Blogging for Choice Day

The author at Uncommon Misconception offers a compelling and heart wrenching story about late term abortion. It is a must read for anyone who has strong opinions on this issue.

The ACLU of Pennsylvania tells us "reproductive freedom means the right to make informed decisions about whether and when to become a parent without government interference and to access a broad range of reproductive health care including contraceptives, prenatal care, treatment for sexually transmitted disesase, and abortion."

Click here to see what the law is in your state regarding access to abortion.

Bardiac put up a post full of good links including this one:

"The National Network of Abortion Funds can help you find local resources to help fund care for women who don't have access for financial reasons."

Baxter Sez is blogging for Choice because "a woman's ability to determine whether and when she gets pregnant affects every other aspect of her life. Everything--my relationships, my job, my economic status, my existence in my own body--would be affected were I to get pregnant. Now, that's not to say that they would be affected in a negative way, but they would be affected, and only I am in a position to weigh all the factors and judge whether or not pregnancy and motherhood are right for me."

This post from This Woman's Work inspired some thoughtful comments from a blog community focused on infertility issues and adoption.

Anna Winter Links us to Feministing and Pandagon, with this concept:

"We’re living in a time where pregnant women are roundly punished—whether they decide to terminate the pregnancy or carry it to term...our capacity for getting pregnant is what connects us all in this mess of discrimination and punishment."

Buddy's Books says:

"The right-wingers have always known that once women finally secured certain freedoms, like reproductive and sexual rights, society would adapt, changes would be swift, and control over women would cease. The outcome, in their sick minds, would be devastating—women would join the work force, run for office, speak out on social issues, and even challenge the authority of the husbands. Hell on earth!!!!!

That’s why we must never compromise with these perverse individuals. They care little about fetuses--what they want is power. And believe me, these right-wingers stay up nights lamenting and shedding tears over what has happened since the 1960s: women’s rights, feminism, racially-mixed marriages, gay marriages, civil rights."


Not That Desperate has a powerful post about her mother regarding sexual control over women.

Caffeinated Geek Girl tells us:

"My right to make decisions about my own well being are constantly being assaulted for no other reason than because I am a woman... I'm pro-choice because I know what's best for my own existence, and trust that other women know what's best for theirs."

Carrie Callahan cracked me up with her video and humor. She jokes:

"I used to be really pro-life in high school, but what changed for me was in college I had a pregnancy scare.
Before my pregnancy scare I thought about abortion in terms of "When does human life begin?" and "When can the government regulate people's bodies?" And then after the pregnancy scare, the question that kind of framed the debate for me was, "You want me to have a motherf*cking baby?"

Alexandria brings up two important points:

1) "I realized early on that getting pregnant means more than just baby powder and diapers. It means a woman is changed–economically, physically, professionally, and emotionally. In the best of circumstances, those changes are all positive, but too often, they’re not."

2) "Abortion will not go away, whether or not is it legal. Women who can afford to will simply have them elsewhere. Poorer women, or those without health care, will have them, too–in unsterilized, unprofessional, and dangerous environments."


Delightfully Dogmatic is right on when she says:

"I wish I could tell you how many young women I have heard argue that there is "no need for feminism." That "women are equal." One needs to look no further than the battle over contraception and abortion to understand that simply isn't true."

Feministe hits all the talking points and provides a platter of worthy linkage too. (Rock on girl, you must be exhausted!)

And for that matter, so am I.

I have been reading and linking all morning, and am only half way through the list.

I will conclude by saying, I am Pro-Choice because I stand in solid support of each and every one of these women, and I hope you do too.

Blog for Choice Day

Bush v. Choice, and NARAL Pro-Choice America are proud to announce the second annual Blog for Choice Day.

"Today, Monday January 22nd - "the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade - we are asking pro-choice bloggers to join us in a day of activism for choice. Blog for Choice Day is a chance to raise the profile of reproductive rights issues in the blogosphere and the media, and to let everyone know that a woman's right to choose is nonnegotiable.
This year's topic is a simple one: tell us, and your readers, why you're pro-choice.

Sign up for Blog for Choice Day below to let us know that you're planning on devoting at least one post on January 22nd to sharing the story behind your pro-choice beliefs."


Here is a quote I really liked from one of the bloggers signed up for the event:

"I’ve been struck today, time and again, by how ineffective punitive approaches are to securing the health of women, children, families, and communities. But I’ve also been struck by how infrequently women are actually a factor in this debate. So often — too often — we talk about how to ensure healthy children, or healthy births. But as Erica Lyon said in a panel today,[at the National Advocates for Pregnant Women’s National conference in Atlanta] we need to push for a goal of healthy mothers as the building block of healthy families and healthy communities. While it might be more efficient politically to talk about children’s health (and certainly the government focuses on fetal and children’s health usually to the exclusion of concern for pregnant women and mothers), it’s disingenuous.

As the inimitable Loretta Ross, co-founder of SisterSong said today, when we talk about reproductive justice, we need to think holistically about women’s lives and to include the right to have or not to have children, and the right to parent our children."