Roe v Wade

I just wanna post this here, because, honestly, I can't say what I want to say in Twitter's character limit, and I don't think that the bulk of my FB "audience" would be appreciative (scary how many uber-conservative friends I have -- they're otherwise decent people, but. Just. Scary.)

SO anyway, earlier today, my mom shared this link on FB: Lizz Winstead on Roe v Wade. She included this personal bit along with it:

The first person i ever knew who had an abortion was a 17 year old, older sister of a friend of mine. She performed it on herself, in the bathroom of her parent's home, using her mother's vacuum cleaner. She almost died. We all need to remember that the goal of the anti-choice crowd is to ensure that girls like her bleed out on the bathroom floor. Roe v. Wade did not make abortion possible-every woman with access to a vacuum cleaner or a coat hanger can perform an abortion on herself. The point of Roe v. Wade was to make it safe.

I can't really argue with any of it.

Women's physical safety and mental health are at stake. I can, in fact, kind of imagine what kind of desperation this young woman my mother knew must have felt. I managed to get pregnant just months into a brand-new relationship with a guy 11 years my senior, and, yeah, when I knew, I was pretty panicked! And I was 20, by then; I had a job, and I was pretty sure that my family would support me no matter what happened between me & the daddy, or whatever decision I made regarding the baby. As it turns out, we're still together, some 13 years later, but there are so many horrible ways that could have gone. I know just exactly how lucky I was, and am.

There is NO safe way to force your own body to abort in a bathroom... a back alley... any place other than a sterile environment with trained professionals making it happen and overseeing the process. The more restrictions we are weighed down with -- restrictions on when and how we can seek abortions, what we have to go through to get one, restrictions on contraceptives -- only make a DIY job seem more possible. And, frankly, if you're at that point, where that starts to look attractive... well, I can only imagine that you're that much closer to the suicide attempt it may well prove to be.

And now, I've procrastinated FAR too long, and must away, to the never-ending mountain of laundry and dishes.