on being pro-choice
Perished latex that has not survived the humidity of a tropical holiday.
Pill escapees. Long before the colour-coordination of the Pill, they were all red and free to escape their foil-y calendar only to mingle and jumble into a lucky dip of go-juice and placebo.
The time when yearning is hungrier than any sensibility.
The panic, the claustrophobia, the lack-of-control that can be an unwanted pregnancy.
A large enough family.
Rape.
Disability, malformation, chronic disease.
Not blue, but pink.
Not pink, but blue.
I am pro-choice because having sex, being passionate, fucking hard and often, is not always done to conceive. Paradoxically, sex can lead to conception. Conception is not always the desired outcome. Contraception fails, or is unpleasant, or is onerous, or is forgotten, or requires assertiveness, or is overwhelming…
If we so choose, we have the right to be gloriously empty or rapturously full.
Create and maintain a pro-choice environment. If you (or someone who asks for your support) ever need to exercise your reproductive rights you will be overjoyed to see that they are still there.
Image from here
January 22nd, 2007 at 12:49 am
A bumpersticker whose time has… er… come.
January 22nd, 2007 at 6:22 am
…or for the Volvo drivers,
Abortion happens; make it safe.
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:42 am
Bloody Volvo driver. π
January 22nd, 2007 at 12:54 pm
[…] Elsewhere: Suki says: “I am pro-choice because having sex, being passionate, f-cking hard and often, is not always done to conceive.” and “Abortion happens; make it safe.” […]
January 22nd, 2007 at 7:46 pm
[…] Jill of Feministe got in early. Maia at Alas, a Blog gives the view from New Zealand. Here’s a few more bloggers weighing in: Brownfemipower, The opinionated Suki, Trish of Lone Sophist and Letters from the Front (similarity to the post title is completely coincidental). […]
January 23rd, 2007 at 3:41 pm
I am pro-choice because having sex, being passionate, f-cking hard and often, is not always done to conceive.
Very honest, and very unfortunate. Compare the aforementioned ‘plan’ for human sexuality with that of monogamy, fidelity, love, openness to life, sacrifice and the exclusion of all others from the intimate relationship (ie the Christian approach).
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:38 pm
Blogging for choice lets you do your own thing too, Marcel.
I’ll just keep fucking hard and often- and not conceiving- and screaming out “oh my god” when I do, ok?
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Marcel’s comment presumes that absent of one of his xtian ‘plans,’ one is incapable of fidelity, monogamy, love, openness, sacrifice and the exclusion of all others from the intimate relationship.
This is known as a ‘straw-man’ argument, where a fault not otherwise existing is raised by the critic to give him something to attack… as he is incapable of logical defence of his point.
Silly, silly, insular little boy. Let us know when Mum lets you out of her sight, OK?
The most important exclusions from an intimate relationship are faerie tales and imaginary friends.
Now, we’re off to see the wizard about a heart and a brain for Marcel’s straw-man.
January 24th, 2007 at 3:43 am
Thanks for posting. My campaign works on reproductive health awareness in the sense of it being a church-state separation & religious liberty issue.
check it out:
http://www.firstfreedomfirst.org
Click on the Green Reproductive Health circle to read more on that topic. And sign the petition!
January 24th, 2007 at 6:47 am
Aradia, church-state separation is a very good shibboleth for Americans… but not so good in Australia where there is no Bill of Rights and certainly no separation of church and state. Remember, Queen Lizzie is both head-of-state of Australia and head of the English state-operated church, Ye Olde Anglicans (known to yanks as Episcopalians).
Not all religions oppose abortion. Jews don’t have a problem with defending fully-qualified human beings and leaving foetus management to their prospective mums.
Evolution gets it right from time to time. Marsupials are designed so that in times of environmental stresses like lack of food and water, the mother animal can self-abort her own pregnancy safely and easily, just by emptying her pouch. Too bad humans missed that branch of the evolutionary tree; we wouldn’t be having this conversation.
January 24th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
[…] Tigtog argues the pro-choice abortion position from her own experience (as a mother of two). Suki has a more earthy (and free verse poetic) take on it: I am pro-choice because having sex, being passionate, fucking hard and often, is not always done to conceive. Paradoxically, sex can lead to conception. Conception is not always the desired outcome. Contraception fails, or is unpleasant, or is onerous, or is forgotten, or requires assertiveness, or is overwhelming […]
April 24th, 2008 at 8:20 am
PRO LIFE IS MURDER. IF YOU ARE A CLINIC BOMBER YOU SHOULD GO TO JAIL JUST LIKE OTHER PEOPLE DO WHEN THEY KILL SOMEONE ELSE. IT’S TOO BAD THAT ALL OF THE PEOPLE WHO ARE ANTI CHOICE DIDN’T HAVE PARENTS WHO WERE PRO CHOICE TOO, CAUSE THEN THEY WOULDN’T BE HERE.
April 24th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Ain’t that the truth (sorta)! π
May 7th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
I just want to say that not all pro-lifers are clinic bombers.
I agree that women should be able to get a legal abortion,
but I think most women aren’t being educated enough on what they are getting themselves into and are unaware of the consequences they will be forced to face (in the US abortion clinics often try to sugar coat things because in the end, they’re getting your money).
So YES to having the CHOICE, but also yes to KNOWING WHAT YOU’RE DOING (not implying that anyone here doesn’t, but I think a lot of women don’t have all the facts or understand how painful an abortion can be, I’m speaking more about the U.S. here again)
May 7th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Women terminating a pregnancy know precisely what they’re getting into- getting un-pregnant.
Any attempts to force extreme medical detail on them eg mandatory sonograms or ‘counselling’ serve ONLY the purposes of anti-choicers who want to guilt-trip women out of exercising their right to control their own bodies.
I want to see the reaction of a patient who is forced to see a sonogram of a cancerous section of intestine about to be removed, don’t you? It’s no damn different- just another medical procedure.
May 11th, 2008 at 8:26 am
Thank GOD for people like you, Suki! We must preserve our rights to choose how to operate our bodies. If you are anti-choice email me and I will sort out your wrong-headedness!
GCDArkPunkFaerie@aol.com
May 11th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Suki is gardening, I’ll pass that along… π
November 2nd, 2008 at 7:22 am
From the SHAO comment moderation queue:
Roe v. Wade asserts women have a right to privacy with regard to reproductive matters. You don’t respect their right to privacy, so I won’t respect yours, Joe.
This threatening comment from Joseph E. Lobocki of (address and telephone number removed by Admin as Joe advised via email on 12/07/10 that he had been the victim of identity fraud and would never disrespect women*) is a prima facie demonstration of the murderous hatred of women and children which is core to the violently unglued anti-choice mob, which Suki has railed against for years.
Beating pregnant women to death because you don’t like their politics will win you cadres of support, Joe, I’m sure.
Thanks for telegraphing the true intent of the McCain mob, ‘Joe the Plumber’.
*To quote the REAL Joseph Lobocki,
“My view has always been that what a woman does with her own body and it is not my decision to make, which is why I am mortified to see that this trash he had written was used under my name.”
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 am
Joe “the pregnant woman basher” Lobocki is a prime example of ‘pro-life’ hypocrisy.