No More Angry Mothers; Embracing Accessible Abortion and Affordable Contraception

[Novara]

No More Angry Mothers; Embracing Accessible Abortion and Affordable Contraception

<snip>

If you were born before women had access to safe, affordable, accessible abortion, chances are your mother was an angry mother.

I was raised by one. Sure -- my mom loved me; but she was over 40 when I was born - and I was the youngest of four children.

My oldest brother was twenty-years-old. My nearest was only thirteen months.

So -- I wasn't (how shall I say this?) -- planned.

Sometimes my mom called me her "baby." Most of the time she called me, "her final mistake."

There were no illusions of "righteous" womanhood in my childhood home. In my family, we knew the truth. Raising kids was no picnic.

"Don't you grow up and have babies for me," my mom said. "You're a smart girl. And you got bigger fish to fry."

My mother might have been angry, but she raised me to be educated, employed and free.


<snip>

My generation was nurtured by women alert to the limits imposed on them. Our mothers trained us to insist on equal pay for equal work and autonomy over our futures.

That's why today is such a mystery to so many of us.

I belong to a gang of women who fought for legal, accessible abortion, affordable contraception and the requisite education necessary to make solid, responsible decisions regarding the future.

And sometimes I wonder if anyone was paying attention.

In spite of the hard-earned lessons we learned from our frustrated, angry mothers, American women are still vulnerable to poverty and the burden of unwanted childrearing.


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristine-holmgren/no-more-angry-mothers-emb_b_7215318.html

[LWolf]

1. My mother

wasn't angry. She WAS unable to have more children after an illegal abortion that almost killed her when I was 2, and she did live with severe pain related to scar tissue for 40 years, until she finally had a complete hysterectomy.

She has always been an avid supporter of easy access to legal abortion to anyone who wants it; no surprise there.

I am the only child of a single mother, and I'm lucky that she survived to raise me.

[Novara]

2. And the right wing wants to take us right back there, where women die or are maimed....

....if they need an abortion. But not just that - they want to make sure women can't get effective birth control either, which would leave them in a permanent underclass, raising unwanted children and unable to participate in the workplace as fully as men. Shit, it sure would make ME angry!