Friday, January 22, 2010

Trust is a Must

Thirty-seven years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court trusted women. They trusted that they could make the decision (along with their doctors) of bringing another life into the world.

In 2010, despite the vast changes in social norms and society in general, women are NOT being trusted.

NOT being trusted in their decision-making skills.
NOT being trusted in their ability to weigh pros and cons.
NOT being trusted in their understanding of how being a parent is a monumental task.
NOT being trusted to understand their bodies.
NOT being trusted with their life goals, dreams and aspirations.
NOT being trusted with their personal reproductive health.

Perhaps these "non-trusters" think they are doing us a favor...by making the decision FOR us. By stigmatizing the women who choose to not parent. By mandating waiting periods, because you probably haven't thought about your decision "enough". By making minors jump the highest fences to have access to a legal medical procedure, when they may be in an abusive environment. By forcing women to bear the product of rape - which, just so we're clear, is not a justifiable consequence of being "irresponsible" and is NEVER OUR fault.

Don't treat us like we don't know our bodies or ourselves. We do. And our choices are OUR business. Stay out of our lives, because we gladly stay out of yours.

2 comments:

Kelly said...

Excellent post Lisa. Women need to take back their rights that took so many years, and many women today (particularly the younger generation) may take for granted the huge amount of struggles and literal hell women went through to have a tiny shred of equality in the world. Once we give up one or two of our rights, it will become like a power grab, similar to what is already happening in this society with the patriot act. For some reason, the masses don't seem to mind, this whole loss of freedoms. It baffles me.

BOOK_REVIEWER_EXTRAORDINAIRE said...

Is there a "like" button here? lol. They should have one of those on Blogger.

"Like" on kelly's comment, too...