Our Bodies, Ourselves

[RedRosa]

That was the title of a popular health book for women published in the 1970s when we were reclaiming the rights to make determinations about our own bodies.

That was then, this is now: "Broad support for abortion rights: Gallup polls show Americans’ support for abortion in all or most cases at 85% as of May 2022, higher than when polling began in 1975 (76%), and the Pew Research Center finds 62% of adults believe abortion should be legal, compared to 60% in 1995—though there has been fluctuation, with support dropping to a low of 47% in 2009."

"Women make up more than a quarter (28%) of all members of the 118th Congress –- the highest percentage in U.S. history and a considerable increase from where things stood even a decade ago. Counting both the House of Representatives and the Senate, women account for 153 of 540 voting and nonvoting members of Congress."

"Women are 51% of the population", yet men control the government. The US right wing men like Asa Hutchinson from Arkansas, who is running for president (R) favors basically no abortion rights. Trump appointed judges helped make reversing Roe V Wade happen. Why should women pay one cent in taxes when we are not even allowed to control our bodies in this country?

Why do then women's causes go unrecognized and controlled by men. We are not 1-2 % of the population like some vocal and successful minorities, we are not 13-14 percent. Identity politics are all the rage, hey to paraphrase Harriet Tubman, aint I a woman, aint I a person, a human a tax paying American? Why yes, I am. US out of my uterus.

Gender politics, Identity politics yet the largest majority gets fucked.

[delevigne-fan]

There’s also the world to consider outside of the west.
Plight of Indian women in poverty and women’s hygiene and how much a lack of items cause problems.


But then a Texas obgyn doctor is now practising outside the country due to USA law changes

[delevigne-fan]

Background on the doctor and her leaving USA

[RedRosa]

A Texas gynecologist quoted in this piece says she's seeing three times as many women enquiring about sterilization since the overturning of Roe v Wade. Some women have conditions that make pregnancy risky. So they want to ensure they don't get pregnant.

A wave of young women are opting for sterilization. Here's why

[Silo]

This is why I don't listen to people say 'it's a fringe issue' or 'it's a vocal minority' on something anymore. I didn't think they'd actually overturn Roe V Wade - it had decades of precedent, yet here we are.

The GOP is going to get their future taxpayers and soldiers, bugummit, even if they have to sacrifice their own wives, daughters, and granddaughters to do it.

DH and I are trying to start a family, but I've got an emergency fund to fly to another state (or hell, Canada if I have to) in case things don't go right and an abortion is needed. Women have been known to have been forced to carry dead fetuses to term in my state.

[moonbynight]

A Texas gynecologist quoted in this piece says she's seeing three times as many women enquiring about sterilization since the overturning of Roe v Wade. Some women have conditions that make pregnancy risky. So they want to ensure they don't get pregnant.

I've considered it. I'm realistically done having kids. I've been parenting for 20 years, and my youngest is 9 - I don't want to start over again at this point.

I haven't pursued it because I'm not in a relationship where accidental pregnancy is a possibility, don't really intend to be in the future, and I doubt I am particularly fertile at this point anyways. Of course, rape is always a possibility, but I'm not sure I want to go so far as surgery on the off chance of that occurring.

But it's definitely been more on my mind this past year than any time previously.

[MarieGreen]

It is a terrifying state of affairs which is happening in the US. The GOP seem to not want to educate people in the realities of sex and relationships. They do not want to look after the kids who were born as a result of an unwanted pregnancy yet they don't want abortion either. They're pro life but also pro guns. The set of policies together make no sense. It makes it blatant it's more about misogyny and testosterone than the rights of the foetus.

Forcing women to have babies is just crazy. There is a reason Margaret Atwood set the Handmaid's Tale in the US.