Today is the 33rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and between Dear Leader declaring the day “National Sanctity of Human Life Day” and the seemingly inevitable appointment of Samuel Alito to the supreme court, these are dark days for choice in the US. We’ve had less than a generation of reproductive choice being guaranteed by law, and even that right is being slowly eroded in many states by anti-choice lawmakers creating so many restrictions that the “choice” is really only available to the most priveleged of women. I strongly, passionately believe that we can never have true gender equality – we can never have gender equality of any kind, in fact – without total reproductive freedom. It saddens me beyond description that my future children, nieces and nephews, students and friends, could very well grow up in a country where safe abortions are not available. Maybe we deserve this. Maybe, as a society, we have to go back to the days of back-alley abortions, of losing our sisters’ and daughters’ lives in the most brutal of ways, before we can remember once again how critical this right is to a free, open and equal society. Maybe. But it really pisses me the fuck off that we women are the ones that have to pay that price.
(See Bush v. Choice for more blogging on the anniversary.)
