Ms. Magazine has organized a petition for women who have had abortions and want to remove laws that restrict abortion. An MSN story headlines, "Ms. magazine names women who had abortions: more than 5,000 signed petition saying they are unashamed of decision."
All I can say is be honest. The magazines effort is a transparent attempt to influence laws in the United States. More than likely it's also a reaction to the very successful Silent No More campaign where women share their touching stories about why they regret their abortion.
The magazine is abusing women a second time by asking women who have had abortions to sign on to the statement: "I have had an abortion. I publicly join the millions of women in the United States who have had an abortion in demanding a repeal of laws that restrict women's reproductive freedom."
I'm sure there's something liberating for women to publicly confess that they had an abortion, rather than keeping it secret. But this petition misses the point, they should not use women as political ammunition, it would be more useful if they were creating a forum for those women to come to terms with what they had done.
2 comments:
" I publicly join the millions of women in the United States who have had an abortion in demanding a repeal of laws that restrict women's reproductive freedom."
One of my pet peeves: That they refer to abortion as "reproductive freedom." How about "Freedom from Reproduction"?
If abortion is a "right," it's an anti-reproductive right. They ought to at least be honest about it.
Oh, and another point. Each woman who signed the petition wasn't joining "millions of women" in "demanding a repeal of laws that restrict women's [anti-] reproductive freedom." Each woman who signed the petition was joining 5,000 others.
Do a little math, ladies! A million is a thousand times more than a thousand. So you're exaggerating just a tad, aren't you?
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