Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Abortion

Tough subject to take on, right? Today I saw the man that spearheads the anti-abortion protests of the one abortion clinic we have left here in Hades where I live. He was overseeing the "worker" landscapers and from what I could hear, was being very respectful to them. I felt as if I was in a parallel universe...a place where everyone treated everyone else with respect and courtesy. This has not been my experience with this man and I do believe he recognized me but could not remember from where. While waiting on my son to get off from work I had about 15 minutes to observe him and observe him I did. You see, I truly despise this man and everything he stands for. As I watched him I could not believe what I was seeing....a seemingly gentle, caring human being. I almost felt as if I were being transported back to when I used to disassociate to block the sexual abuse I suffered most of my life. It felt as if I needed to leave reality to comprehend that this very same man that had harassed me and every other woman in this town who had made the excruciating decision to end their pregnancy, could possibly be a nice man. The lengths he would go to, the tactics, the language were some of the most horrible forms of abuse I have ever witnessed.
I have never understood how a man can justify taking up the fight against abortion. It is my belief that if 100% of men were to accept 100% of their responsibility for the children they father then there would be no need for abortion, except in cases of rape or for medical reasons. I would be willing to take a guess that 80% of abortions would be eliminated. Yet, you see them out there, protesting with such vehemence. They stand outside abortion clinics yelling terrible things to women who are about to go through one of the most traumatic events of their lives. What purpose does this serve? Don't they know that they cannot say anything to us that we have not already said to ourselves? Does showing us gruesome, blood and guts, pictures of partially birthed fetuses really serve a purpose? If so, I want to know what purpose that is. Is the purpose to make us never, ever have another good night's sleep? Is it to make sure that we carry guilt with us about the decision we had to make until the day we die? We already do that. Rest assured you can not punish us or make us feel any more guilty than we already do. Again I ask, what is the purpose? Who gives you the right to abuse us in that manner? Certainly not my God. My Father loves his children and when we are ready to be forgiven will open His arms and welcome us to be forgiven.

1 comment:

  1. I just wanted to say hello. I chose this section because I like your take on the role of gendered oppression and the role of male privelege and patriarchy on this topic. Anyway, hello! I am knee-deep in school work. Hope you are making your way through mathematics so you can move on!!! Best of luck!
    Andrew

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