we should be rioting in the streets

This is a moment when I feel we need extreme action.  I'm not one for setting things on fire in real life, but what are the women in South Dakota doing?  What the hell is up?  Is it that anyone with the resources to act, to make a difference, figures they also have the resources to travel out of state to get an abortion?  And to hell with all the other women?

I'd like to know of all the 700,000 people in South Dakota, how many of them have  had an abortion, or their girlfriend/wife has?  Or a family member?  Do all those people think they're the exceptions to the rule? No one should get an abortion because it's wrong, but, when my 14 year old daughter gets pregnant, or my wife with three kids already and major health problems and depression, well, it's okay for her?   Have you all seen that page of stories from antichoice women who had abortions...? They all think they're the exceptions.  You know what, maybe it is the time to out everyone. List all the people in South Dakota who had abortions, ever, for any reason, and force them to defend themselves.  Just force it all to a head.  Put them in danger. Fine. There's your riot. 

And for the men who voted for this extreme anti-choice law, I suggest mandatory vasectomies.

If all the women in South Dakota were to just get on buses and leave.  Go on a general strike. Vote with your feet. Pull everything together and start life elsewhere. Exile. Desperate measures. How is it that people don't understand how serious this is?

Hello, I'm ANGRY.

Comments

[marsha]

I'm angry and wondering the same thing, where the hell are all the women's voices in these states? But I know the answer, they are poor and indoctrinated and afraid.

So how do you change it?

[Kris]

Liz, thanks for the link to the "When Anti-Choice Choose" page. Those stories absolutely blow my mind.

It is time (past time) to get angry. This isn't going away, and it isn't, obviously going to be limited to "those" states. The trick is to keep the anger alive and to figure out a way to turn it into action. Brainstorming...

[serena]

That anti-choice page blew my mind, too. However, for me personally, I'm not sure that extreme anger is the way to go. What those stories show me is that those women are in such extreme denial that they're not thinking rationally AT ALL, and a huge blast of anger is not going to help.

I've been doing a lot of reading and corresponding with people on radically different sides of the political spectrum, lately, and I've discovered that the only way to start a conversation is to meet people where they are. I think that we alienate a lot of people unnecessarily by calling them names like "stupid hypocrites," and by not respecting their religious beliefs.

I very much appreciated those doctors and counselors who refused an abortion to women who said they believed abortion was murder. I think that ultimately, for women to be first-class citizens, they have to be ready to assume total responsibility for themselves. Obviously many of us are not quite there yet.

Also, I think the abortion debate gets unnecessarily polarized in this country by the fact that it is so politicized. Pro-choice women don't feel like they can talk about the pain, the doubt and the guilt involved in choosing an abortion, the same way that anti-choice women become double-dealing hypocrites when they're backed into a corner.

I do, of course, believe that abortion should be safe and legal, but what's more important to me is that women have enough sense of their own worth, power and capabilities that we don't get hysterical about every political decision that doesn't go our way, and that we feel comfortable talking about our point of view, whatever our beliefs. And that we also focus on the economic and social circumstances which make abortion such a common solution to our problems. Ironically, I believe that this standpoint would be more helpful in getting abortion opponents to listen to us.