Blog for Choice Day 2010

Join us TODAY Friday, January 22, 2010 – the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade – for the fifth annual Blog for Choice Day!

What is Blog for Choice Day? Find out here.

This year’s question – What does Trust Women mean to you?

Here is what some of my Facebook friends are posting today:

Today, January 22, 2010 marks the 37th anniversary of the day abortion became legal. Since that day 50,000,000 human beings have lost their lives. Thousands of abortions are performed each day, adding up to over a million abortions a year. 2% of women from 15-44 have had an abortion; of these women 47% have had at least one previous abortion. 13% of all abortions in the United States are paid with public funds.

I have no idea if these numbers are correct, but two percent of women doesn’t seem so bad. It seems like pro-lifers would have you believe that every women has tons of abortions just because she can. Women don’t have abortions for political purposes.

I especially hate it when men talk about being pro-life. It is my opinion that they have no right to say anything. It isn’t their bodies. If a man fathers a child, he can just take off and not deal with it. A woman doesn’t have that option.

I confronted my Facebook friends with this:

According to a study conducted by the Guttmacher Institute, 68% of women who have abortions in the United States say that they cannot afford to have children and 27% cite this as their primary reason for terminating the pregnancy. 20% cite health reasons. 38% are young women either hiding pregnancies from their parents, or ordered by their parents to terminate their pregnancies.

I can speak from personal experience on how hard it is to be raised poor. My mother raised me all by herself. She didn’t know for sure who my father was. If it wouldn’t have been for my grandparents, other family members and government programs we would have been homeless and hungry.

I don’t know if my mother ever regretted having me, but I can sure understand if she did. Having a kid really complicated things and she had a hard enough time taking care of herself. I’m sure that she realized that she had support and that made the idea of keeping me an easier one to make.

But some women don’t have any support. In this country we don’t use a comprehensive sex-ed program. Young men and women aren’t told what their options are. I know of a woman who got pregnant as a teenager as a result of unprotected sex with the guy pulling out before he came. She had no idea that she could get pregnant that way.

So when we don’t give our young people all the information they need, we are bound to have unplanned pregnancies.

If the pro lifers want to end the majority of abortions, then they need to stop putting up all those billboards and use that money to help women.

If you want to end abortions, here’s how I believe you do it, in ten not so easy steps:

1. Stop making it into a political issue
2. Have universal healthcare
3. Have comprehensive sex-ed
4. Have free, over the counter access to birth control, condoms and Plan B
5. Make adoption of US kids more appealing and less of a headache for potential adoptive parents
6. Have more social programs paid for by everyone’s taxes
7. Encourage women to bring their children to work and/or provide free childcare
8. Provide everyone with a living wage and change the 40 hour, 9-5 work schedule
9. Provide free or low cost college educations
10. Let women give birth by their own schedule, how they want, where they want, with the people they want. No more strapping the woman down, shooting her up with drugs, then cutting the baby out because she’s taking “too long”

Oh, and one more – if you are a guy, get a vasectomy. You can still have kids when the time is right.

We are doing such a disservice to our women by not giving them the information they need and not treating motherhood as a blessed thing. Pro-life people get angry at the choices women make. They don’t want anyone to have sex outside of marriage. That is completely unrealistic. We can’t escape biology that easily. An abortion isn’t an easy thing to do and it is something these women will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

These women are incredible strong and they are protecting themselves and the child. Yes, I said it – Protecting the child by not giving birth. A baby should come into this world as a happy event where her/his parent(s) have support, won’t have to worry about where the money will come from and what others will think.

These women know what’s best for them. You can’t know what’s best for someone else, only for yourself. Personally, I don’t want kids and luckily I’ve never gotten pregnant. When I went to the doctor to get a tubal, he told me he wouldn’t do it because I haven’t had any kids. I settled for an IUD, which had to be removed at the emergency room. It did so much damage that I needed to have a tubal, because it wouldn’t be safe for me to carry a child. If he only would have listened to me in the first place.

Lots of other people blogged today.  Below is the list of other people that have blogged as of 1-24-10. There may be more. Please Check them out here and blog for yourself.

1 our of 3 is me Aaron’s MySpace Blog A Blog Without a Bicycle: Riding the Cyberwave of Feminism A Seat At The Table A single mother whose daughter is now a college teacher. A touch of the crazy Adventures in Menstruating After The Crash Agoraphobia Airial’s Blog Akimbo All Things Ellie Alterdestiny An American Work Ethic in Norway And Such Small Portions AngryBlackBitch.com Animal Rights & Anti-Oppression Anishinaabekwe Annie and Clarabel Apatosaurus Ari’s Adventures Ask Garnet at the end of the arrows there is a circle AWEARNESS Backseat Betty Barefoot & Progressive Barnyard Chorus Beacon Broadside Beer Can Hill Bellesouth Bethkoz’s Blog Bethy’s Journal Big Mouth biglittlewords Birth Pangs Bitch PhD Bitch, Please bookishbelle Building International Coalitions Through Beer and Pavement Bullseye, Baby! bullywatch009 C.H.E.C.K. it out! California NOW Care2.com; Hegemommy Carmen’s Facebook Notes Catgirl Meowing Cedar Hill Report/Ecofeminism Blog Charlotte Richarson Andrews Chasing the End of my Rainbow Choices Campus Blog Christina’s Facebook Christine’s MySpace Blog Cold SnapDragon Confession Zero Crafts Service Criss writes… CT Circus Freak Daily Kos Dangerous Women Dawg’s Blawg Deana’s MySpace Blog Death+Taxes Magazine delbrander3 desert_vixen’s lair Diary of a Mad English Student Dick Mac (alive!) Dohiyi Mir Earwicga Em Lu Travels the EU EmraldeKat Equality for All ERiC jost BLOG ET Phones Home Eugenia de Altura Every Saturday Morning Every Silver Lining Evil Mommy Evil Slutopia Exploring Intimacy Facebook Fair and Feminist Fellowette’s Tumblr Female Impersonator Feminist Looking Glass Feminist Moms Feminist Review feministified Feministing FemiWHAT Fertile Feminism Foot prints in the Snow Foxy by Nature FREEDOM FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS Future Feminist Librarian-Activist Gavin Sullivan Gender Across Borders Glitter Girl’s Ghost Godless Liberal Homo gratuitous prattle GRITtv with Laura Flanders handwritten life Hang A Question Mark HarpyMarx Heartless Doll Hello Ladies

heroines of my dreams Hidaway highrise living for a joke like me Honey and Ollie I, too, dislike it. In a Strange Land Intransigent Feminist Isak It’s All About We… It’s Hard Walking In Stripper Heels Jackson Area NOW jedcstuff Jenn Martinelli Blogging in Boston Jen’s Den of Iniquity Jewesses with Attitude Jukebox Heroines – A Women in Music Blog Jump off the Bridge just another 20-something feminist Just Another Pebble Kansas City Ladysquad Kay Steiger keeping it lit Kittens Farting Rainbows Knit Along Little Doggie Knitting Clio L.A. For Choice La Azote Negra Laugh. Rant. Snort Let’s Eat Cake! Letters from a Willful Woman Lettuce Spray levana layendecker dot com Lillian Lemoning Little Merry Sunshine Livejournal Living as a Prochoice Christian Maybe Never and Maybe Tommorrow Meg’s Idle Chatter Menstrual Poetry Merda D’Artista Michigan Women’s Forum Ministry of the Great Spirit MissMeliss: Escribition MKP-Hearts-NYC Modus Dopens modVoxPop Molly Sandwiches Mollytics monstrrrous Morning Quickie Morrígan Reborn Mousch’s Tumblr Ms.Marx: On Pop Culture MU Women Studies Studies Association Mujeres en Puerto Rico Murder_ Blogs Musings of an Insomniac – Spaces My Favorite Word Is Pants My Life in Pen My Life in Words my livejournal My reader diary at RH Reality Check MyLeftNutmeg.com Ned Resnikoff: Politics, Culture, Miscellany Nilmini’s Facebook of Heart and Mind Oh My God, That Britni’s Shameless Ordinary Mer Our DID recovery journal P.Killingly paigeworthy.com Pandora’s Box Paul’s Blog Pencil Shavings pet’s journey Pinko Liberal Commie Bastard PosaTigres Postilius Progressive Blue Project Economic Refugee Radical: Adventures in Midwestern Feminism Radio Free Bitch Raising Bebe Lulu Rana Quilts Random Thoughts of a Crazy Liberal Ranting for a Revolution re:Cycling Reclaiming Our children Rena Ragimova Righteous Mom Rise Above Ruminations at 3AM sammylif

Say More Yes Seafood Dances Secher Nbiw Sex. Justice. Change. Sexuality and Religion: What’s the Connection Shouts and Murmurs Shut Up, Liz! Shut Up, Sit Down Side of the Road Silence is Betrayal: A Feminist Blog Snarkopotamus SonomaLass’ Blog Spare Candy sparkle neely sparkle speak, girl Sum of Change Superhero Lunchbox Sweetening The Pill Talk Hockey To Me Talking to Myself telling Termination for Medical Reasons in the Media That Brown Girl That Feminist Feeling that i would be good that shits cool The (not so) Little Things The Adventures of Ernie Bufflo The Bad Old Days The Biggest Heart I Know The clouds are all on fire… The Feminist Agenda The Feminist Texican The Gaytheists The Happenstance The HBIC Movement The Last Exile The Living Artist The Lost Albatross The Lucy Stoner Secret Handshake The Only True Adventure The Peeled Apple The Postmodern Geek’s Guide to Sex The Pursuit of Harpyness The Scarleteen Blog The Sin City Siren The SkeptikOne The Spotlight The Sweetest Satisfaction: My Chocoholic Life Without Chocolate (Fasting for Women’s Rights) The Timeline Project The Trouble With Normal The Undomestic Goddess TheCouplesToolKit There Is No Spoon There’s a kitten sleeping beside me Think Inn ThinkAboutWriting Thisfeministrox Tightrope Walkers Anonymous TimFullerton.com To the Orient He Flew. Again. Trust Women: A question of choice Unconventional Male University of Minnesota Feisty Femmes UUCOC Conversations V for Vegan: easyVegan.info Vertigo Waiting for Snapdragon Wandering Wonderment Watching Canada water in my cereal we should all trust women We Tell Ourselves Stories Wedding for Two we’ve both been very brave (walk around on both legs) What a Crazy Random Happenstance White Coat Knitter Whitty j Wire coathangers Wired For Noise Witch of Stitches With a Wonder and a Wild Desire womanwarrior007 Women and Politics Women Deserve Better WomenCount Blog Women’s Health News Women’s Law Project Blog Womens Media Center Womenstake.org Wonderland or Not Woolverine wordnerd Words of Choice Up the Creativity Written on the Body Yankee T’s 365 for 2010 YellaDog Yol’s Blog: Jewelry, Art, Design, Spirituality, Writing… Your Friendly Neighborhood Feminist