for choice

for blog for choice day [here's jill's entry, here angryblackbitch's, here thinking girl's] i'm linking to a letter i've signed in support of the decriminalization of abortion in portugal [only in romanian so far, i'll add the english version soon].

and even though that should suffice in itself, i'll also link to these two older pieces: my favorite ever, which i would call the definitive take on the topic, by bitch ph.d., and for the romanian readers a very good in-depth article titled "avortul: 'ultima solutie' in loc de 'singura solutie'" from the journal of ana society for feminist analyses, analize.

ok... since this is about choice, i could mention that if i were faced with an abortion (for any reason that i can imagine right now) my personal choice would be not to have it because 1) i wouldn't hurt a fly (literally), i just couldn't and i believe in total non-violence, and 2) my situation is such that i could provide for a child if i had to, so i'm relatively free to follow through on that impulse. however, my saying what i personally think about abortion for myself should be as relevant to the issue of choice for women as my dislike of hurting living beings would be to the issue of people (men) getting surgeries. really. if it sounds like a strange comparison to make, that's actually a measure of how much in our society women are STILL seen as baby-making machines and incubators and not fully autonomous humans with full human rights. because it really should be the same thing: i (let alone the government or some other authority) cannot and should not have a say in what people do to their bodies, whether it be to get surgery or to get an abortion - a parallel that works even down to the fact that ultimately it doesn't matter what kind of procedure it is or what this person's reason for getting the intervention done might be. outside of this fact, of course it's important that women (and people in general) be educated about sex in the first place and secondly that women be given as many resources as possible to know about what abortion entails and what alternatives to abortion might be available to them. again, just as in the case of other medical issues, it's about choice. and ultimately, in their particular circumstance, women (people) should make their own decisions. i know that if this world is reproducing and kids are being raised, it's because women mostly want to give birth to and take care of their babies. depending - of course! - on whether they want to, it's possible and feasible, it makes sense, and it's good for them, the babies, and the families. and i just trust women to make their own decisions on that and as a rule - if you're "against pro-choice" you don't, and that's all there is to it. i won't even go into the craziness and hypocrisy of religious fundamentalists who when it comes to this issue (which is soooo important to them, as is anything that involves controlling women and their sexuality) would rather people didn't have access to either thorough sexual education and contraceptives/family planning or abortion services! i won't go into how truly criminal this stance is. i won't go into how the global gag rule is an unconsionable ("christian"?!?) action with criminal repercussions on the global scale! i don't need to... god knows it's all obvious enough. as they say, if men were to be the ones to get pregnant all of a sudden, this would become crystal clear to everybody immediately.

and that's why i am for choice.