No, Sparky! That’s my uterus!

October 26, 2005 in Uncategorized

Around the Nashville blogosphere there’s been a lot of controversy about emergency contraception, abortion and all that sort of stuff, so I thought I’d go ahead and throw my 2 cents in.

The first thing I want to say is, I think abortion should be legal, safe, and rare. I think the best way to make abortion more rare would be to make birth control a heck of a lot easier to obtain, easier to pay for, and easier to use. Also, birth control for men other than condoms and vasectomies should be available.

As a Christian, I have struggled a lot with my beliefs about abortion. I have finally come up with what I think on the issue. I have a hard time with the whole “life begins at conception” belief, because for the majority of a pregnancy, the baby/fetus/etc *needs* the mother’s body in order to live. At some point, though, the baby/fetus/etc can live without the mother, and for me, that’s the cut-off time from where it becomes not-OK to have an abortion, but I am also not a medical professional, and I suppose somehow, there might be some sort of medical need to have a late-term abortion, but I dunno, and I’m not really here to talk about that anyway.

As far as pharmacists being able to decide whether or not they dispense stuff they agree/disagree with, I’m going to have to break with the left and say they should be able to decide that. I think that should be up to the individual, as much as it sucks, but I do think there should be a sign or something on the door saying something like, “Pharmacists at this location have opted to not dispense contraceptive medications.” to save people the embarassment of trying to fill prescriptions they can’t fill. Or even a sign at the counter when that particular pharmacist is working like, “No contraception stuff today from 10-8″ or whatever. I just think people should have the heads-up on that. Actually legislating that might be a nightmare, though, I don’t know.

On the other hand, it’s a little concerning to think that maybe every single pharmacist in an area might decide not to dispense medication they disagree with and that might be a nightmare, too. I guess I just have enough faith in my fellow man to think that would not happen.

For the rape scenario, that’s another story entirely. When I was in high school, I was raped. I was so upset and blaming myself, that I did not report it for a couple of weeks afterward, at the urging of Mystery Lady X. Summoning the courage to report it was hard enough, but actually reporting it was even worse.

What I would like to see is a rape center in every town. You can come in, talk to one of our licensed therapists, you can get an exam, or not get an exam, get tested for STDs, or not get tested, get emergency contraception, or not. You can be anonymous, or give us your name, you can report the rape to the police on the rape center turf with a therapist holding your hand, or you can never report it to anyone but us. Basically, the rape center *I* would run would give women the opportunity to deal with the rape on their own terms, but give them the tools to be able to deal with it, with the help of therapists. I’d even have a peer support group where women could hang out and talk about how they are getting along after their lives were changed forever. Of course, being the big, pansy liberal that I am, I’d federally fund it, and mandate that there be at least one in every county in the US.

I don’t know, man, I think the whole situation is sticky, and I understand mostly where both sides are coming from, but I think the key to all of this is, we need to allow women to control their *own* bodies.