Abortion Gang

We’re dealing with yet another personhood amendment here in Colorado this year. Amendment 62 is essentially a slightly beefed up version of an amendment defeated in 2008 by a margin of 73% to 27%. Hopefully we’ll have just as much support this time around, especially since this one would stretch the definition of a person much more than the original to include stem cell research and in-vitro fertilization.

The specifics of this amendment and the controversy surrounding it shed some light on the way the anti-choice movement uses false information and what they’re really all about.

Recently the 2010 Colorado Ballot Information Booklet (or Blue Book) was published. This book is provided by the state of Colorado to provide a fair and impartial analysis of each initiated or referred constitutional amendment, law or question on the ballot.

Personhood Colorado, an offshoot of Personhood USA and one of the main groups lobbying for amendment 62, has filed a lawsuit against the Legislative Council of the General Assembly alleging that the Blue Book used false statements and was not fair and impartial as is required by Colorado law.

They claim that none of their arguments were used for the pro side and the arguments presented for the con side were factually inaccurate.

Here at the Abortion Gang, we point out examples of anti-choicers using made up and/or skewed facts to promote their side on a regular basis.  This is yet another example of anti-choice lies backed up by the Legislative Council of the General Assembly.

The lawsuit states “the ballot information booklet is, in effect, one big argument against Amendment 62.” Could this be because there are no legitimate arguments for passing amendment 62 other than it being a ruse to do away with reproductive freedom?

I tried to find the pro-62 arguments that Personhood Colorado gave to the council but was unable to. I did however find the points that they claim are false in the anti-62 arguments.

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Often times anti-choicers will use misinformation and biased sources to turn people onto their way of thinking. I wanted to take this opportunity to debunk a number of popular anti-choice myths using statistics and studies from non-biased sources.

Myth: Pro-choice really just means pro-abortion

Fact: Pro-choice activists fight for much more than just abortion rights. The basis of the pro-choice argument is that individual women should be able to make choices about their own bodies. In addition to abortion rights, we push for comprehensive sex education, easier and cheaper/free access to birth control, and the right of pregnant women to give birth the way they choose.

Myth: The fetus can feel pain

Fact: According to the UK Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, fetuses under 24 weeks do not have the capacity to feel pain. According to the RCOG

In reviewing the neuroanatomical and physiological evidence in the fetus, it was apparent that connections from the periphery to the cortex are not intact before 24 weeks of gestation and, as most neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain perception, it can be concluded that the fetus cannot experience pain in any sense prior to this gestation.

The majority of abortions are done long before this. The roughly 1% of abortions performed after the 24th week are generally wanted pregnancies that are being terminated due to serious health problems or complications.

Myth: Adoption is an alternative to abortion

Fact: While adoption is an alternative to being a parent, abortion is the only alternative to being pregnant. There are multiple reasons a woman may not want to be pregnant for 9 months including mental health issues, rape, incest, physical or mental disabilities, health problems, monetary issues, and lack of healthcare.

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I want to start by making a note that there were a few times shortly after my abortion that I lied about having used birth control and having it fail. I did this to try to avoid the stigma of being “that woman.” However, the more I thought about it the more I realized that I was doing a disservice to both the cause and to other women with my circumstances. So I’ve decided that it’s time to tell the truth and admit that I made a mistake. But that mistake doesn’t mean that I deserve less of a choice than any other woman.

I’m that woman. I’m the woman who many think shouldn’t have had access to my abortion. I avoided pregnancy until I was 31 as I had always used some sort of birth control in the past and had been lucky enough for it to always work. However, during some really hard monetary times, my husband and I had unprotected sex a few times. We both knew that it was stupid and risky but we did it and I ended up getting pregnant.

So, I’m that woman. I’m the woman who “uses abortion as birth control” even though that’s technically what abortion is, a form of birth control. I’m the woman who was stupid and irresponsible and should have had to take responsibility for my actions. However, even “those women” like me have their reasons for the choice they make.

I’ve known my entire life that I never wanted children and my husband and I had agreed from the beginning of our relationship that I would terminate a pregnancy if it were to happen. I chose the option of abortion for a few different reasons.

First, I didn’t want to be pregnant. I’ve had to deal with too many health problems in my life on top of a chronic illness and I didn’t feel the need to put my body through 9 months of stress and risk further complications by carrying the pregnancy. Call it selfish, call it abortion for convenience, call it what you want but I feel no regret or shame that I put my own health and well being before that of a non-sentient being.

Second, I’ve had a fairly traumatic past which makes me terrified of giving up control of my body as well as going through vaginal child birth. I can fully attest that not having access to a safe and legal abortion wouldn’t have prevented me from doing everything I could to terminate the pregnancy. I can think of few things worse than being forced to carry an unwanted pregnancy. The thought of being forced to give birth is actually triggering to me from my history of sexual abuse. I fully believe forced pregnancy to be a form of rape.

Do I feel like I “killed my child”? Not at all. I highly value life. I’m an abolitionist vegan so I don’t believe in using or killing any sentient being without consent. The embryo that I terminated wasn’t a sentient being.

I’ve been noticing an often used argument from anti-choicers recently, which is to point out the dangers of abortion and highlight any case where a woman is harmed and/or dies during an abortion. I don’t think they realize what a catch 22 this is. The more that they fight to limit access to abortion and for laws requiring waiting periods, the more women they are forcing to resort to shady clinics and illegal and dangerous practices.

Abortion, preformed correctly by a trained medical professional isn’t any more dangerous than most other medical procedures.
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Most of us who self identify as feminists have heard the retort that feminism isn’t necessary anymore, that we live in a post-feminist world. Especially those of us who live in westernized countries, we’re told that women are equal and at this point we just want something to whine about.

These people have to be wearing blinders. You barely have to scratch the surface to see that sexism and gender inequality are still so rampant in our society that most don’t even see anything wrong with it.

When someone says that we live in a post-feminist world, the first thing I would point to are the places in the world where it’s extremely apparent that women aren’t equal. I think that as long as women are considered secondary anywhere, the fight is not over. I’m not only concerned about women in my own country, I care about women everywhere and believe that all women should be free to live their lives as they choose, equal to males.
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I don’t remember how I came to the pro-choice movement. I grew up a very sheltered life in the rural south and thought I had quite a bit of religion pushed on me, I can’t recall ever hearing anyone talk about abortion at all. I figured out when I was 11 and my only sibling was born that I never wanted kids and the thought of accidentally getting pregnant later in life terrified me. So at the time abortion wasn’t a known option at the very least. The time of my worldly education when I finally got out of that toxic area of the country is a bit of a blur for me. But it was in this time that I learned about feminism and women’s rights and became pro-choice.

So, since I don’t have a clear and/or interesting becoming pro-choice story, I’ll just have to settle for why I decided to be pro-choice. If you can even call it a decision, the idea that there are people who actively fight against basic human rights baffles me.
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