General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"I hate every one of you. I wish I had never been born."
Some 45 years later, those anguished, angry words still echo in my mind.
I was at a rally for Roe in Sacramento in the mid 70's. Of course there were the woman-hating, gestational slaver protestors there, one of whom threatened me, right in front of police. But that is another story.
One of the speakers at the rally was a young woman. She stood at the microphone, looked toward the protestors, and said, "i am the woman that you people forced to be born. My mother was raped, and she could not get an abortion, because of you. My life is a living hell. I hate every one of you. I wish I had never been born."
I will never forget that young woman and her pain. And I do not want to hear about how she needed help for her anger and hatred. We need to do everything in our power to make certain that there are no more such tragedies.
May all who interfere with a woman's right to full autonomy, all their enablers and supporters, receive everything they deserve.
mercuryblues
(14,531 posts)That her mother was forced to give birth to her. She was 4 days old when the neighbor heard her crying for hours an broke the door down.
Her mother was gone and she was in an infant carrier on the kitchen table. The gas to the oven was on.
Her life was hell and she was ready to do ie at 19.
Fucking 19.
niyad
(113,284 posts)doing now?
mercuryblues
(14,531 posts)I hope she stuck with it and pulled through.
niyad
(113,284 posts)Progressive Jones
(6,011 posts)Tumbulu
(6,278 posts)This is so important!
niyad
(113,284 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)the call to nurture a baby.
Oh, sure, she was raped and forced to give birth but just you wait, her maternal instincts will kick in and she'll love that baby!
Or she'll abuse it because the trauma of rape has never been dealt with and/or the baby looks just like the rapist. Or maybe, just maybe, a woman or young girl doesn't want to give birth to their own sibling/cousin/aunt/uncle, or the child of a rapist not related to her.
And why would anyone be so cruel as to force a little girl to give birth? That's child abuse and people who would do that are no better than the rapist that got the child pregnant. Sick and depraved all.
Or you hear the completely dismissive "the baby is innocent".
So? Just because the fetus wasn't the rapist doesn't make it a blessing. Or wanted. Or needed. Or the best outcome.
Even if she wasn't raped and simply does not want to carry a pregnancy to term - they say the same kind of shit.
Oh, honey. Just because you feel that way now doesn't mean your maternal instincts won't kick in later.
Like enjoying a good fuck (or lamenting a bad one) that results in pregnancy translates into instant maternal instincts. Instant desire to be a mother.
Like you couldn't possibly know your own mind about not wanting a child and that once overcome by hormones everything will change.
People who think that way are no different than the fool who said women have a way of shutting it all down to prevent conception during rape.
No clue about the effects of rape, no clue about how reproduction works, no clue about the female body, and for damn sure no clue about women as people.
And just because somebody's grandmother/mother/sister/aunt changed her mind about having kids doesn't mean it holds true for all women.
And just because a rape victim does choose to give birth doesn't mean all rape victims want to carry the fetus to term.
You want to "choose life"? Then how about choosing the life of the person in the world - the woman. Choose her well-being. Choose her rights.
malaise
(268,967 posts)llmart
(15,536 posts)Great summation.
The Magistrate
(95,247 posts)niyad
(113,284 posts)posting this in Women's Rights And Issues? It deserves its own OP, as it covers so many points. Thanks in advance.
Solly Mack
(90,764 posts)- it's like being a host, I have the need to be attentive to everyone present.
But right now my frame of mind isn't there.
I'm sorry.
niyad
(113,284 posts)Frasier Balzov
(2,646 posts)It holds that humans should abstain from procreation because it is morally wrong to impose life on the blissfully non-existent.
vlyons
(10,252 posts)We have a surplus of those already. The world is over-populated as it is. How are we going to feed all these people?
cinematicdiversions
(1,969 posts)Nothing to do with the abortion rate, but we hardly are reproducing to cause a population increase, nor are we hardly overpopulated in the US.
We may have way too many idiots. But we do not actually have too many people.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)without immigration. It's declining anyway.
Some imagine that'd be a good thing, but poverty grows, living standards decline, and personal wellbeing suffers greatly when economies shrink because of inadequate working-age population to maintain them.
Hope that anguished woman was connected to the professional help she clearly desperately needs after this public exposure. Poor thing. Before she finally "fixes" her problem of being alive.
hunter
(38,311 posts)... than people in "developing" nations, and twice the resources of many very affluent "developed" nations.
So maybe it is a good idea to reduce birthrates here first.
Frankly I think we should be paying people to experiment with lifestyles having a very small environmental footprint. We'd judge the success of those experiments in terms of happiness, not any sort of "economic productivity" beyond what is sustainable.
It won't happen because there are too many billionaires profiting immensely from our consumer economy.
God forbid people quit buying cars and trucks, McMansions, or factory farm meat and dairy products.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)I'll entertain arguments against abortion. But at this time and for the foreseeable future, we're doing a piss-poor job of making sure that those who have much do not have too much and that those who have little do not have too little. Let's fix that problem first, says I.
Wounded Bear
(58,648 posts)lindysalsagal
(20,680 posts)No one wants to admit it out loud.
Scrivener7
(50,949 posts)in the 90s directly amd strongly correlated to the number of abortions that were performed a certain number of years before.
It traced a pattern where those unwanted children were decreasing in number, their cohorts were coming of age, and crime was dropping, all in tandem.
lindysalsagal
(20,680 posts)Paladin
(28,254 posts)From coast to coast.
Just how long do we sit on our hands, watching trump's destruction of this nation?
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,329 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)She was okay with the first child, but absolutely furious when she became pregnant again.
I was thrilled to find out it was twins. She got madder. When the twins were about a year
and a half, she ran off with another guy. I asked her "What about the kids?" She said calmly,
"I don't want them, I only had them because you wanted them." She wasn't cut out to be a
mother. She felt trapped and needed to "be free".
The kids turned out great, healthy, well educated, and all of them make more money than I do.
I'm a very lucky guy. (with a vasectomy).
Croney
(4,659 posts)and you didn't think maybe she should be offered the option of ending the pregnancy? And it was twins so she got madder. That poor woman.
panader0
(25,816 posts)The discovery that it was twins came late in her pregnancy. She was a Catholic and we were married.
So "poor woman"? She ran away from three children without looking back. So it's my fault? wtf.
Croney
(4,659 posts)We anguish over our choices.
Carlitos Brigante
(26,500 posts)niyad
(113,284 posts)so well. Thank you for sharing part of your story with us
LisaL
(44,973 posts)So cudos to you for raising the kids!
BeckyDem
(8,361 posts)Those who are against abortion, DON"T HAVE ONE. If you prefer to die in childbirth, that can probably be arranged too!
I grow weary of our struggle but fighting back is the only way.
Kath2
(3,074 posts)So tragic. Reproductive rights are beneficial in so many ways. Those who deny this are either liars or delusional.