Another disgusted cry from Liberal Street Fighter

What a depressing, long week has passed. The event which will spread the greatest ripples across our lives in the decades to come is the confirmation of Justice Alito. Many words have been written on how this dangerous radical was lifted to the Supreme Court, on why the Democrat’s opposition to him was so unfocused and feckless. There is a simple answer to that, and his predictable opposition to Roe v. Wade is at the heart of it. He progressed vitually untouched because so many men in this country seem to need to punish women for their choices in life, for the divisions that tear at this country. From both sides, the political parties echo with the scolding voices of men aimed at “irresponsible” women.

warning: brutally truthful photo after the jump
Pregnancy is the required punishment, it seems, and getting out of it increasingly requires interogation and “permission” from fathers, lovers, politicians, church leaders and husbands. If the situation is too dire, women will take matters into their hands, as Marisacat heartbreakenly discribes, quoting the surviving sister of Gerri Santoro:

Leona Gordon, 74, of Westmoreland, N.H., said she remembers when all abortions were illegal. She recalls what she went through in 1964, with five kids and a bad marriage, to get one. And she recalls what it was like, a few weeks later, to claim the body of her sister, Gerri Santoro, who died after one.

For all of you men out there who think that women have to “live” with the consequences of their sexual behavior, I’d like you to meet Gerri Santoro:

She bled out alone, her panicked lover leaving her to die, in those days pre-Roe, pre-Griswold. She’d fled an abusive marriage, had found some measure of happiness for her and her children, yet here is where this “moral” nation led this this life to its end. “That’s the past,” some might say, yet already, thanks to the spreading Jane Crow laws in this nation, illegal and unsafe abortions are on the rise:

Jen (not her real name) is administrator of a women’s health clinic in the South that provides abortions. She has noted with alarm the recent rise in illegal abortion in her community. For some of the women she sees—after their initial attempts at abortion fail—whether Roe v. Wade is technically still the law of the land is beside the point. The combination of the procedure’s cost, the numerous regulations that her state imposes and the stigma surrounding abortion is leading a growing number of women to choose self-abortion or an untrained practitioner over legal abortion. Finding accurate data about the number of cases is almost impossible. However, Jen’s abortion-providing colleagues in other parts of the country, who communicate their experiences through a listserv, share her observation of a recent perceptible rise in illegal abortion in their clinics as well.

The Roberts/Scalia/Alito/Thomas court will most likely expand those restrictions further, destroying what’s left of Roe the way desperation destroyed Gerri Santoro. After Roe, Griswold and Loving will be next.

Whether couched in the language of religion, or some faux-libertarian talk of “living with the consequences of her decisions”, men often speak as though women are wholly responsible when she becomes pregnant. How many of you guys have thought “I wonder if it’s mine” when she said the test was positive? How many of you scold HER for not being more “careful”? How many of you are filled with thoughts of escape when she’s late? How willing are YOU to go under the knife and have YOUR tubes tied if you don’t want children?

There are good men out there, but why do so few of us speak up? Is the subject too unpleasant? Many of the political blogs ostensibly of the left do everything they can to squeltch debate over reproductive rights, and increasingly women’s voices are being pushed out at dailyKos or pushing religious propaganda about abortion at myDD. The Democratic Party moves closer and closer to Democrats for Life as it increasingly uses anti-woman terms to describe the debate.

Shame on you men who act this way, a hectoring, scolding, self-righteous series of lectures like those from William Saleton:

They’re right. It is bad. I know many women who decided, in the face of unintended pregnancy, that abortion was less bad than the alternatives. But I’ve never met a woman who wouldn’t rather have avoided the pregnancy in the first place.

This is why the issue hasn’t gone away. Abortion, like race-conscious hiring, generates moral friction. Most people will tolerate it as a lesser evil or a temporary measure, but they’ll never fully accept it. They want a world in which it’s less necessary. If you grow complacent or try to institutionalize it, they’ll run out of patience. That’s what happened to affirmative action. And it’ll happen to abortion, if you stay hunkered down behind Roe.

Abortion is bad, see? We all MUST agree on that, right? If only women would grow up, see the political realities, and work to get rid of this shameful choice, then we could have a nicer sort of politics. What a load of crap. There have been very strong and well-thought-out responses to this load of tripe. I’m rather fond of Dadahead’s formulation on how to talk about abortion, and how to do so without the indirect slams on women who claim sovereignty over their bodies:

All right, once and for all:

Abortion is a good thing.

Being in a position where you need/want to have an abortion is not.

(Sarah Silverman: “I want to get an abortion. But my boyfriend and I are having trouble conceiving.”)

Why is this such a brain teaser for some people? Think of it as analogous to open heart surgery. Heart disease sucks; the fact that you can have surgery to help with heart disease is good. Unwanted pregnancy sucks; the fact that you can choose not to be pregnant any longer is good. Ideally, there would be no heart surgeries/abortions, because there would be no heart disease/unwanted pregnancy. Given that there is heart disease/unwanted pregnancy, we want people to be able to have heart surgery/abortions.

The question, “wouldn’t you rather there be fewer abortions?” doesn’t have an unqualified answer. Yes, if a decrease in abortions were the result of a decrease in unwanted pregnancies. If it were the result of something else, like increasing expense, criminalization of the procedure, etc., then the answer is no.

To look at it any other way is to continue this culture’s unhealthy attitude toward sex and toward women. Abortion is a medical procedure, a procedure that can improve a patient’s quality of life, or even save her life. That’s all it is. For women to be truly free, they must have this choice. It really is that simple. All of the hot air and indignation that pours out of too many men’s mouths is merely wailing over this last vestige of male privilege. You can couch it in piety over a “culture of life” or over male property rights over a bundle of cells, but EITHER of those points of view lead to enforced pregnancy. Enslavement based on how men “feel”.