As I was leaving, I noticed what looked like a black and white photo of a round planet on a sheet of paper tacked to a message board in LC. Upon further investigation, I found that it was actually titled:
"BABY LUCY, 0 weeks."
"Baby Lucy has just been conceived. She is a zygote, a single cell invisible to the unaided eye, but she is already a whole and distinct organism, possessing all the genetic characteristics necessary to direct her own development from within. We invite you to join us as we watch Baby Lucy grow over the next nine months. Sponsored by Choose Life at Yale."
Feeling that I should be incensed, that some inner feminist rage should overtake me, I came up with a bunch of rash arguments and ranting in my head:
WHAT? MAYBE THOSE MEN SHOULD THINK OF ALL THE DATE RAPES ON CAMPUS. THEY CAN'T CHOOSE TO PREVENT. MAYBE THEY SHOULD TALK TO THOSE BOYS FIRST. HUH? HUH? HUHHHH?
Hold up. This is not how I think. After a moment, I realized, "Danielle, you can't be that crass. You can't be like the anarchist Living Theater people you saw last night. You need to be tactful towards yourself." It's very difficult for a woman not to sound like a raging feminist and get a bad rap when she sees things like this.
You see, it is very difficult for a woman to think about abortion, about choice. Its not as simple as choosing life. Its about preventing life. Its about choosing to DEVELOP life when you want to.
Its about freedom. Freedom of expression of both parties. Yes. However, if there is something that I learned in life, its not what you say, its how you say it.
Look boys. Its about FREEDOM. I want the freedom to choose life. I want the freedom to choose life when its ready, and when I'm ready. I want the freedom to prevent it up until that point. I want the freedom to regulate when my eggs will become human beings (they too are potential life, like a zygote). I also want the freedom to stop the development of a zygote into a human being. You care about life obviously, so lets work together to maybe get some of the date rape off campus we see, to ease/end the inequality between the sexes we see at Yale, even today. Lets create a dialogue with less accusation. Please stop incensing most women on this campus with biting and cruel posters that do nothing to promote life, only anger it.
Forty years, women have been at Yale. About 40 years, women have been able to get an abortion or birth control. 40 years. 40 years. 40 years and you want to take my freedom?
Look. I don't want an abortion... ever. But do you understand the circumstances and consequences of what it means to be in that situation? Perhaps, as a male, you really wouldn't. You've been at Yale for hundreds of years. My sex has only been around for forty. We don't have time to loose with an unwanted RAPE.
I don't want to sound emotional, but LIFE is emotional. Choice is serious. Choice is about freedom. Freedom is life.
Yay Danielle.
ReplyDeleteWay to have a blog.
I can completely understand this point. Rape victims are in a horrible situation and if they become pregnant as a result of this crime it is a tragedy. However, from what I understood the number of abortions undertaken to terminate pregnancies that resulted from rapes was below 1 percent and that it is far more likely that an aborted zygote or fetus is one resulting from consensual intercourse.
ReplyDeleteWhat I think the really avid pro-lifers are playing at is the women who make poor decisions of their or volition and then decided that they would rather not deal with the consequences. And yes, I understand that even if a woman chooses to have sex, a pregnancy can still be a major burden and completely shift the direction her life was going in, however I feel that pro-lifers would argue that the right to choose comes when choosing whether or not to have sex to begin with.
(This is not taking into account the rape victims, they did not make the choice to have sex and thus should be given special consideration)
I agree that men should not rape, period, it is one of the worst things you can do to a woman (I have even heard some say they would rather be murdered). There are no ifs or buts about it, its a disgusting violation of a human being.
Separate from these criminals however, there is the current popular attitude in the US that one can have as much pleasure as they wish with no consequences. One night stands, drug and alcohol abuse, and yes, abortions of consensually conceived fetuses are very prominent and I suspect that it is this attitude that the pro-lifers want to change. I would hope that no human being would intentionally tear down another who is truly a victim, but I am in support of the idea that we as a society should begin to face the consequences of our choices.
That being said, I want to make clear that I am not one of the ones actively seeking to change policy to make abortion illegal or any such thing, I would just like it if the number of abortions went down because the number of unwanted pregnancies were to go down. After all, better choices leads to a better life.
Sorry if this response upset you, I just feel that I needed to say my piece. I hope that I was able to phrase this in such a way that it was not insensitive to anyone's struggle, I just wanted to express another viewpoint in a calm, reasonable manner.
Thank you for your comment. Its good to see people responding to my blog posts!
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that you are not necessarily on the side of Pro-Lifer's because of supporting the proposed right of a zygote to develop into a human being. You view, rather, this zygote to be a "consequence" or more of a "punishment" for immoral, self-serving behavior.
However, if you think abortion is okay in the case of rape and that removing a zygote is fine then, why is it not alright in the case of a misguided young woman (who probably has a misguided young man as a partner), who might just need more time to figure out her mistakes, rather than living with a child who may not be raised to his/her fullest potential?
Pro-Choice is about CHOICE. Its about saying, "Look, I feel uncomfortable taking away this zygote's chance to develop. I'm not getting an abortion. " Or it means, "Look, I'm not ready to develop and raise a child. I need to be more careful next time."
I think there is enough pressure in our culture to make sure that abortions are not taken like candy. There is a strong moral sentiment about this. However, the option has to be there. It has to be open.
You say, "Better choices lead to a better life" well, the better choice may be getting the abortion, don't you agree? The mother may just have a better life and would not have to raise a child in a similarly misguided manner (not to say all "mistakes" are "screwups"--they aren't.)
Danielle,
ReplyDeleteThe pompous conflation of two entirely separate issues in your post can no longer be ignored. Surely no male wishes to impinge upon the freedom of a woman to choose her own destiny. However, when you confuse the issue of life, and the issue of the freedom of that life, you loose the logical progression of your argument.
Surely you can see that the freedom to choose for yourself is separate from the freedom to choose on behalf of another. Therefore, to make your point clear, the zygote may never actually be a self determining entity. To this point "[my eggs] too are potential life, like a zygote" I have only to say, that indeed, they are no more alive than Monika Lewinsky's infamous blue dress.
This renders your argument moot, your post irresponsibly ignorant, and your fallicious pontification peutrifying.
-The men of the world