“In
eliminating a decades-old “constitutional right that safeguards women’s freedom
and equal station” and breaching a core legal principle of precedent, the
decision “places in jeopardy other rights, from contraception to same-sex
intimacy and marriage,” Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena
Kagan wrote in dissent. They also warned that it would undermine the court’s
legitimacy” – PBS News Hour
Seven (6 men and one radical woman) made
the decision to repeal Roe Versus Wade. Several
poke that it was not a moral decision but a political one. I feel that these, making a decision about
who is in charge of women’s own bodies, is very much a moral decision. They will ever be kown asnd seven who thought
they were Gods. Their infamy is , and
always will be, their legacy.
Do not misunderstand. I DO NOT believe in abortion…for ME. And, I do not believe anyone has the right to
tell me what to do with my body nor any other woman’s body. This is a Patriarchal travesty. This is politically charged. This is religious bullying to the max. I, also believe that there should be a
addendum to this decision. I believe
that men must be held as responsible as the woman for an unwanted
pregnancy. Men are still and again being
told they can have all the fun but not be responsible. As well, Viagra, and the like, should be
illegal. Men should be charged if they
impregnate a woman, and if she is charged for seeking/having an abortion. The man should be equal in this changed law.
I was always prolife. I lost several pregnancies and adopted two
baby girls so ended up with seven children.
I took in several youth and gave them a home. I took in an adult mentally ill and mentally
challenged young woman. I raised one 14
year old to adulthood and he became a my anonymous benefactor when my soulmate
died because of his gratitude for me. I
was a temporary crisis home for babies for a time. I brought my handicapped half-sister home
from Michner Center in Red Deer and helped get her a permanent home with her
inheritance which she rented out to two other handicapped clients and spent up
until her last days in a home of her own.
I was sterilized without my consent but with my husband’s consent after
losing several pregnancies in a row and it was done when I was put out for a D
and C. Ten and a half years later I made
the original doctor fix what he had done and had three babies in three
years. Having children was my destiny
and I was blessed by every one. I had reasons
to be prolife. But…
Aftter leaving my husband and going
to University, I made friends with a Czecholovakian woman. I was Mature Student President at the time
and she came up to my office. That first
meeting made us fast friends. She had
tow girls the age of my two. Both of us
single parents. And we spent three years
together every day as she upgraded her English and spent as much time as we
could together so she could learn to converse better in engish. She wa an amazing woman and I hope, one day,
she writes her story, including how she escsprd
to a refugee camp and met the girls’ father and found out it was easier to
imigrate to Canada if she were married.
I need not tell you the rest of the story but she managed to get away
from him and learned English from watching Sesame Street with her children. She was one brave woman and we helped each other
with childcare after hours. Our Mature
Student Association would go, once a month, to singles dances. Neither of us ha any interest in “hooking up”. But once night, hanging with our group, well,
she got really really incapacitated and another of our Mature Students, a man
from Columbia, South America, gave her a ride home. That one night led to a pregnancy. As soon as she discovered it, she told him
and he rushed back home to Columbia. She
came to me with a question: She was
anxious and felt abortion was against her Catholic rleigion and her
beliefs. She asked me if she should have
an abortion. Man, I wrestled with that
for nearly a week. I could see all the
pros and cons. She was in her third year
at University and struuggling. I went
through a mental chcklist of Why and Why Not.
I relaized that the best thing for her was to do it, but I left my
answer until she came to her own. I told
her, if she decided to have it, I would help her, she could live with me for a
couple of month and not lose her apartment, etc, as it would be maternity leave
of sorts. I told her I would take her to
the hospital when she had it, stay with her, and she could come home to the
girls and us for as long as she needed afterwards. Our scehdules worked out that I could stay
with her newborn while she took her first laste morning class and then I would go
to my classes in the afternoon and in evenings, she would stay with all the
kids until my class was over. Somehow it
all worked out. I must add that it was
Chrsitmas break when she had her and we did not have to plan. We were able to find her a darecare that
would take newborns. And, btw, she went
to her classes in five days and never missed a beat. But, two major things
happened: first, the Priest would not
baptize the baby because she was illegitemate and my friend was terrified for
her baby; Secondly, the baby was
diagnosed with severe autism. In the
end, I had seen reasons that she should have had an abortion. She was barely skimping by on student loadn
and she was already paying daycare for her two girls and the baby would cost
more. Socially, she had difficulty
because of the language and cultural differences. She suffered because baby was seen as a sin
in her religion that she clung too. She graduated with a BSW and got a job as a
translator at the bordfer in Manitoba.
She taught me a great lesson. It
is not for me to judge other women’s choices about their body.
This page is all about my thoughts on
this subject. And, while I am at this, like you, wondered about copyright issues when we use magazine pictures, bits and
pieces of famous art, etc. There is not
a copyright issue because we are changing the image and creating something new
of it. If you use old magazines or books
to tear out bits and pieces, copyrights expire and they become pubic domain. Just ask Andy Warhol..well, you could if…
©Carol Desjarlais 6.29.22
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