I also think being put on hormone therapy as a general preventative isn't a great idea, but that doesn't change the fact that society regularly prescribes birth control to girls in their pre-teens. (I'm also against "psychiatric" drugs, but that doesn't change that their use is widespread.) If it's going to be used casually to control issues with menstruation, then we might as well consider it for other purposes.
IUDs are seriously under-promoted and under-utilized in the US. As a safe option for both hormonal and non-hormonal persistent "fire and forget" birth control, they are excellent and used everywhere throughout the world... except here. Their bad press in the US is strictly related to a single poorly-made product; modern IUDs don't deserve the reputation the Dalkon Shield gave them.
In any event, I don't see how we're disagreeing here. When the only option for women was to get married and have some guy's kids serially because she couldn't tell him 'no' when he wanted sex, then I can see how reaching for abortion, though a desperate move, seemed reasonable. In a society where women can remain single until they die without social repercussions, can have careers and lives without having to hook up with a man, and have multiple birth control options should they choose to have sex that specifically involves a man's penis in her vagina, I don't see how championing abortion has anything to do with a woman's right to choose.
Women have plenty of choices that don't involve killing a second person if they want to maintain their personal freedoms. To keep clawing at elective abortion as a "right" they require in order to be free of men makes us look like monsters... or worse, like adolescents who can't handle the freedoms we demanded society award us.
We want to be free of the tyranny of men, and to have sex whenever we want? Sure. Fine. Then let's start being serious about educating and empowering our daughters to make the right choices. But we must stop displacing the consequences of our poor choices onto innocent lives and justifying it in the name of social structures that no longer oppress us.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-01-28 01:01 pm (UTC)IUDs are seriously under-promoted and under-utilized in the US. As a safe option for both hormonal and non-hormonal persistent "fire and forget" birth control, they are excellent and used everywhere throughout the world... except here. Their bad press in the US is strictly related to a single poorly-made product; modern IUDs don't deserve the reputation the Dalkon Shield gave them.
In any event, I don't see how we're disagreeing here. When the only option for women was to get married and have some guy's kids serially because she couldn't tell him 'no' when he wanted sex, then I can see how reaching for abortion, though a desperate move, seemed reasonable. In a society where women can remain single until they die without social repercussions, can have careers and lives without having to hook up with a man, and have multiple birth control options should they choose to have sex that specifically involves a man's penis in her vagina, I don't see how championing abortion has anything to do with a woman's right to choose.
Women have plenty of choices that don't involve killing a second person if they want to maintain their personal freedoms. To keep clawing at elective abortion as a "right" they require in order to be free of men makes us look like monsters... or worse, like adolescents who can't handle the freedoms we demanded society award us.
We want to be free of the tyranny of men, and to have sex whenever we want? Sure. Fine. Then let's start being serious about educating and empowering our daughters to make the right choices. But we must stop displacing the consequences of our poor choices onto innocent lives and justifying it in the name of social structures that no longer oppress us.