Isn't it fun to be right?

[VelmaD]

I don't know about y'all but I'm finding it highly entertaining to have the opportunity to say "I told you so" to all those Vichy dems who kept telling us that "they"ll never really try to ban all abortions...they need it as a wedge issue".

[Hello_Kitty]

1. Yeah, but it also sucks to be right about this.

I've never understood that position, anyway. Sure, the upper echelon of the Right wouldn't mind continuing to use abortion as a wedge issue but it's not like they can't find another wedge issue to replace it immediately should they have to throw it to their base. Look at how many justifications they've come up with for the war in 3 short years and people gobble up every one?

[VelmaD]

2. Too true

I think I may still be too angry for the sarcasm to come through like I intend. I'm furious at a lot of people right now.

I can think of dozens of other potential wedge issues without breaking a sweat. And I know one of the ones that is coming next...they won't stop with abortion...they want our birth control pills. Let me tell you, I am just waiting for the day some idjit pharmacist tries to give me shit about mine...I will rip his arm off and beat him to death with it.

[Hello_Kitty]

3. No worries. The sarcasm came right through.

But then the wry sadness quickly followed.

[VelmaD]

4. I'm trying really hard not to be sad...

I want to be angry. People generally don't know what to do with an angry woman. (Besides call her a "bitch" that is.) Good girls don't get angry.

[femrap]

5. I hate saying 'I told you so.'

I know how rabid these men are about control and power over women. Had no doubt. The war in Iraq isn't going well but Bush's War Against Women is going just GREAT.

What does w call those stem cells.....snowflakes? Just wait...you know how theses crazy assholes are ranting about how these fertilized eggs are being throw away? Next thing....they will want them implanted in women....any woman. How about the women who haven't reproduced? Well....let's put them there....make them reproduce.

We need to find our voice on abortion...it is NOT a crime. I am so sick and tired of the right wing assholes trying to make women CRIMINALS. That's what they are doing.


Shit. Fuck. Piss.

[VelmaD]

6. Thanks for putting my nightmare...

into words. I worry that people don't understand...if they can tell us we can't have abortions (and eventually that we can't use birth control) what's to stop them from forcing us to be pregnant? It's all the same...they don't want us to control our own fertility.

What really disturbs me is how "good" guys don't even see the possibility. I had a boyfriend in college...he was Jewish. He laughed after we watched "The Handmaid's Tale" because I told him I was worried it would happen in real life...that I knew there were people in the US who looked at that book and film and saw them as a good idea.

And this man was Jewish. His own grandfather fought for the US in WWII. He was shot down and the locals in France who found him disposed of his dogtags so if/when the Germans found him they wouldn't know his religion. He nearly died being marched from one prisoner of war camp to another in the dead of winter. But the Germans never knew he was Jewish so he didn't get sent "up the oven".

My ex-boyfriend knew from his own family history how cruel and capricious human beings can be, what they are capable of doing to one another...and yet even with that experience he was able to tell himself "oh it can't happen here".

It can happen here. Them telling us we can't end a pregnancy is the first step in stripping away any right we have to determine if and when we bear children. And I'm scared.

[MountainLaurel]

8. You've hit it dead on

if they can tell us we can't have abortions (and eventually that we can't use birth control) what's to stop them from forcing us to be pregnant? It's all the same...they don't want us to control our own fertility.

:scared: :mad:

[femrap]

10. Please don't be scared....be angry instead, OK?

Women have always fought these asshole men....and we have always won, right? The biggest mistake you make is being afraid...then they have you. OK?

And there are men out there who 'get it.' They will fight with us. Don't worry...organize and fight.

[VelmaD]

12. I think what has me in a rage right now...

is that I no longer really believe in my heart that I can trust any man to be on my side if worst comes to worst. That's hard to deal with for someone like me who most of my friends are male.

And I'm not scared or worried...I'm pissed off. I have more rage than I can fit inside my body.

[ismnotwasm]

17. That's what I'm feeling

Rage. I can't really talk about it. I was having lunch with some (mostly)apolicital friends-- they know I like to be involved and brought up the ports issue, asking questions (One was telling me all about Air America) I told them I can't talk politics right now, and my focus is on womens rights. They shut up. Now these people are very nice, believe in a women right to choose for the most part, (not sure about one or two) but I want to see those people's asses out on the streets screaming for our rights. I know it's unrealistic, and I don't want to alienate anybody right now. Because I am going to ask for involvment and committment at some point. The gloves are going to come off, there is NO other issue that I'm as willing to lose friends over, to fight for, to take to pounding on doors for as this one right now.
So I'm taking some deep breaths, I'm contacting my local NOW rep--there's a little gathering on the 8th that our local chapter is sponsering. I need to send some money to NARAL. (I swear everybody gets either $35 or $50 bucks well, there was a time I couldn't even afford that much)

I know I like to quote from Estes a lot but I like this from Women who Run with the Wolves:
"All emotion, even rage, carries knowledge, insight, what some call enlightenment. Our rage can, for a time become our teacher...a thing not to be rid of so fast, but rather something to climb the mountain for, something to personify, learn from, deal with internally, then shape into something useful in the world as a result, or something we let go back down to dust. In the wild life, rage is not a stand-alone item. It is a substance waiting for our tranformative efforts."
This is my goal for my rage. God I hope I make it without tearing someone's head off.

[NMMNG]

7. First South Dakota, now Mississippi

If my state bans abortion I'm getting my tubes tied. No way am I going to risk becoming a breeding vessel for some rapists spawn.

Effing control freaks. :grr:

[CornField]

11. I shouldn't have read that

One more thing to fucking worry about in all this mess. Because my husband and I decided our reproductive days are over, I rarely think of myself as "fertile" anymore. The truth is that I just don't have to worry about it anymore because he had a vesectomy. He had that vesectomy because we've had a horrible, difficult time with pregnancy and we both agreed that we never want to go through it again.

The rape angle... I honestly had never even considered it. I had been outraged on behalf of my daughters.

[cally]

9. Yes, I saw your post on GD and laughed

It is the only enjoyable part of this. I hope all saw the article on all the states trying to stop Plan B.

[Katherine Brengle]

13. Well, once they've done it, they'll lose it as a wedge issue, and it will

be ours again--just a thought.

We're going to win this thing--even if it means a million pro-choice women have to march on Washington carrying coat-hangers and dressed in prison garb (this is one of my fantasy protests).

Also, there are doctors out there, working for Planned Parenthood and the like, who will break this law in order to protect our rights--we need to enlist them in the fight as well.

[VelmaD]

14. A couple of years ago we had...

a million pro-choice women march in DC for abortion rights. See how much good it did.

Once they outlaw abortion they have plenty of other wedge issues to start on...like eliminating access to birth control.

Frankly, abortion should be "our" wedge issue already...most people agree with our pro-choice position. But somehow our leaders are completely incapable of using it as a wedge issue to benefit us.

[Katherine Brengle]

15. True...

I don't believe in wedge issues as a matter of principle--using them shows a lack of integrity and a lack of vision.

I think that if the Democrats can present a platform based on ideas rather than policy initiatives, we can win back the Congressional seats we need in November and the White House in '08 and start to turn this thing around.

[Solly Mack]

16. Well, actually, yes - but it makes me sick

[bliss_eternal]

18. A little--

but it's also enraging, painful, hurtful and scary. I worry for the women in South Dakota and Mississippi. I got a letter from Naral in my e-mail there are several other states already working on joining them. :cry: I worry for the women in those areas, too.

What hurts is, this isn't OUR doing. We've fought the good fight, tried to educate people, voted, protested, signed petitions, volunteered, campaigned, fought Alito, etc., etc. We are NOT the problem. The problem and fault lies with those that didn't see this as a real possibility. Too many other women took the rights we had for granted. Maybe because they didn't fight for these rights personally. Maybe because they just don't think about our rights and what it means to see them go away with the flourish of strategies of this administration--that many of us have seen as handwriting on the wall since they took office.

I hated to hear (or read) others say this, but I'm beginning to think it may be true. Women in this country, today take too much for granted, particularly with this administration and they may have needed this to wake the fuck up. I know, I hate that too...just had to put it out there. Some will sadly remain blind until it personally affects them.

I recall vehemently arguing with a bushbot after the election. She was an alleged pro-choice surburbanite, that listened to way too much faux news. She bought into all their lies completely. This was on another internet board, and several other women (beside myself), tried to show her the signs were already there in terms of the intent of this admin. We showed her quotes straight from the GOP website, articles about pharmacists denying to fill bcp prescriptions, etc. She still denied the proof and the facts. She insisted none of what we showed her had anything to do with bush and the gop. :crazy:

She defended the fact that she voted the way faux told her to. She quoted idiotic catch phrases like," a vote for kerry is a vote for terrorism..." How could a woman be this out of touch on issues that affected her? How could she have voted on one issue (terrorism--per faux)? As opposed to voting for the entire candidate, that made it clear from day one that he wanted to do away with rights of choice for women? Then she refused to admit or see the truth staring her in the face.

For some women, (like the one I described) it will take them trying to fill their prescriptions for birth control at the pharmacy and to be denied for them to wake up. It will take them being personally touched by this to see that it matters. For far too many people if it doesn't touch them personally, they just don't give a shit. For others it will take other horrors I don't even dare write... but it just may be the only way.

Some are sadly being lulled by their safe suburban lives, being stay at home moms, supported by their husbands. What happens when that husband dies unexpectedly or trades her in for a younger model? What happens when she is forced to face the reality of who and what she really is in the eyes of this country?

Those that don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them...

[bliss_eternal]

19. addendum to my post...

I sincerely hope it won't take the loss of lives of women having illegal abortions to wake some women up. :scared: