Roe Versus Women

Hello, everyone. I woke up angry and scared, which are two emotions I should not be feeling because of a leaked Supreme Court majority-opinion draft. 

Wait...this is a knitting blog. Stand by.

My good friend Allie Pleiter has published almost sixty titles for both Harlequin and Berkley, and her latest Riverbank Knitting Mystery series includes a knitting pattern inspired by a passage in the book. Her most recent title features a pattern I designed for her; I made a two-washcloth set inspired by the sister story in the book. Here is where you can buy the book:

Amazon.com: Knit or Dye Trying (A Riverbank Knitting Mystery): 9780593201800: Pleiter, Allie: Books

And here is where you can just buy the knitting pattern, if you prefer:

Ravelry: Sisters Washcloths pattern by Amy Kaspar

All proceeds from the knitting pattern go to AHIHA: Stan Mikita Hockey School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, a charity near and dear to my heart.

Okay...back to why I fired this up again. Politico reported on a leaked draft of a majority opinion which would overturn Roe v Wade.

Frankly, I do not care if you think abortion is murder. I do not care if you think life begins at conception. I don't even care if you think abortion should be allowed for absolutely any reason up to the point of birth. 

What I care about is that your opinion is not a doctor's opinion for his or her patient, and someone's privacy is being legislated.

I do not think abortion should be used as birth control. That said, how would I know if someone was doing that, since I have no right to know why someone walks into her doctor's office? At that point - at the point where a woman drives to her doctor's office and walks in the door - my opinion does not matter. A doctor may determine with his patient that an abortion as birth control is the right decision for that patient. I am not a doctor.

If I take my son to the pediatrician, it is nobody's business. For any reason. Including vaccines. Yes, public health should be legislated (I am looking at you, pandemic), but it is nobody's business when and how I get my kid innoculated from measles and whooping cough. I just have to do it so kids don't die 

If Roe v Wade gets overturned, I will not be able to do any of the following without the entire American public thinking it is their business:  get a mammogram, complain about hot sweats, get a vaginal ultrasound to verify my IUD is in the correct spot, discuss menstrual pain, inquire about a lump in my breast, inquire about a lump on my thyroid, inquire about a lump on my labia, complain of abdominal pain, ask about why I am gaining weight, or find out what can be done about my moodiness.

With the rise of extremist conservativism, I have distanced myself from the Republican party. I still believe in better management of money and more responsibility from each citizen, but I can no longer support a party that spent a generation and a half gaslighting people into believing the American Dream is not based in white supremacy. And in this case, for lack of a better term, male supremacy.

Let's take out the privacy piece for a second. There are two facts that have been proven, both by sociologists and by medical anthropologists who study what is done in other countries: restricting abortion kills women, and expanding women's health care saves almost three bucks for every dollar spent. I would think that, in a world where almost an extra million people in this country have died from a pandemic and the service industry is short-staffed because of it, protecting half of the population from more death would be a good idea. I also thought Republicans liked to manage money better than their leftist-counterparts. Well, when Colorado offered free birth control, their abortion rate plummeted by 80%. IUDs, if you are keeping score, are a bit less expensive than an average of ten doctor visits, a two-day hospital stay, a lactation specialist, an epidural, and the eighteen years of formula, food, clothes, school events, and housing that follow it.

Back to privacy. Because as you will recall, Roe v Wade was a 7-2 decision regarding the 14th Amendment, the clause of due process, and privacy. Please go to the comments and tell me the number of occasions you go to the doctor where it is everybody's business. It should also be noted that this decision was sent down at a time where women were being reported in the newspaper as "Mrs. (husband's name)," and not "Mrs. (woman's name)." I am not much of a "this is a slippery slope" person, but who is to say that this will not lead to the Supreme Court thinking it is okay that vigilantes are looking under bathroom stalls to ensure trans people are "using the correct bathroom?" 

Ask yourself if due process is different than it was fifty years ago. Roe was based on a married woman who already had two kids. It was not based in what I hear described by the bigoted extremist Republicans I mention earlier. They are picturing a woman of color with three babies on her hip, ratty hair, no job, and just milking the welfare system. They are picturing the "they" to whom they refer, instead of understanding that people who get abortions are...you know...people.

Finally, look at the economic impact. People who like to say that there are so many families who want to adopt do not look at the fact that an unwanted pregnancy turns into a given-up child. Again, many women having abortions are married with other kids. Or they are kids themselves. Or they are single adults. It does not matter who they are, because ultimately, they are not you. But if you are a woman, this decision being overturned will affect you as well.

When Roe v Wade was decided, one parent could sell shoes full time and afford to buy a house and feed his family on that money. Now, two salaries are often not enough to buy a house, feed everyone, or pay all of the bills. With abortion not being an option, it means pregnant women may not be able to afford prenatal care, mental health care, adoption counseling, parenting classes, vitamins, healthier food for the fetus to grow properly, air filters, water filters, food for the other kids in the house, disposable diapers, gasoline, 

So, here comes an unwanted baby from an unwanted pregnancy. This can only go a few ways, so allow me to lay them out for you. 1) Everything will be fine! 2) The family will manage. And by "manage," I mean there will possibly be divorce, the kids will make it to high school graduation, and everyone will need years of therapy to undo all of the stress-management techniques they learned incorrectly. 3) The family will have to rely on the social services Republicans hate, just to manage, and they will not be readily available in the areas where these people live, and everyone's taxes go up in order to pay for these services. 4) (and this is most likely) Long-term, the life-expectancy of both the mother and the child will be shorter, the education system suffers, the healthcare system suffers, and the mental-health system suffers. The only people who win are attorneys and funeral directors.

I would like to live in a world where everyone wins. But, if I have to lower my bar just a bit, I want to live in a world where I can walk into a doctor's office in peace. After all, that is liberty. I want to be able to get an abortion if I were to get pregnant today (I was told yesterday that I have viable follicles), because I will not be having a baby at 47 years old. That is life. My life. I also know that if I were to get pregnant today, and I had no option to get rid of it, I would be pretty much driven to suicidal thoughts. I am not being flippant. I am very, very fortunate to have a good enough job where I could seek help if that ever happened. That is the pursuit of happiness.

Dear Extremist Republicans:  quit pandering to your base, and try to save the life of your fucking wife while you save your own.