The Abortion Manifesto

The country (including me) is currently in an uproar over the remarks of Rep. Todd Akin and the resulting river of misinformation and propaganda. Excuse me, tidal wave may be a more suitable metaphor. We have learned that the Republican Party is endorsing a "personhood" amendment in its national platform, and that women who get pregnant from rape are lying, are blessed by God, or may not exist. Some fascinating new hypotheses have emerged on the biological mechanisms that would prevent a woman from becoming impregnated via rape semen: ovulation is prevented through "a hormonal response," that "the juices don't flow," or (my personal favorite) they "secrete a certain secretion" that kills sperm. Never mind the utter lack of any shred of scientific evidence backing any of these opinions, I personally find it amusing that they directly contradict each other. Which is it? Are my normal vaginal secretions interrupted by the terror of rape, thereby preventing semen transmission, or is my vagina (this time activated by said rape terror) able to produce magical spermicidal secretions?

This seems to indicate laziness just as much as it does sheer stupidity, in my opinion. Come on, right-wingers. Get it together. Don't you all gather around the local abortion clinic to strategize? I know you aren't too busy, because you somehow bring your photo-shopped dead baby pictures to my college, my little sister's high school, and every single feminist gathering I have ever attended (they don't seem to care whether or not it has anything to do with abortion).

All in all, it has been a pretty crappy week to be a victim of rape (male or female), anyone who owns or cares about someone who owns a vagina, or a person who appreciates critical thinking.

The thing I am most upset about, however, is how the conversation has already shifted.

As a nation, we frequently discuss abortion in politics. I will bet a million dollars that I will never see a governing body attempt to legislate how men can and can't use their penises or deposit their sperm, much less inform them that their sinful behavior requires an anal probe for no purpose other than to shame them into docility. Oh, and to have these decisions made almost exclusively by women without even allowing men to testify at the hearings? What a hilarious joke!

For half the population it is a very distinctly unfunny reality. Where is MY personhood amendment? Why am I attending a rally in the year 2012 to try and convince this country that women deserve an Equal Rights Amendment, something nonwhite men were given in 1870 (and white men, presumably, since they found the bigger stick when Homo erectus migrated out of Africa)? Would you like to know how many years separated the ratification of the right to vote and the assertion of equality for nonwhite men? Less than two years. Women gained the right to vote in 1920, more than fifty years after minority men. We are still waiting on that Equal Rights Amendment. Only 35 states have ratified the ERA. What's wrong, Florida? Or you, Nevada, are you worried your prostitutes will run off and find better ways to earn a living? I know, Utah, commitment is hard. Only 70% of the states in the most powerful country on Earth feel that women deserve the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities as men. Feeling embarrassed yet?

Now here is how this all ties back to abortion and some rather brilliant machinations by the Republican party.  The conversation this week has focused on rape and abortion. Whether rape victims should be permitted to seek abortions, what "type" of rape victims this applies to, whether rape victims can even become impregnated, and if women even know when they have been raped. Hey Chuck Winder, maybe while you are sleeping some angry women will surprise you with a 7-inch dildo in your anus. Let me know if you knew you were raped, or if you were confused on whether you were experiencing "normal relations" with your wife. I'll make sure to comment on what you were wearing and my suspicions that you are trying to swindle some sympathy and money out of the taxpayers. Deal?

As we get caught up in the media firestorm surrounding this issue, we shift the abortion focus from women to rape victims. How can we not? The thought of women being forced to carry their rapists' babies is so appalling that it is difficult to ignore elected officials suggesting this very nightmare. Along with this come all the usual accusations about women, including that they invent rape as an excuse to obtain abortions. As though women are running around, having unprotected sex with anything that moves, just so they can go get abortions as an enjoyable recreational activity. It's like a big slumber party!!

The Republicans have cleverly framed the debate in a way that moves all of us a big step to the right. A really big one. Should Democrats lose a few seats in the Senate and/or the Presidential election, we are looking at a situation in which Roe v Wade could be quickly overturned. The right already has us bargaining and pleading about the rape victims, so it's a logical step that progressives would then agree to just about any abortion deal so long as the victims (including those of incest) are excluded.

Now imagine an America in which abortion is illegal for everyone except rape victims. Every time a woman is raped, she needs to swiftly and skillfully collect evidence as though she is a prosecutor in case she gets pregnant and needs to prove she was in fact raped. Women will be jailed for miscarriages and forced to become government-mandated incubation centers. Eventually (and it can't take long), some poor girl will be in an untenable situation and will claim she was raped in order to obtain a safe, medical abortion rather than risk dying in a back alley like so many others. She will be caught, and there will be a media circus.

What conservatives claimed would happen--women falsely claiming rape in order to obtain an abortion--will happen. Because they made it happen. Then the country can say goodbye to the exceptions for victims of rape and incest, and hello to a country in which women are literally livestock and the cluster of rapidly dividing cells inside them is more valuable than they are. Mark my words, this is how this will play out if we let it.

Key word being "if". So while it is extraordinarily difficult to wrench ourselves from the rape narrative, we must. We, a coalition of forward thinkers, must demand legal, safe, affordable, accessible abortions without compromise. We will abide by the original mandate to regulate after viability, but nothing more. We must not give an inch and we must not allow them to dictate the conversation. This is a call to action not just for women, but for the men who will not stand to see their wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters become dehumanized political pawns used to constantly one-up religious extremism. We must not fear the labels the right will use to brand us--let them shout Baby Killer, Whore, Feminazi; at least you will have your life. At the end of the day, I would rather be a "slut" who controls her own body than a "good girl" who has rights equivalent to those of a sow. I predict you agree.