It's been a few hours since the Harris/Trump debate ended. I've been watching the pundits do their thing on CNN. Well, I have it on, but I'm not really watching, just have it on as background noise.
There was a lot of egregious lies told by the twice impeached, disgraced felon, former president but I want to talk about abortion for a minute. He kept saying how this issue has divided the country for fifty two years and he brought the country together by bringing the vote back to the states. He got it out of the federal government. He's proud of the three supreme court justices he appointed who overturned Roe v Wade so the people in the states could vote on it. This whole topic has me unable to go to sleep.
I can't be the only person who finds putting what should be each woman's private health business up for a vote completely insane. I don't care what someone else's religious beliefs are regarding abortion. If you don't want one based on your religion- great, don't have one. But why isn't anyone saying, or brave enough to say- someone's health care shouldn't be dependent on anyone else's VOTE?? How is it acceptable to ANYONE, that your quality or allowance of care basically comes down to the good or bad luck of where you're born or where you've moved to prior to the overturning of Roe v Wade. THERE NEEDS TO BE FEDERAL LAW because you shouldn't have to move or travel just to be able to make decisions about your own body!
There are so many issues with Trump- I could never get into them all. He's the antithesis of everything I believe in, care about, want for the world we're leaving to our children. That is a no-brainer. I can't wrap my head around anyone who believes anything he says, is fine with him saying he wants to be a dictator, and all of Project 2025. But. I'm going to just stick with abortion here. Or not even just abortion, but women's reproductive health care. I'm not sure if people are just uneducated or what, exactly? Think it doesn't apply to them if they aren't of child bearing age or desire?
Abortion. That word, I suppose, to some people, is just the image of woman, maybe young, maybe of color, poverty, slutty, who just doesn't feel like using birth control, can't keep her legs closed, and doesn't want the hassle or burden of having a baby. I feel like there needs to a mandatory re-education class for adults on reproduction and pregnancy. Because while the word, abortion, may be the same to describe different situations, abortion isn't just one kind of act. There are women who are losing their ability to ever have children because they can't get the proper care they need to save their reproductive system. They are carrying a non-viable fetus but can't terminate legally.
Trump talked about how the democrats are radical on abortion. Democrats are allowing babies to be born and deciding to execute them on the spot. That would actually be called murder. AND THAT ISN'T HAPPENING. No one is aborting actual live born babies. As far as late term abortions- that isn't really true either. Or, at least, in the way the anti-abortion coalition and the Trump machine are trying to make it out to be. If someone gets to the last trimester- THEY WANTED A BABY. Something tragic had to have happened by that point where the FETUS WASN'T VIABLE. Nurseries have been designed and put into motion. Names have been picked. A life imagined. For any woman to have a late term abortion, TRAGEDY has struck that woman, her family, her friends.
Anti-abortionists will say that someone has to fight for the unborn. Pro-choice people ARE fighting for the unborn. To not be kept alive in a womb while in pain. Anti-abortionists say fetuses can feel pain. Well, if they are considered by medical professionals to be terminal, then anyone who considers themselves humane should want to end the pain in the womb.
But even if you just don't want a baby, you shouldn't be forced to have one. End of story. Pregnancy happens. Even when you're careful. Sometimes it just happens. And what a woman does about it should remain between that woman and her doctor.
I also don't understand why the common sense answer isn't just that we don't have a national religion. Christianity is the one with a problem with abortion. I'm not Christian. I don't believe anything about Christianity. Why should Christianity rule ANYONE'S health care choices who don't believe in that religion?
It is irresponsible at best to have states deciding on what is or isn't allowed by law to do with your own body. It's completely unacceptable that a fourteen year old rape victim has to carry a fetus to term because she had the bad luck to be assaulted in Mississippi versus New Jersey. It's unacceptable the women in NJ might have to wait a month, carrying a fetus they can't take care of or don't want, to see a provider who will perform an abortion because women from other states had to flee their own state to find one to do it for them. Proper health care shouldn't be left to the luck of the geographical draw.
Don't think this is just a woman problem either. What if you're the husband? The brother? The father? Someone you love can't get the care they need. Sometimes it's care that's life or death. Or life or death of their dream to have a family in the future. Think about that when you're voting AGAINST half the population not having a say over their own body autonomy just based on where they live.
