Dear daughters of America:
This is the backlash we feared, born of the complacency we warned against.
A recent sampling:
In Ohio, Republican state Rep. Lynn R. Wachtmann welcomed two fetuses to "testify" at a committee hearing via in vitro ultrasound images flashed on an overhead screen.
In Texas, the Republican House majority approved a bill requiring doctors to perform sonograms on most women seeking abortions. The women could refuse to look at the screen, but they would be forced to listen to descriptions.
This legislation is similar to legislation passed by the Texas Senate. That bill's author declared, "This is God's time to pass this bill."
In Georgia, Republican state Rep. Bobby Franklin introduced a bill that would nullify Roe v. Wade and require authorities to investigate some miscarriages as suspected acts of "prenatal murder."
In Washington, D.C., the Republican majority in the House of Representatives voted to strip Planned Parenthood of all federal funding, which would jeopardize the health of low-income women and teenage girls by taking away access to services such as family planning.
All of this — and much more — happened in just the past three weeks.
Increasingly, this legislative assault on reproductive rights has the feel of a traveling sideshow. Propagandists pose as experts. Carnies masquerade as messengers of God. Bright red balloons shaped like hearts bob a playful dance in the air at a news conference declaring war on women.
Last Wednesday, I attended the hearing on the various anti-abortion bills pending in Ohio. Quite a spectacle, the ultrasound testimony for the so-called "Heartbeat Bill," which is sponsored by Wachtmann and would virtually eliminate abortions in my state.
Even Ohio Right to Life does not support the bill, which is unlikely to survive a legal challenge that promises to be protracted — and costly to taxpayers.
No matter.
The show must go on.
Anti-choice activist Ducia Hamm narrated as two pregnant women reclined slightly in the packed hearing room so that another woman could slather their bare bellies with gel and project images of their fetuses on an overhead screen.
One of the low points during Hamm's testimony — and there were many — came after several minutes had passed with no discernable heartbeat in a 9-week-old fetus. Hamm joked that it was too bad they couldn't use the more sensitive vaginal ultrasound. Several men on the committee chuckled.
Wachtmann greeted the ultrasound like a revelation.
"I think it kind of hits you in the forehead about what is going on in the woman's womb," he said.
Then Walter M. Weber stood to testify. He is senior litigation counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice.
So official-sounding — until he started talking:
—"In the old days," he said, women knew nothing about what was going on with their pregnancies "until the baby kicked." This comes as remarkable news to every woman who has experienced the many phases of pre-kick gestation, including morning sickness, swollen bellies, and breasts the size of surface-to-air missiles.
—Some women who are raped and become pregnant view carrying their children to be a "triumph" over their rapists. A number of women in the hearing room gasped after he said this. Several wiped away tears.
—If Romeo had known that Juliet's heart was still beating, he would not have killed himself.
Perhaps Weber would like every woman in crisis to ask herself: What Would Shakespeare Do?
Here's my question: What will it take?
What line must these extremists cross before the majority of American women and the men who love them decide that silence is no longer an option?
More importantly, to the millions of young women with your entire futures ahead of you:
What will it take, dear daughters, for you to fight for your reproductive rights?
Connie Schultz is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and an essayist for Parade magazine. To find out more about Connie Schultz (cschultz@plaind.com) and read her past columns, please visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.
COPYRIGHT 2011 CREATORS.COM
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Dear sons. daughters, mothers, fathers aunts, uncles, grandparents and anyone with any shred of care for others it is time to stand up and speak up and act against the insanity that is currently occurring in this country. On almost every issue that faces our society we have voices that are proposing a roll back of the progress that has been made to bring some measure of the promise of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness to our citizens. This has gone way past the point of being tolerated any further.
The insanity on PD is going to be past believing. Thanks for striking this blow for us Connie
Comment: #1
Posted by: JRGrissomCA
Sat Mar 5, 2011 10:22 PM
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Thank you, Connie.
Comment: #2
Posted by: Carla
Sun Mar 6, 2011 5:51 AM
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Here's my take on this, as a woman speaking for myself and no one else. I KNOW my reproductive cycle. I KNOW enough to use birth control. I KNOW if I miss that monthly reminder that I am not pregnant. I know my body well enough that I knew within 5 weeks I was pregnant. The vast majority of women seem to be pretty regular like me and probably have at least some amount of sense knowing if they missed. Should an ultrasound be preformed at 6 to 10 weeks for an abortion, well...they will be told "I see a yolk. I see fluttering which might be a heart beat and I see what I think is the fetus. It looks like a grain of rice to a bean" Wow. Not much there. Now if a female should WAIT to have the abortion then it would be another story. Reproductive Rights are wonderful. I should have the choice if I need to make it. That being said, I also have the choice to not place myself in such a situation in the first place. People should be more responsible in all aspects of their lives. If you make the choice to have sex then you must be responsible for the consequences that act can have. If you are going to be disturbed by the ultrasound, have the responsibility to have the abortion early, preferably before the brain develops. If you can't afford an abortion and don't want a baby, don't have sex. There are other ways to make yourself happy. An abortion SHOULD be something you have to really think about and reflect on your own ethical code. Just because you have the "right" to do something, doesn't mean that it is right to use it as a "get out of jail free card"
Comment: #3
Posted by: Jess
Sun Mar 6, 2011 9:30 AM
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Re: Jess
You're not allowing for one simple fact. Most birth control fails in a certain percentage of cases. Abstinence works, if both parties in the relationship agree to not have pentrative sex. Simpler, of course, for the man to have a vasectomy, which puts him into the 100% club, assuming he follows the doctor's orders and the doctor didn't screw up the surgery. Even a hysterectomy or tying the Fallopian tubes isn't a guarantee -- etopic pregancies are rare but do happen, and they can be fatal to a woman. You can remove the ovaries; that'll do it. It will also put the woman into early menopause.
And what happens if you find that your baby is so seriously deformed that its life will short and ugly and painful? Should that child be forced to suffer? What if it comes down to a choice between a fetus which can't survive outside the womb and the mother's life? There are more reasons than mere carelessness to have an abortion, and to focus solely on the carelessness of a minority unfairly affects the majority.
Abortion is a right. I've never had one, and presently I am celibate. But I have the right to make my own decisions about what I do with my body. No one else does.
Comment: #4
Posted by: Deborah Laymon
Mon Mar 7, 2011 8:48 AM
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I was a women's studies major in the late 1970s. (I should have gone into training for the trades as I am now, but that's beside the point. It was interesting.) Now women make all of 80 cents to men's dollar instead of 67 cents. Roe vs. Wade passed, and girls (I will not call complacent, entitled girls grown women) got complacent about it, and it has been continually threatened with backlash. Something, really, really crazy, hateful backlash.
The "religious right" - and shouldn't that be a nonexistent oxymoron if we truly had separation of church and state? - wants to redefine rape. It want to remove abortion choice *even if* the woman's life is threatened. It wants to allow pharmacists to be able to enforce their religious views on customers instead of serving them, by withholding drugs for STDs and the morning-after pill.
We've come a long way, baby. /sarcasm
Sheeple girls, wake up!
Comment: #5
Posted by: OccamShave
Mon Mar 7, 2011 11:26 AM
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Of course certain stipulations would apply. Rape victims, ectopic pregnancies and chromonsomal problems. But realistically, such issues account for maybe 10% of abortions. Yes, birth control does fail, but 1-5% of the time. So, where does that leave the 85% of abortions that take place? What reasons are there? No money? Don't have sex. Not ready to be a parent? Don't have sex. Got a drunk and ended up pregnant? Don't get drunk, don't have sex. Afraid a baby will interfere with your dreams? Don't have sex. It's pretty simple. I was 19. I didn't listen back then. I grew up and got responsible real quick. My son is an honor student, almost an eagle scout, an accolyte in church, a People to People student ambassador, the list goes on. I made an appointment when I realized what I had done all those years ago. I realized it wasn't my baby's fault I was a stupid teenager. I didn't go. And I thank God each day for that choice. It really turned my life around , made me a better person and made my son fantastic. And yes, I was a single mother for quite a while, I worked 2 jobs, put myself through school. I ended up with a Master's degree, a great career, and a terrific son. It might not be for everyone. But it's not the axis of all evil. Make people be more responsible and great things can happen to and for them.
Comment: #6
Posted by: Jess
Mon Mar 7, 2011 3:37 PM
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Re: Jess @jess People should be more responsible in all aspects of their lives. If you make the choice to have sex then you must be responsible for the consequences that act can have.
Having an abortion *is* being responsible and taking responsibility for one's life and choices. DUH!
@jess Just because you have the "right" to do something, doesn't mean that it is right to use it as a "get out of jail free card"
This makes no sense. It is nonsense. It is a storm of emotion vented in loaded emotion-manipulating language that says nothing.
Comment: #7
Posted by: OccamShave
Tue Mar 8, 2011 7:35 AM
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Re: Jess @jess Don't have sex.
This is your ulterior motive: Making women (other women, anyway, because you are jealous?) sexless. I think people are irresponsible too, but all people have the right to choices in health care and life decisions. Even the irresponsible ones. And the emotional-storm manipulative rallying cry of "take responsibility for yourself", while an excellent concept, usually hides the ulterior motive of "punishing" women for being sexual with forced birth, to put them in their place. Of being, y'know, mommies.
Having an abortion *is* taking responsibility for one's choices. DUH!
If you object to that as a responsible choice, your ulterior motives are showing.
Pretending to care about "babies' is often an emotionally-manipulating cover-up for wanting women to be sexless, also. THis ulterior motive becomes clear when those who pretend to care about "babies' are challenged with the challenge: "So get out there and help provide access to cheap or free sex education, contraception, and sterilization, because these will prevent the abortions you pretend to abhor". The usual reply I have witnessed is "don't have sex."
That makes your ulterior motive pretty clear.
Comment: #8
Posted by: OccamShave
Tue Mar 8, 2011 7:43 AM
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Re: Jess "It might not be for everyone."
It isn't.
You're incapable of empathy or understanding anything but yourself, so I'll dumb it down and spell it out for you: You d-mned well wouldn't want others inflicting their choices on *you*.
So stop inflicting your choices and ASSumptions on other people.
Comment: #9
Posted by: ClayMore
Tue Mar 8, 2011 7:48 AM
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Clay and Occam,
Why are you two so sensitive to what I have to say? I made nno judgement calls on anyone else. I was even one of those who made an appointment to have an abortion. Yet you two spill vitrol and hatred. You're for womens rights and yet rile against one who struggled and preserved against all odds to make it? How forward thinking of you. My point was merely, if I, a simple teenage twit, could make it, anyone can and abortion is something to think carefully about. It may be right for some. But be honest, many abortions are performed because a baby wod be inconvienent.
Sex is a wonderful part of human nature. why cheapen it with thoughtless irresponsibility. Women certainly had more power to shape the world and the morals of our country before they became all caught up in being "sexual freedom". Maybe they didn't make as much money, get paste half nude all over magazines but the adage "if mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy" isn't remotely true anymore. Occam, do you really think having sex makes women equal to men??
as I mentioned in my first post, I am on birth control. I learned my lesson. That's what being responsible for your actions does. It keeps you out of trouble.
I lack empathy Clay? At least I have enough class to make some kind of point without resorting to crass language. I posted that it's a choice I should have IF I need to make it. Simply that is IS a choice that should be thought about. You might want to take a class on reading comprehension. It could possibly help you in the future. My story was told in the hopes that someone else might read it, might realize there are CHOICES and make the right one for them. It's not my job to tell anyone how to live their life. My opinion can 't change the facts of anyone elses life.
That begin said, I am free to state my opinion and defend it. Most people take a lot of thought and responsibility in deciding whether or not to get a pet. Can they afford it? Will it behave? What if it needs a vet? If it's not the right time, they don't get the pet. what is so wrong with asking people to put that much thought into the possibility of having a child?
Comment: #10
Posted by: Jess
Tue Mar 8, 2011 3:41 PM
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