Recommended Reading #72: Reproductive Choice, Pt. II
"The Men Behind The War On Women" by Laura Bassett (Religion, United States Public Policy, Politics, Law, Reproductive Rights, Abortion) 11/1/11
I simply find this infuriating. While that does not make this piece seem particularly inspiring to me, it seems desirable for citizens of the United States to be aware that this insanity (yes, that really is what I consider it) is taking place and the astoundingly inappropriate degree to which representatives of the Catholic religion are intruding on the workings of the United States government and by extension the lives of the country's population.
***
"Come to Me for Plan B" by Lorraine at culturekitchen (Reproductive Rights, Youth, Politics, United States Public Policy) 8/24/06
I feel quite the same way I interpret the author as stating she feels in this article—I also said as soon as Plan B was allowed over-the-counter status but only for people 17 and over that I would unhesitatingly procure and provide it to anyone who needed it without a prescription and wasn't old enough to get it. I also very much appreciate her point about why she finds it important to speak about the availability of Plan B, and I relate to her own story—I once found myself at a regular gynecological checkup staring at my longtime respective health care provider as she told me she would not writer me a prescription for Plan B because she "didn't believe in it." (She was not a health care provider of mine after that.) I was a reproductive rights activist, and even I sat there feeling stunned and even a little bit shamed, or at least embarrassed, as the person with a certain authority in that exchange denied me a perfectly legal prescription I, as a patient, was asking for. (I also, a different time, encountered a worker at a pharmacy who refused to fill a prescription for Plan B for me.) It makes me appreciate the author's assertion that she "[has] the wherewithal to fight [those who would deny women Plan B], but many, many women—those who feel shame about having sex in this culture don't have the resources to fight you. And so I'm fighting this on their behalf." I feel exactly the same way.
***
"The Personhood Ballot in Mississippi: 'Sluts,' 'Good Girls,' and the Increasingly Blurry Line Dividing Them" by Amanda Marcotte (Gender, Sex and Culture, Reproductive Rights, Politics) 11/6/11
I agree with and find astute the perception delineated in the first part of this article. The last paragraph offers a stark and ominous framing of the implications of the proposed Initiative 26 in Mississippi that was voted on yesterday, and, I feel profound relief to say, did not pass. Why the movement would suddenly make such a move and include all women rather than just those they perceive as "sluts" in the agenda of controlling their bodies and autonomy is not covered here as far as I see, but whatever is going on, it certainly seems to me something to watch.
***
