Day 329:Reproductive Rights Belong to the Individual Woman And That’s How It Should Stay

My blog doesn’t have a reputation for covering controversial topics. I usually go out of my way to avoid them here, this does not mean I don’t have opinions on these subjects just that I usually do not feel the need to voice them in a public forum. Today browsing the WordPress Discover page I came across this  . post written by Dr. Jen Gunter an OB/GYN who has provided women with abortions after 20 weeks. The post is absolutely heart wrenching. I remember when I was a freshman in college living on campus there was a pro-life group who had a demonstration permit for three days outside of our student union. We had to walk past a very graphic set of photographs of late-term abortions blown up huge and put on poster board, it was awful. I was angry but I wasn’t angry at the women going through with the abortions. I was angry at the pro-life people… How dare they take what should be a very intimate decision and an extremely intimate pain and blow it up large for strangers to see, scrutinize, and pass judgment on.

 

I admit that at least once while passing by the pictures on my way to class, thinking that in this modern-day and age it would have been fairly easy to get an abortion prior to 20 weeks, why did they wait? Dr. Gunter’s post points out that like many things in life it is rarely as simple as that, my 22-year-old self is hanging her head in apology that she was ever that naïve or judgmental. In fact 31-year-old me remembers those pictures and quakes in fear. Every single woman with cerebral palsy or other similar conditions that I have known is automatically classified as high risk for the length of her pregnancy even if our overall health is good. It’s why my dad would rather we adopt, what he doesn’t understand is that being a birth parent is  considered within the rights of the disabled adult just like anything else so long as the child is in a safe environment, being an adoptive parent is not. Even with an able-bodied spouse or partner no one is legally required to let me raise a child not of my own blood. There are few if any state laws and no federal protections against discrimination for an otherwise fit couple if one or both of them happen to have a disability. One of Dr. Gunter’s patients asked her “what are we gonna do with the crib?” Goddess save me from ever hearing that question echoed in my own voice.