*** Cross-Posted at FeminismFriday - The Blog ***
So yesterday was a holiday up here in Canada – Victoria Day . So I had the day off from work and as a result I had some time to watch daytime television, primarily “The View “. Most of the time I watch this show because of the controversy that is created as a result of the different political opinions from each co-host. And yesterday’s show was no exception…
The topic found its way to Abortion. Quite frankly I cannot even remember how it happened only that it was during the first segment in a week full of Hot-Topics (my fave episodes for sure!). As a note, the second segment talked about the pregnant 66 year old women , and most of the opinions were the same as they were in the first, which I will now elaborate on further.
What you are likely aware of if you have ever seen about 5 minutes of The View is that Elizabeth in staunchly Republican and extremely Conservative in her line of thinking and political decision making. As a result, she is, as she would likely claim, obviously “pro-life”. She believes that women have abortions out of convenience and that it is always an easy decision for them. When other members of the panel argued that maybe it wasn’t such an easy decision she used it as a reason to deny all women access to legal abortion. She seems to be the type that believes it is only slutty, non-monogamous, career-hungry women who do not use birth control that ever receive an abortion.
Then we have Joy and Whoopi, who most viewers would likely guess are pro-choice, and I think we can guarantee this after yesterday’s episode. Whoopi was primarily concerned with keeping choice for women who are poor or unable to afford to raise a child. Joy went a step further by arguing that she in fact is pro-life and that those that call themselves pro-life should actually refer to their cause as Anti-Choice since that is what it is really all about. Pro-choice people do not advocate anti-life, in fact very often abortion activists are really concerned with all aspects of reproductive health including full-term pregnancies.
To me, none of this was particularily surprising. I have come to know the panel as; 2 democrats, 1 republican, 1 person who is usually confused, and 1 person who tries to remain neutral but is obviously liberal minded. What surprised me was the news that Sherri had herself had an abortion at age 17. She claims that she went to Planned Parenthood upon discovering her newly pregnant state, where she says she was slightly pressured into making a decision to abort that she was having second thoughts about.
While I cannot comment on the specific nature of Sherri’s experience, and in fact she should be allowed to define her own “herstory” however she chooses. I would suggest that most Planned Parenthood workers are excellent people who provide information and allow clients to make uninfluenced decisions. Either way, Sherri mentioned that she has dealt with a great deal of guilt as a result. However, Sherri clarifies that despite some second-thoughts and guilt she is pro-choice as she does not want to go back to when abortion was illegal, back to a time of coat-hangers and back-alleys.
Half of Elizabeth’s response to Sherri’s story should be further explored… She asked if it was possible if the guilt resulted from the stigma or judgment surrounding the procedure? (I think a likely possibility!) OR if it really was about women regretting their decision? So what do you think?
For further reading on this topic I highly recommend Jennifer Baumgardner’s – Abortion and Life . As well as checking out my previous post on Pregnancy Care Centres.
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I definitely agree, from personal experience, that her guilt most likely comes from the stigma. I had an abortion when I was 18. I was working at Chik-fil-A (if you don't know, it's a Christian fast food restaurant located primarily in the South). I was impregnated by a friend w/ benefits, I was doing lots of drugs, and I did not want to have the baby.
I'm from a small city in Texas. When the Planned Parenthood worker saw the pregnancy test results, she immediately went into some spiel about getting insurance for me and my baby, and I interrupted, with tears in my eyes, asking if she could give me an abortion. She stopped talking, looked angry, gave me a pamphlet, and told me I would have to travel 6 hours to Fort Worth since they don't do the procedure in my area.
I had to ask time off of work. My roommate also worked at Chik-fil-A, and word got around that I was having an abortion. Looking back, maybe I should have denied it, but I didn’t realize how extreme their reactions would be. Co-workers told me not to do it and stopped talking to me. My boss asked me if I would talk to a friend of hers about it. Already feeling unsure because of the way the Planned Parenthood employee acted toward me, my boss's "friend" made me feel even worse. She was associated with some pro-life group and basically told me I was going to regret my decision, that it would ruin my earthly life, and that I would spend eternity in hell.
As scared as I was, my will was strong, and I had the abortion anyway. Unfortunately, it was not a good experience. They didn't give me enough medication, and I woke up mid-procedure. I could feel it being sucked out of me. I was alone, and none of the staff was anything but staunchly professional, avoiding eye-contact and only speaking to give instructions.
That, combined with what everyone had been telling me, I did feel that what I did was wrong and I didn’t care about my life anymore. I became addicted to a hard drug, lost my job, and lived out of my car for 2 years. I've been clean now for 5 years, and it's taken a while to realize that I did not make a mistake by having an abortion. My choice made it possible for me to have the successful, satisfying life that I do today. But if it wasn't for all of those other people getting in my business, I could have come to that realization much sooner.
Abortion stories should not be like this. I would say that it is NOT from the act of the abortion that guilt is generated, but from the pressure that (some parts of) society inflict upon women who want to take life into their own hands. If I could go back in time, I would not change my decision to have an abortion, but I would tell all of those who thought it was their responsibility to impede upon my personal decisions to fuck off.
I kinda felt like Whoppi disapproved of women who get abortions if they have enough money to raise the baby. I hate that "abortion of convenience" term. You know, women want the "convenience" of not having to raise a kid for 18 years even if we do have the money for it. How dare we.
Elizabeth bringing up how one of these kids could be the next president is so naive. First of all, there are bad presidents and there will be someone else who wants to be president. It's not like someone finding the cure to cancer. But even for that, what are the chances that a kid born to a mother who doesn't really want him/her and doesn't care for him/her is going to become an amazing scientist?
Similar to you, the "next Einstein" argument could just as easily be countered with the "next Stalin/Hitler/Vlad the Impaler" argument.
When it comes down to it, you don't know what that fetus will be as an adult and it's not something that's entirely relevant.
He could save the world, or he could kill us all (also, why do they always use male examples for greatness? Why can't the fetus be the next Madam Curie or Sojourner Truth?)
Pro-choice people do not advocate anti-life...
Exactly. I'm a reporter, and my newspaper's style standards reflect many others in that we are instructed to use the descriptors "anti-abortion" and "pro-choice."