Sunday, January 22, 2006

Ready...set...go!

Roe v. Wade is 33 years old today…only a month to the day older than this AngryBlackBitch. A bitch has always lived in an America where reproductive freedom was a constitutionally protected right. And a bitch has always lived in an America where those same rights have been under attack.

33 years of choice.

33 years of debate.

33 years empowered with an education about my body, my rights, my options and my responsibilities.

33 years of Roe.

Within my lifetime a bitch has been grateful for the protection of choice…that broad protective quilt that encompasses far more than what anti-choice activists would like us to believe.

Oh yes…this bitch has been blessed by choice.

When a bitch rolled over and felt a lump in my abdomen a few years back…this bitch had choices.

When a bitch desperately ran out to the local Planned Parenthood office to seek medical advice within hours of feeling that lump…a bitch had choices.

When my ass received efficient medical advice and care…when they told me that it was most likely fibroids…when a bitch was given so many options that my head was spinning…oh yeah, this bitch felt the power of choice.

And when a bitch sat down for my first consultation with my surgeon…when she asked me…fucking asked me…whether my ass planned to have children…what my fucking intentions for my motherfucking body where…this bitch experienced choice in action.

A bitch was able to make medical decisions regarding my reproductive future with my doctor. Wow! And the heavens didn’t fall. The oceans didn’t part and frogs didn’t rain out over the land like water.

This bitch knows that what was so simple for me would have been revolutionary before.

And when a bitch counted down from 100 in that operating room and slipped into dreamland it was with the knowledge that my doctor was making decisions with my medical health in mind…not the government, not the President and not some sanctified asshole pontificating from a pulpit.

My body, my doctor…my motherfucking choice.

There is a war underway. A war that is being fought in our schools, pharmacies and doctor’s offices. Women are being denied reproductive health education, prescriptions are not being filled and doctors are being told what to do or not do…and we need to ask why and who benefits from this. Not me and not you…so who?

Who benefits from young women with four children before they reach the age of 21? Who benefits from young men and women not knowing how babies are conceived, how disease gets spread and how they can be empowered through planned parenthood as an applied action? Who benefits from the rise in STD’s among women of color? Who benefits from women not knowing that they can prevent a pregnancy after rape, not being told that they have choices after they have been assaulted?

Some motherfucker is pleased by this bullshit and it sure as hell isn’t me.

Do you understand that your right to make decisions is under attack…that choice encompasses abortion rights…

and…

so…

much…

more…?

Are you with me?

Or are you so blessed by freedom that you can’t work up the fucking passion to defend it?

The revolution has come. The war is already underway and it is beyond time for Generation pro-choice to stand up and defend this shit!

Ready?

Set.

Go!

18 comments:

Delia Christina said...

roe v. wade is only 3 years younger than me. and i could see it disappear (or rendered so ineffective, it's existence is moot.)

that's unacceptable.
i'm with you!

Anonymous said...

I'm with you, too. It's always somewhat uncomfortable to be a man in the abortion debate, but hasn't stopped those who want to chip away at Roe. I believe that there should be few, if any, restrictions on abortion. Forbidden abortion in a civilized society is ... well, uncivilized.

Anonymous said...

I also participated in Blogging for Choice - thanks to you. As always, I LOVVEEE your spin on things too. I've been perusing the various B4C posts and am very impressed with them.

Well posted (as always)!!!!!!

PS - my blog has next-to-no readership but I have a link to you in my favorite links

J said...

Hi ABB! Loved your post. I participated, because I found out about Blog for Choice day on your website. Thanks for that. My husband also blogged on it...and we discovered that we don't believe exactly the same thing, and of course we can talk about it like civilized people. What a concept.

tsisageya said...

I'm with you, Bitch. First stop: Kick Samuel Alito to the curb. Immediately.

two star general said...

I am with you. I think what gets everyone in such an uproar is that they fail to realize that being pro choice is not the same as being pro abortion. I am pro choice which means that I believe that each woman knows what is right for her and her life.
Also if you are pro choice what is you stand on child support? For me it is simple you can't be pro choice and pro child support. That is just being to one sided.

Lily said...

Awesome. Random props.

Happy Anniversary!

Anonymous said...

Nothing to add-- except GREAT POST!

Hammer said...

Oooh girl. You know you make me wet when you talk about a revolution! I just wish the current revolution wasn't a religious one. I wish that those who were vocal in the public and political arenas were people who THOUGHT. Not people who had all of their thinking done for them (a.k.a. religious right). I mean, how easy would life be if all of your questions were answered with such confidence that all other answers seemed wrong? How easy would it be to be told what to do and think and say. Hmmm, scary shit!

Anyway, I'm very glad that you are the unapologetic anarchafeminist you are (whether you know it or not). I appreciate hearing what you have to say.

So, lady, what are we gonna do for this shit? Are you calling your community to action??? hmmm?? hehehe.


In peaceful struggle,

Craig

Raej said...

Thank you, ABB, for posting about the Blogging for Choice. I was thus also able to participate.

I enjoyed the path you went down; figure out who benefits, and how, and then fight them; I love practical politics.

cheers.

Waddie G. said...

I hope Roe v. Wade never gets overturned.

christine mtm said...

i didn't get to blog for choice yesterday and i'm sorry i didn't. (it was a long day and i didn't even get on the 'puter.)

abortion is not a good thing, but i am prochoice for the exact reasons you blogged about. women deserve to have reproductive rights over their bodies and that includes the choice to end a pregnancy.

i'm a pastor and i'm horrified by the religious ideologies that are taking over our government and destroying our freedoms.

i'm with you.

BarefootCajun said...

Bravo! You put it so much better than I could.

I'm 11 years older than Roe v. Wade so I am able to remember when women didn't have choices. That's not something I want to go back to.

Kim said...

As women who faced the choice whether to continue an unplanned pregnacy, I cannot imagine how terrifying that time in my life would have been without the option of abortion.

I ultimately chose to have my child. I pray that the world she lives in when she's my age will still afford her the oportunity to control her own body. I'm not as sure of that certainty anymore.

Anonymous said...

"Or are you so blessed by freedom that you can’t work up the fucking passion to defend it?"

So prolific. Everytime I need calming in these crazy waters I turn to you, and you have just the ANSWERS Im looking for.

thank you for sharing. thank you for being passionate, and thank you for being fucking angry enough!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for this post... as an extremely liberal white semi-bitch who happens to be in love with a "moderate" (conservative) Catholic man, I find myself embroiled in the pro-life/pro-choice debate at least once a week.

Unlike some other issues (the death penalty, tax cuts, the war in Iraq) on which I've seen people change their opinions, the reproductive-freedom debate seems (at least to me) to be something on which most people will never budge.

And while I can certainly respect a difference in opinion--it's what makes the world go 'round--the hypocrisy (as you and others have stated) of wanting to force women to have children they cannot support, and to then refuse to support them through governmental means, is particularly infuriating.

However, I give the Catholics props for at least being consistently pro-life and opposing the death penalty. Many of those who fight to save someone else's unwanted fetus fight just as hard to kill a living, breathing, thinking, AWARE, human being.

Anonymous said...

I guess we will have the same rights as "bitches" if we don't stand up and fight for them. Animals have no choice in deciding wheather they want to give birth or not. I guess the religious, backward freaks (plenty in the government) in this country want to go back in time and treat us like property/animals like they do in the middle east. Maybe they want to stone us, as well. Amazing. I can't even begin to tell you how right you are. People are lazy. I hope they realize your message and how important it is to stand up and be a part of the fight for our rights. Get involved, people. Spread the word! This is scary what's happening. I don't want to live in the dark ages. This is America. Nobody has the right to my body. Let those people get busy with the orphans and millions of unwanted children out there. I would rather die then have somebody RAPE my mind, my body and the choice about the rest of my life. Billions of dollars are spent on bullshit, why don't they spend more money on creating better birthcontrol if they don't like abortion. I want to puke. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't agree more.
I am 25- I don't know what it's like to live in a world where white male republicans control my body, and I sure as hell don't want to. My rights are non-negotiable.

It sickens me to think of being launched back in time as a woman. It is absolutely infuriating- I think we forget too often how fragile our rights are. Hypothetical people getting more rights than women!?! Unacceptable.

The Gumdrop Stage of Grief ...

So many of you have shared condolences and support after the death of my beloved brother Bill from COVID-19. I wish I could thank you indiv...