With the internet buzzing with news and campaigning regarding the aftermath of the election from hell, recent legislation in the GOP War on Women seemed to sink to the bottom of the newsfeeds. However, some interesting and extremely chauvinistic bills have earned some scrutiny and some interesting results. The Christian Right, with a long and proud history of brainwashing young adults, has metaphorically shot itself in the foot. Check out this article: Republicans Struggle to contain Mourdock comments
Here at Generation: Handmaid, we have consistently complained that the pro-life political mindset is flawed because the GOP doesn’t seem to care about what happens to babies after they are carried to term. However, this was mostly just conjecture until Pennsylvania proved us right with the dawn of HB 2817, which ultimately reduces Welfare benefits for pregnant rape victims who cannot prove they were raped. The assumption is that women will “cry rape” in order to keep their “government handouts” from being reduced, which an incredibly dangerous attitude to harbor towards women.
“Forcing women to prove the legitimacy of their sexual assault, and warning them about the serious consequences of “crying rape” to cheat the system, puts forth the misguided assumption that victims of sexual violence are not to be believed. Furthermore, countless women choose not to report their rapists to the police because they fear repercussions from their abusers, who could threaten their lives. An estimated 54 percent of sexual assaults are not reported to the authorities.”
Source: Culp-Ressler, Tara. Pennsylvania Bill Would Reduce Welfare Benefits For Women Who Cannot Prove They Were Raped. ThinkProgress Health, Oct. 24, 2012. Web. 11-03-2012. http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/10/24/1083101/proposed-bill-food-stamp-benefits-raped/?mobile=nc.
This makes us think – if the GOP will go to such lengths to ensure that abortion will ultimately become obsolete and rape will not be more than a minor exception to this rule, what will they do to reward women who carry unwanted babies to term? Offer government subsidies for childcare costs? Give more money to fund public schooling? Increase welfare benefits for unwed mothers or pregnant minors? Offer prenatal care at a reduced cost?
Nope, they propose HB 2817. Furthermore, similar legislation is appearing in other parts of the country, a little too close to my front door for comfort: New Mexico Gov. Requires Women Seeking Childcare Assistance To Prove They Were ‘Forcibly Raped’
Like-minded individuals and organizations are asking similar questions. Why is it that the GOP seems to care so little about the babies they are trying to save? This article found on CNN online puts bigoted lawmakers such as Richard Mourdock in the hot seat and asks them this – if God really intended this pregnancy to happen, what will you offer the pregnant woman in question?
Let’s get real about abortions
And check out this blog that Victoria uncovered here on WordPress: Pro-Life or Anti-Woman?
And now for the changing tides: this article points out that the anti-abortion populace is focusing on the wrong aspects of the debate – they shouldn’t be asking how they can eliminate abortions, but how they can assist pregnant women who chose to carry their baby to term, how they can ease the process so abortion doesn’t seem like such a desirable option. This very attitude of acting more “anti-sex and pro-birth” versus “anti-abortion and pro-elimination of unwanted pregnancies” is losing them support, and fast – here is an amazing article written by a former pro-life advocate regarding how she became pro-choice solely due to the flawed logic on behalf of pro-lifers.
How I Lost Faith in the “Pro-Life” Movement
This brave young woman, who originally supported the pro-life movement purely to save unborn babies, realized that the pro-life movement is actively avoiding what has proven to reduce abortions – birth control. Birth control prevents unwanted pregnancies, and a lack of unwanted pregnancies results in a lack of abortion. She then realized that a woman’s body naturally rejects more zygotes than the pill does (contrary to what she was taught), and the GOP is doing next to nothing to assist pregnant women with their medical and childcare expenses. She realized that logically speaking, pro-lifers aren’t actually pro-life, but they are anti-sex and anti-woman. She now considers herself pro-choice and ultimately came to this conclusion:
“The reality is that so-called pro-life movement is not about saving babies. It’s about regulating sex. That’s why they oppose birth control. That’s why they want to ban abortion even though doing so will simply drive women to have dangerous back alley abortions. That’s why they want to penalize women who take public assistance and then dare to have sex, leaving an exemption for those who become pregnant from rape. It’s not about babies. If it were about babies, they would be making access to birth control widespread and free and creating a comprehensive social safety net so that no woman finds herself with a pregnancy she can’t afford. They would be raising money for research on why half of all zygotes fail to implant and working to prevent miscarriages. It’s not about babies. It’s about controlling women. It’s about making sure they have consequences for having unapproved sex.”
Source: Anne, Libby. How I lost Faith in the “Pro-Life” Movement. Love, Joy, Feminism (Patheos.com) Oct. 29, 2012. Web. 11-03-2120. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2012/10/how-i-lost-faith-in-the-pro-life-movement.html
In my personal life, conversations with religious and pro-life acquaintances of mine have proven this hypothesis to be true. The pro-life movement on the GOP level has strayed away from the intent to save babies and into dangerous waters, where they are starting to lose support. The religious populace is starting to smell a rat. Contraceptives are still widely considered anti-Christian, but the truth is, the use of contraceptives is far less horrifying to the religious than an abortion is. The compromise is that any means that will end abortion should be funded and supported, and contraception is the most effective way.
In conclusion, pro-lifers are, one-by-one, starting to see things differently. Abortions will decrease in numbers if welfare and contraceptives remain accessible and without unnecessary regulations to women. The GOP just put their feet in their mouths, and feminists and liberals alike have just been dealt an unexpected wild card.
“Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn’t really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn’t about who can sit can who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it’s about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing.”
-Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
When a woman is challenged to ‘prove’ her sexual assault or rape, it makes her doubt herself more than she already did just getting to the point where she felt she could report it. Unfortunately the Gray Area of Sexual Assault (coming soon I promise), leaves a lot of women feeling confused and upset for reasons they themselves don’t even know.
I’m not saying women don’t ‘cry rape’ as it were. It’s another unfortunate fact of the levels some individuals will go to to hurt another person. But it shouldn’t be the contingency upon whether a woman has a right to a safe and legal abortion.
Seeking abortion should not force a woman who has already endured the humiliation, emotional and physical trauma of a rape, to ALSO endure legal hoops and authorities’ interrogations that might ultimately force her to carry to term if she couldn’t “prove it” within a legal time frame for abortion in many states. There should only be one kind of ‘proof’ for seeking an abortion: a blood test to prove pregnancy. It is no one else’s business to dictate the validity of what brought a woman to that decision.
The bottom line here is that abortion should be safe, legal, accessible, and most of all, rare due to birth control accessibility and affordability.
I just found this email that Victoria sent me that had since been lost in the bowels of my Facebook:
“So, I was driving around a rural and parched portion of AZ, (your guess is as good as mine), and I was talking to one of the well-drillers I work with. (In case some of you don’t know, I’m a geologist, and I work to drill water wells so folks can have clean water.)
Anyhow, this driller was talking about how a lot of geos (that’s what they call us) have very liberal views, and drillers are more conservative. I was fairly new to the job at that point, and he wanted to get to know me. He started his interrogation of me with, “So, are you pro-life or pro-choice?” I looked at his wallet with three crosses, remembered a few things he had said about his life away from work, and began my answer:
Me: Well John (names are changed), I’m both.
John: What? What do you mean? You can’t be both.
Me: So, here’s how I think of it. I think abortion should be legal, and affordable ALONG WITH birth control being cheap, and easily available. If you don’t want people having abortions, you should really focus on how people got there in the first place. Do you support birth control?
John: Well, no. That’s for God to decide.
Me: Do you want to sit here and tell me in the 12 years you’ve been married, you’ve had sex once? (He has one kid, his son).
John: Well no, that’s different.
I stare at him, judgmentally.
John: It’s not that simple…
Me: Right! It’s not that simple. If you want all women to carry to term, are you going to support tax-increases to support all of these now-single-moms who probably didn’t have access to/couldn’t afford birth-control?
John: Hell no! They shouldn’t have had sex in the first place!
Me: So, are you going to sit here and tell me you don’t have sex with your wife cause you don’t want more kids???
John pauses for a minute to think about where we’re going.
Me: Are people going to stop having sex cause we tell them to? You can’t be pro-life and anti-birth-control. Not unless you’re pro-welfare too.
John is still quiet at this point. He’s not mad, just starting to realize how convoluted this whole issue is.
John: Well, I guess I never thought about it like that. All the other girl-geos talk about their bodies and the right to choose.
Me: Look, I don’t want people to have abortions as much as you. But things go wrong. When things go wrong, be it rape, incest, failed pregnancies for whatever reason, or failed birth control, we have the technology and medical expertise to fix it. Furthermore, Women who don’t get to decide how or when they have kids, usually wind up in poverty with that kid. It puts more people on welfare, and their quality of life is lower. John, I’m pro-choice for people who need abortions, I’m pro-life because I want everyone to have a good quality of life, and I’m pro-birth-control because that facilitates a lot of what I’ve just said.
John: Huh.
Me: What are you thinking?
John: I still don’t want people out there killing babies.
Me: That’s fine. What do you think about birth-control to prevent babies?
John: I guess I see your point.
Me: I’m on your side John, just in my own way.
We ride back to the site in silence. I’m wondering if he’s beginning to change his views. He might be wondering if I’m just crazy. Either way, we had a good discussion about it.
This was a real conversation that I had. And I’m posting it to make this point:
We are more similar to people with differing views, than our views would have us believe. The only way we can really enact change is:
1. VOTE (I hope you all did.)
2. Stay informed
3. Talk to people, and find common ground.
This isn’t about us winning, it’s about all of us making our society better. Fighting for and protecting womens’ rights to their own bodies is imperative to achieving that.”