Roe Vs. Wade Decisssion is 35 Years Old.

Roe vs. Wade turned 35 this year. At least that's what I read in an editorial column from the local paper. The male writer wrote a flowering story of the blessings that would have been bestowed on the world if this decision had not taken place. And how he felt that Women Libbers have created the all the ruin in the world by callously taking life's that would have lead to such great achievements as finding a cure for cancer and establishing world peace. Not a word on the men that helped created (Or in many cases raped these women, wife's or daughters.) these life's, or how the lack of contribution by these men led to many women deciding to terminate a pregnancy. He espoused that womens' lib was responsible for the divorce rate and for the US not having the highest number of out of wedlock births int he world. Geeze, does this sound like the ramblings of some impotent old man?

It still astonishes me that men think it's all right to control womens bodies, pass laws on womens bodies or down grade the decisions that a women makes with her medical provider. Why? This is the biggest red light of abusers. The number one cause of death in pregnant women is no longer complications from he pregnancy or terminating the pregnancy that could not afford with knitting needles in a restroom. The cause of death in women is the men who can not longer control their partners bodies due to pregnancy and kill their partners. But, the old war cry of the abuser lives on: "Keep them barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen." But , now abusers also expect their partner to work or support him while living this life style.)

I am not advocating for abortion, but I do advocate for Choice. Far from the Chinese female worker who is dragged from her job when she misses a period and forced to have an abortion. I think that women continue to struggle with the choices they make about childbirth that men will never face. Labeling women as Libbers has become the negative comment of all women haters. Misogyny is one of the reasons for our growing rates of violence. Men who hate women hate their children too!. Let's turn our children over to being raised by them? Too bad being a strong women is still seen as a negative. So much better would the world be if all women would just lie down and be doormats for men!

I want to play the Devil's Advocate for a minute and look at what the life of the life of the women who chose to terminate pregnancy is may have looked like.

Prior to Roe vs. Wade, when a girl got pregnant, she was thrown out of school and often thrown out of the house. Date rape was not heard of. Bad girls had sex and good girls didn't point black. No middle ground. End of story.

Maybe she was lucky enough to have been secretly sent away. (Not really a secret, because everyone would talk.) She could have the baby and decide to raise it or give it away. The editorial writer always quotes the women who regretted having terminated the pregnancy. But I never hear the voice of the women who was forced to have the baby and give it away. The anguish of carrying the child for 9 months, having bonded with the baby to have it ripped from her arms. That's a much better choice, don't you think?

If she kept the child she may be lucky enough to have completed night school. But, that is if courses were available and she had child care. Changes are she was going to have to raise the child in poverty. Chances are she is still living in poverty. And, since unwed pregnancy had such a stigma in the past, she was now a marked women who men saw as a sexual target and not as a marriageable mate.

The father of the child? Often, he denied it was his. Paternity tests were not the available thing. Child support was often not there. When I asked women who raised children in the 60's, 70's and 80's about child support, more that 85% in the state of Indiana said they didn't receive it. There was no dead beat dad laws. Men frequently just moved to another state.

Maybe she even wanted to keep the child but had a partner who told her to "get rid or it." It was not unheard of for him or his friend to help the termination if she didn't agree to go through with a medical procedure. And, chances are that many of the male editorial writer's peers who are so successful are guilty of forcing their partners to have abortions so they could continue their educations. That may having children is part of why women still make 71 cents on the dollar.

Frequently, a pregnant woman was forced by her family to marry a partner. The old saying was the first child could come any time but the rest took 9 months. Shotgun weddings were a norm. But, birth control wasn't. Up until just prior to Roe vs. Wade birth control was still illegal in many states and will be again if many abusers have their way. Women were married to men who were less than happy about the prospect of a wife and child.

I am close to a women who paid $500 dollars to a back street doctor to be fitted with a diagphram when birth control was illeagal. He failed to tell her that when she lost the weight from the child she just had, the diaphram would not work. So, despite this all her efforts, she had child number four in four years. The lives in an old tenement in Rebury and watches the shootings in the streets and the arson's that took place daily. After child number six when she took hormones to save her life, she had a male priest throw her out of her church for being a bad mother. Really, did he think that dying and leaving behind six children to an violent and irresponsible husband would have been a holier choice? ( I hear these condemning voices saying she should have left the violent husband, but I am not sure the dollar an hour she could earned would have gone very far. Maybe, we should tally the welfare costs of all the pregnancies that would have gone to term is Roe vs. Wade had not happened. We now know that the lack of a father in the home is the bigger cause of problems in society today.)

What would the life of these children looked like? Well, I believe that being raised in poverty may reduce the chances or being a Noble Peace Prize winner. The odds are more likely they will have a DOC number. Or, their mother will. Yes, we hear an occasional story of the unwed mother who raised her child while washing floors at night to put them them through school. (How come we never hear where that father of the child is today?) But the reality is that most of our 2 million plus incarcerated individuals were raised in poverty.

If women today are luck enough to be incarcerated while pregnant, there is no Choice. The state of Indiana will not pay for an abortion. Poor women are still forced to have the child. Many were forced to have the sex that produced the child. Then many are forced to give the child up. Maybe we can could the cost on society of incarcerated individuals who had incarcerated mothers. Yes, if the mother has a number, the child is at greatly increased risks of having one too. Either way, the child will bond with someone else and it will impact the rest of their life. And cause great confusion about their relationship with their mother.

What kind of sex education was available prior to Roe vs. Wade. Well, personally, in fourth grade I viewed a video where they gave us a bit of an anatomy lessons about eggs and sperm and left the rest up to individual interpretation. Most girls still though you could get pregnant from french kissing or toilet seats. Most men would tell partners they could not get pregnant the first time. In 7th grade we got to see a video that had a girl in bobby sox named VD making out with a lot of different guys in the back seat of a car, but there was very little medical facts. Yes, I was Billy Joel's Virgina who got a nice white dress and a party on my confirmation. I got little information. Just a lot of shame based stuff about good girls not wearing patent leather shoes and keeping their legs crossed.

I believe that many women who struggle with the decision to terminate a pregnancy have medical issues behind their choices. I have a friend who was engaged to a Hemophiliac. She was pregnant with twins and told she had a 70 percent chance that her babies would inherit the gene. Then her partner was diagnosed with HIV from tainted blood donors that were pooled in vats of serum that made up the medication that kept him alive. She broke he neck in a car accident. She would have had the perfect life to have offered those twins, don't you think.? You can see what a really calloused decision this women was making.

Maybe we should hear from he women who didn't decide for termination. Who entered into abusive relationships or marriages to raise the child. Do you think there are times when they may have regrets at not having the choice of higher education for themselves? Who really is there that goes through life without regrets? Who is so misinformed to think we can?

So, you say she should just have the baby and give it to some one who can't conceive. (Did you know that Chlamydia is one of the top reasons women can't conceive? So, the women who is struggling with having to give her child away should give it to the women who was promiscuous? Makes perfect sense to me. Why do men feel justified that poor women should be incubators for richer women? Or, for women who choose to adopt so don't ruin their figure by having children? Rich women always had a choice, they could travel and have a medical procedure that was not available to her lesser sisters. )

I think old men like Cal Thomas should stick to writing about something they know about or pertains to them. Keep you misogynist values off my body! Leave my medical decision up to me and my doctor because you do not have a license to practice medicine. Since you will never walk in my moccasins, leave my Choices between me and my Higher Power. You will have to face you own God in the end, and maybe he will say you should have had more compassion for the pain of others. Two questions: Why do you think the good old days were so great! Since you are such an advocate for adoptions, how many children have you adopted?

I hear the hoards shout about Values.... I think when every child that is conceived is conceived in love and has two healthy parents and men can quit sexually abusing little girls and women, when women actually do become equal, we won't need to make these Choices. Until then let the women who struggles have her Choices.