I – Suffer the Women
and Children
What becomes of unwanted
children?
Pimped out or outright sold for
sadistic pleasures?
Dying on broken streets of
disease
or violence, drugs of death,
suicides?
Is this what you meant, what you
demand,
vulture-eyed zealots rapt for your
evil
deity?
Young children are subjected to all kinds
of horrible experiences perpetrated by their so-called caretakers, both abusing
parents and those in whose care parents mistakenly leave them in order to go to
jobs to provide for the material needs of the family. A great many people suffer
basic deprivations of food and shelter. Many children face lifelong handicaps
resulting from early malnutrition. Many are left with lifelong emotional and
physical scars from having to fend for themselves on the streets from an early
age. Violence is learned as the appropriate reaction to anger and frustrations.
In the media and on the streets, violence is glorified and rewarded. Love is
seen as being linked to pain, of betrayal, of loss, and the love/pain link
experienced in abusive family relationships. Poverty both material and emotional
is endured, but not quietly. Violent reactions are visited especially on the
families and neighbors themselves subject to these brutalizing environments, as
well as upon those who are materially better off, in the form of all manner of
violent crime. The criminal justice system seems to only reflect and propagate
the brutalizing conditions which do nothing to ameliorate the hate, pain,
frustrations in an endless cycle of violence, victimizing victims and
perpetrators and numbing the sensibilities of the professionals who attempt to
work within the system. The education system fails to educate in most of the
areas that we need to understand to function in our world. How much do we learn
in school (or even at home or on the streets) about basic health and safety,
financial management, childcare, legal rights and responsibilities, civic duties
and how our democracy best works, communicating effectively and working well
with others, building meaningful relationships, building self-esteem, building
and maintaining a home? Instead, most of what our young people learn in the
schools that they must spend most of their formative years attending seems to be
more destructive and counterproductive than truly useful. Like it or not, our
children (the children of our world, be we parents or not) are our future. The
quality of life we can look forward to is the quality of life we teach our
children to expect and produce. We live out the expectations we are producing
today. Do we really want a world based on violence and ignorance? I don't. I
want a world in which I and my loved ones could live in relative peace, security
and well-informed choice.
I am beginning to
think that this whole anti-abortion, anti-contraception idea is about rapists
who want to impregnate their victims and then have access to torture them for
life. Mighty big hate on. No doubt politicians vote for policies to excite
their red state constituency of white nationalist incels who can only reproduce
through rape, and feel entitled to pass their rapey genes on for the next
generations, with the added benefit that, considering the high rate of maternal
mortality among black women, these laws can be part of a white nationalist
attempt at genocide.
Rape for the rapist can be likened
to bestiality in that he negates the humanity of the victim.
Rape is a political statement. It
says: "I am everything. You are nothing." When politicians force women to bear
children, it is a form of rape.
Woman needs to be seen as much
more than a biological incubator, to be seen as a full person with self
agency.
Legislating against
reproductive choice is not the classic protection of the innocent from the
powerful, but really (no matter your position on religion) interfering with a
sacred relationship. Because of the nature of mammalian biology, we have a newly
forming creature growing within the body of a more mature creature of its kind.
When that relationship is desired by the mother, it is wonderful and fulfilling.
When that relationship is not desired, it is horrendous, nightmarish. Then, of
course, there are the situations when the pregnancy is actually dangerous to the
health of the mother, or to the health and well-being of her other children, or
when the fetus is malformed to the point of surviving, if it does, in a
horrendous nightmarish state which the mother would need to endure with the
child. These are not the kinds of choices that government should make. These are
issues much too personal to belong to the impersonal state.
The US Constitution says
absolutely nothing about abortion, which is as it should be. Such medical
decisions have no place being regulated by government at all. The correct
Supreme Court decision for this case, in my opinion, would be to state that very
clearly. It's about being able to make our own decisions about our own bodies
-- not privacy as such, but personal integrity. It is very dangerous to
legislate in these areas. For instance, look at the drug laws which have been
used to lock up those perceived as social misfits, which is apparently a vast
percentage of our society according to the numbers of prisoners who have had
their rights abrogated.
God gives us freewill,
unless
we are fertile females. The
ability to
gestate/bear young
automatically makes one a
slave.
Divisive politics takes in a whole gamut of
issues, of which abortion is but one, and RvW merely part of the overall
picture. What the Christians are rallying around is not merely abortion, but
their idea that they are not getting enough respect by the rest of us because
God Himself is their leader. The abortion rights issue was one that was used,
consciously and determinedly, by power-hungry leaders of "the faith" as an issue
of polarization: "See, all those who mock are evil murderers working for
Satan." There is absolutely nothing wrong with believing abortion to be
murder. There are some sound arguments. The problem is, there are many
instances in which murder (defined as the killing of a human by another human or
group of humans) is very much condoned. There are many other instances in which
it is tolerated as the lesser evil. In fact, most Right to Lifers I am aware of
are 4-square in favor of the death penalty, and the military. Ultimately their
problem is not so much with murder as with sin, the sin of sex for other than
reproduction. In fact, I have had several anti-choice folks tell me exactly
that. More basically, it seems to boil down to 1) who gets to make the rules
for all of us and A) the absolutely nonsensical sick backassward attitudes
toward sex so prevalent in this country. ("1" and "A" representing two separate
but equal streams)
An Ignored
Voice
"Mommy, don't make me!
Don't keep me and hate
me.
Your poisoned womb
tears my soul.
Please let me go."
"Child, it will be
alright.
I'll give you to outraged
strangers
who have prayed for your
life."
"No, Mommy. Don't you
see?
I am your destiny.
Release me from mortal penitence.
Do what you must.
In this tiny voice, put your
trust.
Grieving, set my spirit
free.
You know this is meant to
be.
We both know how much you
care.
This choice is your cross to
bear."
“Entitled man, don’t make
me.
Don’t demand my birth and hate
me.
My fate is mine, don’t you
declare?
Not in my name – I’m not your cross
to bear.”
sacrifice
Why would a woman
risk
death or other bodily
terrors,
social exposure to all the
slings and arrows
of frenzied
hate,
to end her unborn’s
fate?
She is protecting her child,
like a good mother does,
despite her own
suffering,
protecting her innocent from
this horrid world,
from people like
you.
For Christianity, life on Earth is a
test of our immortal souls. We are sent here by God to be tested. Those who
pass get eternity in Heaven, unhindered by unbelievers or lesser souls. At last
reward of the end of Earthly chores and suffering. This informs the Christian
argument against abortion (aside from "sex is sin"). These innocent children
must be born and baptized to get to Heaven (apparently once infants have been
alive to be consecrated to God, “conservatives” would just as soon He take them)
because God wants those souls incarnated for their testing. No Heaven without
birth on Earth. Though, if life starts at conception, ought not that short womb
life be test enough for those so pure that God accepts them back immediately,
whether through divine intervention (miscarriage) or human agency (perhaps
informed by spiritual contemplation)?
Not even going into what women (and
even young girls) so often have to go through, what about these innocent
children you are condemning (against their mothers' wills) to a life in which
they have no place, no warm welcome, no "safety net" for when they are defeated
by the horrors of Hell such Christians are making of our Earth? There is more
to human life than birth. Are we honoring vital rights to clean air, clean
water, nutritious food, shelter including climate shelter? Are the
self-entitled “Godly” supporting any kind of real life at all?
There Is Only One
Sin
Christ died to save
us
for our sin of
hubris.
But how be forgiven
while you persist
in twisting your own
admonitions
as Truth,
then using this
madness
as righteous excuse
to quell self-expression
that you proclaim
"sin,"
persecuting lifestyles
not
condoned by your kin.
Because truth is, the
All
Knowing and Giving
includes multitudes
as
exemplars of living.
Now, informed,
enlightened,
pray for peaceful
amends.
Acceptance outpours, a
welcome world wide with
friends.
Hands stretch o’er bent
knees,
upward open our eyes.
Humbled by divine
truths,
loving and wise.
Child's
Prayer
Forcibly pulled from
eternity’s
perfect view.
Wrenched out of limitless
beauty.
Damned to dependent
servitude.
Yet incipient brilliance, potent
skills
offered no access route.
Disallowed, stamped down,
suppressed.
Kept captive,
starved,
brutalized, not for
crime
nor failing.
Conjuring puissant
spirit
ought not be lightly
perpetrated.
Never taught essential
honor
attests poor
training
for mentor
responsibility.
May my nascent plea
whisper shrilly, disturb
your
inner ear?
Release my wings.
You have no use for
the person I would grow to
be.
Set my future free. Let me fly
home.
Many people who spittle hate against women
who need abortions seem to have this little scenario going on in their head of
licentious sex, lust-fueled irresponsibility that must be punished by inflicting
yet another unwanted child on the world.
Yet, from what I have seen, most abortions
are not in any way "convenient". They are often chilling tales of life and death
decision based on horrific circumstances.
Imagine sex separate from reproduction.
Now, understand that abortion is chosen for serious reasons not about
irresponsibly giving in to lust.
Struggling through
childhood,
the tales get
twisted.
Little boys & little
girls
separate
language.
We think we know our
place,
our destinies,
from the games we're
given,
the words we've learned to
imitate,
rhymes, reasons,
rituals.
Imbibing passion body to
body,
we awaken rules of
blame.
The woman
tempts.
The hero
conquers.
The sad boy desires
a
self-fulfilling
fantasy,
stomping upon his heart to
start the flow of real
blood,
real rage.
Nobody likes to admit what casual
cruelty we are capable of. Gang-raping children because we can doesn't appeal to
our desired self-image. Her mother allowed it in exchange for food, a place to
sleep, the blessed drugs to keep away the pain of knowing the endless, hopeless
misery life had become. Or, she was alone on that dark street, lost and
frightened, with nowhere safe to go, no one protecting her just then. Her
sexuality tempted me, in all that frenzy of bonding blood cries, heightened
primal energies, hot insistent bodies falling under ritual spell. She is but a
sacrifice, a holding cell for sin. There is no freedom for will to grow within
her, only unwanted, tainted seed, thrust outward from the nauseous collective
psyche to poison her potential. Does she need to be defined by what has been
done against her nascent will?
Post-trauma
A child of my own
rape, it shaped me, made
me
less and more
Memories stored, to
when I can't go on
implore:
"You'll feel better
when you're gone."
Bitter
Dregs
You don't get
it.
You don't want
to.
It would be too much to
bear
if you let your thought go
there.
Briefly unconscious,
awakened to
hard concrete ground
surrounded
by heels and toes,
amazing
they don't crush me, but
no,
like clockstep they walk
around
though occasionally a(n
unmeaning?)
shove -- I'm not a
someone,
just a minor
obstacle
unnoted in their busy
day.
No worries.
Not like shoved down
under
hard muscle, jutting
bone,
stinking of beer and
rage;
or waking from too brief
oblivion,
broken pain,
bleeding
tears, torn, bruised,
a
colorful toy
made for
pleasure.
Then the voices,
echoes.
Harpies and Sirens,
Furies
and sad old women.
Fingers
shake in
disapprobation.
Shrill voices call me
beautiful,
in the way that ugly things
are.
So bad, so pitiful,
cardinal
status among the
neverweres.
Struggling shadows,
whispering
curses demurely lest
anyone
notice and throw them
further
down, below
duration.
Never easy, confessing
degradation.
The sin adheres. No one wants to
know.
Ok, I'm going to try to explain
this, though I will probably regret it. The issue isn't pro-life or
pro-abortion; it is pro or anti choice. No one is asking the government to
require abortions. No one wants to force anyone to have an abortion, even to
save their own life. I don't know if any of you were around when abortion was
illegal. It was around the same time that judges were requiring indigent women
to to be sterilized, because they already had children dependent on the state,
or because they were deemed unfit. The movement to legalize abortion under
certain conditions to be performed by trained physicians was a movement to save
lives. Women who were desperate would have so-called backroom abortions or take
poisons or falls or otherwise seriously compromise their lives and health to
avoid what must have been to them a fate worse than death, for a variety of
reasons. The anti-abortion laws were not essentially about saving lives; they
were about keeping women in their place. Men who didn't want a potential child
could walk out. However, there was always forcing their lady love into backroom
or Tijuana abortions, a practice actually fairly common, certainly not generally
frowned upon. If they didn’t want to pay for that, kick her in the
stomach/throw her down the stairs – whatever it takes to end this potential
unwanted complication. I also don't know if you are aware that pregnancy and
childbirth is no walk in the park. There can be a variety of serious risks to
the life and health of the potential mother at any point along the way, even
late in the pregnancy. No one is saying you should be required to consider
abortion just because giving birth might make your child (and those you already
have) motherless, and there are women who are willing to give their lives for
the chance that their baby might live. There are also women who are not ready
to make that sacrifice. There are certainly women who can separate the father
from the child and carry their rapist's baby to term, even raise and love the
child. There are others who can't. There are women who endure the suffering to
love that tiny, short, agonizingly painful life that results from serious birth
defects, diseases, anomalies, all the tragic possibilities that can become
real. There are those who sincerely believe they are doing a service to their
child and their families by in a sense a pre-life mercy killing. We all have to
live with the consequences of the circumstances of our lives. It would be
better for us to take and bear the responsibility for those circumstances as
much as possible. I see the anti-choice position as
anti-personal-responsibility. I see the pro-choice position as saying we must
each take responsibility for our lives, our actions, our children. Shouting
epithets, bombing clinics, killing or jailing doctors or advocating it, how is
that about love or compassion or any Christian virtue? Perhaps if we could
generally come from a place of loving compassion, we could learn to speak softly
and sincerely and find that what we all want, ultimately, is a kinder, gentler,
better world for us all in which we can learn to hear each other's stories,
concerns, truths without rancor and condemnation.
If you don't believe that
abortion should be allowed, don't do it, scream your beliefs when you perceive
someone is listening, understand that what would really help to limit these
outcomes is to make it easier to be a parent and a child with real pro-life
policies involving financial and social support for raising kids, volunteer to
give loving aid to people in need, make a difference -- not a law.
The 2nd Amendment asserts that the
right of citizens to even their dangerous property, such as weapons, is still
sacrosanct against government abrogation.
The underlying principle is that we
are a free and independent people. We have the natural right to take care of
ourselves rather than give over our power to a parental government on which we
entirely depend. A further underlying principle is the right to private property
for which we are responsible.
What property is more personal,
private, essential to individuality, than our own bodies? True freedom and
independence is only possible if we have the power over how our bodies are used
based on our own values and needs. Thus, I propose that the individual liberty
side of such issues as abortion, illicit drugs, assisted suicide, and others of
this ilk could well be argued on a 2nd Amendment basis.
Hey Conservatives, what about a
market solution to abortion? While some abortions may not respond well to the
market -- those due to serious medical issues or rape -- for those abortions we
mostly say we want to end, those that are by choice due to financial or
opportunity loss concerns, people who truly care about saving fetal lives could
adopt the fetus and take on legal and financial responsibility, or put money
into a stock option on it, or bid for it on some kind of ebay like site, or
otherwise improve its market value.
Abortions save mothers lives, both
directly and in a broader sense. They often save the unborn child from a life
that no one ought to be forced to endure. Perhaps what is needed are massive
wrongful life suits (maybe class action or pro bono through activist lawyers)
brought by horribly deformed and diseased children against the "right to life"
groups that required their birth. Life is not always a gift, but sometimes more
like a curse, a burden that those who insisted they knew better than the mother
ought to pay for if we are to have credence as a free society. A right to life
for free people is also a right to not be forced to live.
Eureka! It all makes sense.
No abortion or birth control or gayness so we build the population pressure as
quickly as possible. No serious controls on pollutants or nuclear reactors or
fossil fuel output, in fact let's dig up whatever fossil fuels are left as
quickly as we can -- don't worry about the consequences because
We are heading for
Armageddon
When we will no longer live
on the dirt
Sentenced to Hell or
Heaven
for Eternity -- can't be
any worse
than how we've mucked
up
God's Green
Earth!!!
I spent a large portion of my
life wishing I had been aborted so that I would not have to suffer my
existence. If I felt that way, I'm sure others do as well. So many people have
had it so much worse than I have. Not abortion for birth control, but for death
control, early suicide prevention. Have you seen the statistics? Not to go
into gory details, but I can tell you that I have no fear of Hell.
Cruelty (excerpt)
https://nightspages.blogspot.com/ - {patchwork narrative} a flash fiction serial following the story of
a child vampire, the eternal child monster working out that existence
Throughout night walks I see, touch
their misery;
so many unwanted people, so much
gratuitous cruelty.
Children thoughtlessly conceived,
grudgingly expelled helpless,
let loose into the world without a
friend. All these people who
trust death much more than
life.
A streak of compassion grasps my
pondering mind, takes thought
into a whirl of streams. I am
drawn to wondering about mothers,
their archetype of loving
protection. How do beleaguered women
conscious of their inability to
give what they lack, of their bleakness,
allow their children birth into
useless suffering, into brutality?
Inculcated or innate, maternal
imperative, moral responsibility to love
and protect, ought sound strong
warning against prolonging
unfortunate gestation. Certainly
women have always shared knowledge,
means of ending what ought not have
begun. Or do they feel need for
outward manifestation of their sins
of pleasure, of weakness, of
worthlessness? Do they bear not
blessings but images to punish,
a chain of blood and thorns as
reminder and retribution?
Do potential mothers, pregnant with
potential children
who have no interest in being born,
diseased or
precognizant of earthly
depredations, do they as
sympathetic hosts feel this horror
of gestation’s
consequences? Are these unborn the
true instigators
of abortive maternal acts? If
their mothers are not able,
or sufficiently sympathetic, to
comply, is suicide a
rectification, a severely late-term
abortion? [Connection
