It's my body, stupid!

[hamsterjill]

It REALLY is my body!

It really IS my body!

It really is MY body!!!

While the Republicans want to take the spotlight off of the women's rights issue and onto the economy, for me, it IS the women's rights issues that will drive my vote for Barack Obama. The economy certainly is important, but not as fundamentally important to me as my basic rights as a human being. My right to have control over my own body, and for my daughter to have control over her own body.

I've read some very poignant stories on DU about women who have had abortions because of rape, or incest or a threat to the mother's life. I certainly have compassion for those women. I understand that abortion is a very difficult decision for a lot of women to make. But I don't want the discussions to even go to the extent of having only an exception for rape, incest, etc. I want abortion legal by choice, whatever that choice may be.

I'm tired of the discussion being only about the exceptions. Abortion should be a private matter between a woman, her health care provider, and whoever else that woman wants to bring into her inner circle. End of story. It's no one else's business. Nothing else is going to be enough for me.

If someone doesn't believe in abortion, don't have one. But someone else's beliefs have no right to force me, or any other woman who wishes to have the availability of a safe, legal means to end a pregnancy to have to bear a child if she doesn't want to.

I do not like how the availability of that choice is being taken away in degrees, little by little.

There is no chance at all for women to have true equality without having the availability for terminating a pregnancy privately, legally and safely. Likewise, no woman who is pregnant by any means (i.e., choice, accident, rape, etc.) should ever be forced to terminate a pregnancy should she desire to have the child.

It IS about choice. I don't want that choice to be diminished by putting qualifiers on the availability of it.

[tama]

1. Same with drug policy nt

[hamsterjill]

4. I could agree with that!

Drugs affect the body, of course. Should be a personal choice.

[closeupready]

2. Same with circumcision.

nt

[hamsterjill]

5. I can agree with this, too.

Certainly a personal decision and deserving of privacy, etc.

[tama]

7. Tough one

Children's rights against physical molestation by their parents and cultural traditions counts also. I'm especially referring to practice of female circumcision in Somalian, Sudanese etc. cultures, which has caused lots of tension with emigrants and refugees from those cultures.

[nenagh]

3. Well said...

Abortion is a private and personal decision...which also has great economic ramifications for women both individually and women with families.

Rupukes want to return to the discussion about jobs..

Well men..being pregnant can directly effect one's job..

These Repuke geezers just annoy me to distraction.

[Karmasue]

6. I totally agree...

I am sick of the right wing extremists always coining these straw-man labels that direct the conversations, and influence the nature of the conversations in this nation - like pro-abortion or pro-life. I have been trying to get this across for years. We are having the wrong conversations. This IS about rights. It IS about women's rights. It IS about a woman's sovereignty over her own body. It IS about control. It should never have been allowed to devolve to this again.

We need to change the tenor of this debate. We need to stop the misdirection. The right wing extremists are systematically eroding the rights of every minority group.

When I brought this up in our democratic party meeting, it was well-met, but before the evening was over, they were back to addressing rape and abortion, not rights. I have seen these discussions shaped by the republican rhetoric over and over. It is frustrating.

[hamsterjill]

8. Absolutely!

"When I brought this up in our democratic party meeting, it was well-met, but before the evening was over, they were back to addressing rape and abortion, not rights. I have seen these discussions shaped by the republican rhetoric over and over. It is frustrating."

It is VERY frustrating. I have watched how quickly this thread has moved down to the bottom of the discussions, too. It makes me wonder if some Democrats actually "get it". As a middle aged woman, I glean no comfort thinking some of the younger voters truly understand what is at stake here, and whether or not some of the older voters still think these rights are as important to them as when they (themselves) were younger.

The right of choice - PRIVATE choice, without stipulations will ALWAYS be of paramount importance to me. Whether for me or for my female descendants.

[Karmasue]

10. And I am an OLDER voter

who has always believed that these rights are important.

And it is critical that we change the dialogue to show that this is about rights. And equally important that we stop allowing the the right-wing to dictate the terms of discussion.

Maybe it is time that we tell our Senators, Representatives, President, and liberal Media to stop using these right-wing terms that are purposely coined to mislead, misinform, deceive, cover-up or bait. Maybe it is time for our liberal think tanks to come up with the terms that will define the way we will insist on conversing from now on!

Or maybe we can come up with some ourselves...and just start interjecting them at every opportunity. In every tweet, facebook entry, email, letter or other interaction with the powers that be.

[Ship of Fools]

12. ...and I remember a conversation I had with a coworker

back in Raygun days. I told her I could not vote for a candidate who
didn't understand that abortion was about rights. She responded that
I shouldn't be a "one-issue voter," in a very condescending tone.

I replied something along the lines that abortion is about women's RIGHTS and should never
have been made an issue. Men enjoy physical autonomy, so should women.
Period. To deny this right to fully one-half of the country's population
is beyond repugnant, and I would never vote for someone who didn't
understand this...

[Karmasue]

15. We are living in a time when

all of our rights are being literally challenged - by the literally challenged.

And once they get a foothold on destroying women's rights, gay rights, and the rights of persons born under the 14th Amendment, where is it to stop?

And further, it is about wealth and power and equal access to health care. The bills that stand now are also about what the government will fund, and whether the poor will have the same access to health care (including abortions) that women of means enjoy, and government assistance when they cannot afford it. Wrapped under cover of rape and abortion discussions, it is as disguised as the rest of their suppression agenda.

And constitutionally, the viability of a fetus at any time before birth, is moot.

[rustydog]

9. This is their jobs agenda?

[siligut]

11. My body and my life

An old guy actually stopped me on the street in Utah to tell me how to walk. Another male stranger, at the bus stop, wanted to know why I wore such loose clothes. Fuck these guys. The bible, written by men, gives them power over women. The good guys feel burdened by this crap, but the assholes, the ones who never question a thought in their heads, thrive on it.

I am going to have to stop here or this post will get ugly.

[Aerows]

13. Women's rights are not negotiable

I care about many things, but if I got brutally raped (which is the only way I'll ever get pregnant), the ability to have an abortion would become tantamount if I conceived.

[ohheckyeah]

14. What is it with these men

that they have this sick compulsion to control women? is the fact they share that need to control women with rapists why they make so many excuses for rapists?

[Karmasue]

16. 2012 in Texas, the draconian laws are already being enforced...

you become impregnated from rape, your uterus becomes the property of the State and you are subject to the draconian, sexist, rabid right laws.

How dare them!

trying to post link- if it doesn't show up google texas abortion law
[link:http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/02/08/10355099-texas-begins-enforcing-strict-anti-abortion-sonogram-law?lite|

It amounts to nothing less than a second violation.

[hamsterjill]

17. I live in San Antonio.

No need for a link. All that you say is 100% accurate. All the more reason why all women need to wake up and pay attention! And encourage the males in their lives to pay attention as well, and vote accordingly.

[Karmasue]

19. I live in New Braunfels.

And it blows me away that the Republican women I know think there is nothing wrong with it. They feel it would help.

They have obviously never been raped.

And they are oblivious to the ramifications of allowing "the State" to make decisions - any decision - about their own bodies.

I asked one of my friends what part of her boyfriend's body was subject to any Texas laws.

Besides his gun.

[hamsterjill]

20. I know!!!!

The Republican women are willing to give their rights up with no discussion at all. Submissive idiots if you ask me. My father raised me to be independent and think for myself.

I visit NB pretty often. Love to eat at the Adobe Cafe!!!

[Karmasue]

22. Great Cafe...

lot of good eats here! I was raised in a Republican family, back when Republicans were the liberals of the day! But I was always encouraged to think for myself as well.

[Karmasue]

18. And here's the kick in the ass...

do you know what they are calling their law to force women to review, re-experience, and look at the results of their horrific experience?

"Woman's right to know"

That just really takes b*lls, doesn't it?


[link:http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/wrtk/default.shtm|

[smokey nj]

21. Well said! WHY a woman decides to terminate a pregnancy is her business and her business alone.

It doesn't matter whether or not complete strangers approve of her reasons for doing so because they don't get a say in the decision. They should just mind their own damned business.