free citizens – emancipated and fully legitimate. If I am not trusted to make a decision on my own about my own body, then I am most certainly not trusted to exercise the franchise, sign a contract, or hold property in my own name. I have been eliminated as a citizen of the United States.”

Indeed.

We are too stupid to realize that it is a fetus we want to expel from our uteri when we seek an abortion, so we have to be told it’s a “life” and a “separate human being.”

We are too stupid to have made our decision before we make an appointment, shove our way through screeching, aggressive protesters, and enter a clinic, so we must wait twenty-four hours.

We are too stupid to know what a fetus or an embryo looks like, so we must have probes shoved inside us, so that we may be enlightened.

We’re too stupid to make decisions about our bodies, so why should we have any rights at all?

Perhaps anyone marginally on the pro-life side, or on the fence, should investigate what the leaders of the pro-life movement really believe before you listen to their raving about abortion.

Point of Information Re: Transvaginal Ultrasounds and Abortion

Until the clusterfuck recently in Virginia, most people probably assumed that mandatory ultrasound laws simply required women to get an abdominal ultrasound before an abortion.

Except that abdominal ultrasounds aren’t very useful until a woman is much further along in a pregnancy than the vast majority of women seeking abortions.

Transvaginal ultrasounds are used in early pregnancy.

Virginia’s law was only the first to be blatantly forcing transvaginal ultrasounds on women. All the other states just kept it quiet, hoping people wouldn’t figure it out.

These states require an ultrasound before a woman may have an abortion:

Alabama

Arizona

Florida

Kansas

Louisiana

Mississippi

North Carolina

Oklahoma

Texas

These states are just as bad as Virginia.

Well, now you know.

Abortion: Not a Granted Right

I had an epiphany while reading Cunt this weekend. In Cunt, the author, Inga Muscio, talks about her abortions–all three of them. The first two were at a clinic, the third she induced herself.

My epiphany is this:

The Supreme Court did not grant women the right to an abortion. Nor did any of the other men in various parliaments and legislatures around the world.

Abortion is. It always has been, and always will be.

It is as much a fact of life as menstruation, masturbation, and sex.

This is so much more than “abortion will continue, whether or not it’s legal.” It will, it’s true, but more than that.

Abortion is not simply a medical procedure that doctors perform on women’s bodies. Only recently in human history have men been involved in abortion at all. Its had many names throughout history, in different cultures. But it was always the domain of women.

Women “kept their period regular.”

Women “brought on the courses.”

If you read carefully in literature, in myths, and in memoirs and histories, you will find it.

Men have not “given” it to us, nor can they take it away.

We will fight you in legislatures, and outside clinics, to keep abortion legal and accessible, absolutely. But abortion is ours. It is a part of our history. It is a fact of our lives. Abortion won’t go away. No more than you can take our monthly flow away. No more than you can keep us from masturbating.

Our uterus’, our ovaries, our vaginas, our cunts, cannot be taken away. Can’t have them. Our periods, our reproductive capability, our miscarriages and our abortions. Can’t take ‘em.

Leave It to the Experts

My body is twenty-three years old. It has been through a lot in that time. I have demanded much of my body. I have punished it. I have stretched its limits in order to become stronger. I have deprived it of its most basic needs–food, rest, water–because I gave higher priority to other things. Most of the time, my body endures. However, at times, it breaks. It collapses in exhaustion. It succumbs to seizures, which is its own unique punishment. It becomes dehydrated. Muscles are pulled and sprained. It aches and bleeds in response to the monthly cycle of my uterus. My stomach contracts and my throat is burned by stomach acid.

No one knows my body like I do.

No one knows all that it has suffered and endured, lost and gained. No one but me.

I know how much it can take. I know how far I can push its limits. I know when its time to stop and rest, so it can recover.

When it comes to my body, I am the expert. My body is unique. It’s quirky. It’s strong and weak. It’s powerful. It has endured things that you wouldn’t believe. It has accomplished things you could only dream of.

I am the best person to make decisions regarding my body. The many people who love me, and consequently my body–my family, my friends, my lovers–cannot ever be as intimate with my body and its workings and needs as I am. As well as they know me, and as much as they care about me–they cannot possibly know enough to make that decision for me. My country, as much as I love it, as much as I am willing to sacrifice for it–cannot make that decision for me, either. My loved ones may at least claim to be Beemer geeks, but the rest of the country cannot say even that. At best, they may know some vague caricature; at worst, they know nothing about me. Only I am the expert.

Only the expert can decide if my body needs an abortion. Me.

Trust the experts–they know what needs to be done. They know their art. Leave the fandom to support the expert’s work. Let outsiders stay out of it.

Women are the experts on their own bodies. Leave us to make the decisions. Do not hinder us in taking care of our own bodies. We need abortion to be legal, available, and affordable. That is not negotiable. That is not up for a vote. Our bodies are not up for a vote.

You are not an expert on me. You cannot make decisions for me. You cannot take abortion away from me.

I will defend every woman’s right to make the best decision for herself. I am pro-choice.

–

Bloggers United for Human Rights is a community of bloggers dedicated to the principle that all human rights are inalienable. Not to be voted, or debated, or negotiated. This post is a part of the Support Women’s Reproductive Rights blog carnival. Click the link to join.

Pro-Choice in Kentucky

I am pro-choice. I am a resident of Kentucky.

Being pro-choice in a state that is widely regarded as a lost cause is not easy.

Kentucky isn’t a lost cause. Considering it one is losing half the battle.

Pro-choice Kentuckians are perpetually on the defensive–trying to stop restrictive legislation, stop funding from being cut, stop anti-choicers from harassing patients outside of clinics, stop the hatred and vitriol directed toward reproductive rights, and the people who believe in them.

Simply being openly pro-choice in Kentucky is activism. After all, anti-choicers have long held the pulpit here, painting caricatures of baby-hating, cold, anti-life, anti-woman  “pro-choicers.” I am none of those things–by being openly pro-choice, I am showing everyone around me that those caricatures are lies. I’m opening the door.

I talk about being pro-choice. People ask questions; I answer them. I give my friends, classmates, acquaintances, and neighbors a different perspective–describing reproductive rights by framing it in a way that’s relevant, in language that they will respond to. For instance, I often say that abortion is a form of self-defense–it is an action women may take in order to protect their bodies from the multitude of harms that may come from pregnancy. I say that only I can decide what happens to my body–nobody can use it without my permission, just like no one may break into my home even if they need shelter.

I write to my representatives–even the infamous Mitch McConnell. He doesn’t agree with me, and he won’t vote the way I want him to, but I still write. He needs to know that I exist, that I care, and that his ideology is abhorrent to me. I will oppose them. In other words, I’m watching. I’m voting. Think about that.

I write and reply to pro-choicers outside of Kentucky–I appeal, I plead, I rant, and I call for support. Stop dismissing Kentucky. Help us. Rally with us. Support pro-choice Kentuckians in our fight. It’s not hopeless. We help you–it’s time to help us. Don’t wait for some really abhorrent, anti-choice legislation to jump in. Let’s work together to keep it from ever getting to that point. Let’s change minds. Let’s change budgets. Let’s change laws.

I am a feminist. I am pro-choice. I am a Kentuckian.

Southeast Christian Church Behind Louisville Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Check this out, from Every Saturday Morning:

“We have two CPCs, one next door and one within one block of the EMW Women’s Surgical Center. Both are called A Woman’s Choice (AWC) and they are operated under the same corporation. The corporation name is A Choice for Life, a corporation formed by Southeast Christian Church. AWC is a separate non-profit corporation affiliated with the church, but they share board members.”

(Emphasis mine.)

Don’t believe it? Check out the church’s website. The crisis pregnancy centers (they evidently have one in Shelby county, too.) are the top two on their list of “secondary community partners.”

For those of you who don’t know, Southeast Christian Church is the largest mega-church in the state of Kentucky. As of 2010, over 19,000 people are members of Southeast Christian Church.

I wonder how many of them know they support an organization of people who lie, sabotage women’s healthcare, and assault the people who support patients? (Not to mention break the law by blocking access to the women’s clinic.)

Regardless, I doubt many in the general community know–I certainly didn’t, not until the awesome people at Every Saturday Morning enlightened me. This is certainly something Louisvillians need to know. Knowledge is power–and we’ve got to do something.

This is absolutely disgusting. I cannot express how angry this makes me. I’ve long been disgusted by the way that mega-churches use their wealth (expensive facilities, luxuries for members, mind-blowing shit like a 200-acre country retreat…) but to wallow in luxury while also sending thugs to harass and assault women and the escorts? I wonder if one could ever come up with a better example of modern-day Pharisees than this.

Escorts at Louisville’s Abortion Clinic

Kentucky has only two clinics in the state that offer abortion services–one of them is in Louisville, the largest city in the state.

Unfortunately, this clinic is regularly a target of anti-choice protesters. By regularly, I mean all the time. The protesters harass, intimidate, shame, and attempt to deceive women by directing them to the TWO crisis pregnancy centers on the same street as the clinic. (CPCs are fake clinics set up by anti-choice organizations. Their goal is to prevent women from having abortions, by either convincing them not to, or by giving them false information about, well, everything.)

Because of this, a bunch of really great people volunteer to escort women from their cars to the clinic doors. They get up ridiculously early to make sure women have a buffer between themselves and the protesters, and to give them support every step along the way.

The escorts have a blog–they post stories, photos, and video of everything that goes down in front of the clinic. Check it out.

The bullshit they deal with is incredible–the verbal harassment, the pushing, hitting, tripping, physical intimidation, and sometimes, even worse.

I’ve got to warn you, though: it will piss you off.

It pissed me off.

I can’t but admire the escorts–for doing what they do.

I’ve wanted to volunteer myself–but getting up so early, after working so late in the night, is out of the question.

I wonder, too, if I’d be able to keep my temper in check. I wonder if I’d be able to refrain from pushing back, hitting back, or kicking out the kneecap of the person that tripped me. As my regular readers know, I’m big on self-defense.

But then again, I read stories like this from the escorts, and I want nothing more than to go down there and help. I want to escort. I want to write and write and write. I want to write here, and on Pulse of the City. I want to write to the mayor, the chief of police, and anyone else and demand they post officers at the clinic to protect patients and escorts. I want to post endlessly on my facebook page, ranting and educating, and encouraging people to take action.

It’s so easy to hear stories and think, “wow, that’s completely fucked up” and perhaps write a ranty comment, and then go on with your day. Until I found the Louisville escort’s blog, I was like that, too. Reading their stories, talking to people I know that go down there, and seeing the photos and video of anti-choice protesters doing this in my city, to my people, made it so very real to me.

Oh, and by the way? What these protesters are doing is illegal. Obstructing access, intimidation, threats, violence, in order to keep women from obtaining reproductive services–illegal. Did I say it was illegal? It’s illegal.

But they do it anyway.

Not only are the escorts doing important work by escorting women, but they’re also exposing to the world what exactly happens in front of America’s reproductive clinics. Support and honor them by reading their accounts, viewing their photos, and watching their videos.