I went to watch the Vice Presidential debate in Meadows last Thursday. Afterwards, still fuming and a bit disillusioned, I raised my hand to offer a comment on behalf of the Obama/Biden ticket. (In the spirit of full disclosure, let me say that I am an Independent voter.) I spoke up to explain that a woman candidate (Sarah Palin) is not a women’s candidate, and that our very reproductive rights are on the chopping block this election season.
Of course, I wasn’t that articulate in the heat of post-debate disappointment, but I feel as if I got the message across. Except I forgot many young women have been deceived into thinking that others know “what’s best” when it comes to making life altering choices about their bodies.
One peer rebutted that liberal women’s rights are not all women’s rights – as if liberal women had access to some subset of rights that more conservative ladies aren’t aware of.
Another female student started barking off sound bites about killing babies and God inventing marriage. (Did this happen on the eighth day of creation? “Let there be million dollar weddings?” I don’t remember that scripture.)
Listen, SMU girls. The idea that the government should stay out of your bedroom and keep their hands off your body is not a liberal view. In fact, many conservatives think the state should not dictate the details of our personal lives. Oh, I forgot! Unless you’re a woman or gay. Wake up! Being pro-choice isn’t all about abortion on demand, whatever that means. It isn’t as if you can go through a McDonald’s drive-thru during your third trimester and order the doctor to perform a $2.99 super-sized operation.
These body related issues take a heck of a lot of time and thought to sort out, and being pro-choice is about trusting that women are capable and knowledgeable enough to do this alone.
On the contrary, being anti-choice can result in less than pro-life policies. Don’t believe me? Right now, a state legislator in Louisiana named John LaBruzzo wants to pay lower income women $1,000 each to be sterilized. Not close enough for you? A Texas judge named Charlie Baird required that a woman not have any more children as a condition of her parole. Those two members are trying to make reproductive decisions for women they hardly even know. How is this any different from the one child rule in China? How is this any different from Sarah Palin trying to be your mother? (No, Bristol. I will not put you on birth control. Keep those legs closed!)
Furthermore, most nationally based pro-life organizations are also intensely anti-contraception at their core. The American Life League organized a “Protest the Pill Day” earlier this year propagating the 100 percent medically inaccurate statement that “The Pill” kills babies and thus, oral contraceptives should be illegal. Hey, pro-lifers, do you want to know what really reduces the number of abortions? It’s a combination of comprehensive sex education, medically accurate information and access to condoms and other forms of birth control, not scare tactics that most American teenagers can see right through.
Being pro-choice means being pro-woman. It means being there for my peers and family and anyone else who needs support. It means buying a pregnancy test for a scared friend at a small town Wal-Mart at 2 a.m., and it also means going to visit another friend in the hospital after giving birth to her son.
It means reminding my best friend that her birth control will work best if she takes it at the same time everyday and it also means not judging my divorced friend when she talks about how her abortion felt.
At the end of the day, it means being thankful I have the opportunity to finish my education now and put off starting a family until I’m ready. Above all, it means recognizing that not everyone has been as fortunate as I have, even other women in my own extended family. Could you do the same for other women? I don’t think Sarah Palin would.
Meg Bell is a junior cultural anthropology major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].
