Abortion
After reading Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay, I’ll read anything by her, no introduction necessary. So you can imagine hers is the first take I read after the leaked forthcoming overturning of Roe v. Wade. Here she is at The Times, “It’s Time to Rage”:
We should not live in a country where bodily autonomy can be granted or taken away by nine political appointees, most of whom are men and cannot become pregnant. Any civil right contingent upon political whims is not actually a civil right.
So that got me wondering, what is the best thing for me to keep ready in my head should I ever need to explain where I stand? The following tweets from Shannon Hale’s excellent thread are a good place to start:
• How do we determine what constitutes a baby? Science overwhelmingly agrees that an embryo and fetus are not a fully formed human. Some religions disagree, and many believe that at the moment of conception, an enteral spirit enters those cells, making it human.
• There’s no proof of this. It is a belief. It is faith. And people are absolutely free to believe as they will and act on that faith. But requiring others to believe and act according to others’ religious beliefs? That’s, like, just SO against the laws of this republic.
• Also against the laws of this republic? Requiring anyone ever to put themselves in any harm or threat of harm in order to save another’s life. Mandatory blood donations? Bone marrow? Kidneys? Liver? Skin grafts? NEVER! Even after death, no one can take our organs w/o permission.
• The ONLY instance where laws require people to sacrifice their own health and give up their body autonomy in order to support another’s life is with pregnant people. So it’s not really about the sanctity of life, it’s only about controlling pregnant bodies.
…
• And here’s the final realization that changed me: If you believe that a pregnant person should be able to terminate their pregnancy if they were raped, if they are a victim of incest, if they are a 10yo child, if pregnancy and birth will kill them, then you are pro-choice.
And now I loop right back around to what Roxane Gay said: Any civil right contingent upon political whims is not actually a civil right.