Thursday, May 22, 2014

"Women's Issues"

While out and about recently, I saw a billboard that said "1 in 3 women has had an abortion" - a statistic that I've read before and that holds up against my personal experience with the women I know and love. I was just thinking about it and... why do we say "1 in 3 women" and not something like "1 in 6 people"? I mean, obviously, the stat is diluted by including roughly half the population who cannot possibly have an abortion even ... to use an oddly uncomfortable turn of phrase, even if they wanted to. But, men vote too and in a political  climate where control of fertility has become on of the most important battles, I worry that we have made abortion into a "women's issue" same thing with rape - men can be victims of rape and are also victimized unfairly by rape culture.

To continue this ramble, I continue to be alarmed that men are demonstrating in the streets for access to effective birth control measures that they have a say in - and dudes, anyone who thinks a condom is effective birth control better start decorating the nursery now (I hear safari animals are still in vogue!).

So, yeah... why are there "women's issues" separate from those that concern all of us? Why do we let "pro-business" men off the hook for voting in rape apologists who are more eager to control my uterus than tariffs?

I just think that I'm tired of being penned in, of not really getting a full choice, because I'm forced to vote for whichever idiot will at least grant me full personhood.

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