I Am Sickened

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

The extreme irony that I experienced yesterday, is not lost on me. As we were driving our youngest child, and our only daughter to college yesterday, she announced that Roe v. Wade had been overturned.

I have always said that this blog would never be a political spot, as I believe that there are too many of these vitriolic political spots on the internet already. Frankly, I am not a particularly political person. My voter’s card currently states “No Party Affiliation”. I made that decision recently (forgoing my rights to vote in the primaries, this I understand) because I can no longer stand to be affiliated with either of these major parties, who have been taken over by their most extreme members, pushing their agendas to the point of control, coercion, shame, zealotry and fanaticism (mostly out of self-interest and narcissism), and quite frankly, not representing anyone whom I love and whom I respect, in my own real life. I deeply love both the Conservatives and the Liberals in my life. In my real life experience, most of the people whom I know, no matter where they stand politically, do not hold extreme views. They understand the need for sensibility and moderation and open-mindedness and cooperation. The Liberals and the Conservatives whom I love are not full of hate and vindictiveness. The people whom I love, wherever they stand on the political spectrum, believe in kindness and compassion, foremost, above anything else. They want to build this country based on the foundation of love. I truly believe that these people, whom I have been surrounded by for my entire life, are the true majority of the good people of the United States. And this true majority is not being fervently represented by ANYBODY in Washington, D. C.

I have never had an abortion. I don’t think that I ever could have an abortion, but thankfully, that supposition has never been tested. I do know women who have had abortions. I assure you that it was not an easy, non-emotional, soulless, flippant decision for any of them. I don’t believe that the decision to have an abortion is ever easily made by any woman, except for the very, very few who have major mental disorders. I have had a late miscarriage. My doctors had to induce me, in order for my uterus to be cleansed. Would this procedure be allowed in certain states now that Roe vs. Wade has been overturned?? Would I have been forced to keep a dead fetus in my uterus to the detriment of my health? I know more than one woman who has been raped. Thankfully, these rapes did not result in pregnancy. But what if they had? Is it my place, or anyone’s place, to tell a woman that she must carry the result of her rape to term??? Is it my place, or anyone else’s, to tell anybody what to do with their own bodies???

I am an upper middle class, post-menopausal, white woman. My daughter has excellent healthcare benefits, and parents who adore her unconditionally, and whom she can talk to honestly and earnestly. We can pay for flights, for birth control, for procedures, and for difficult decisions. But what about our sisters who don’t have these privileges? Where does this leave them? Where does this leave their offspring?

I am sickened. Friends, I am sickened. I get to choose my morality. You get to choose yours. I get my day of reckoning with my God. You get your day of reckoning with yours. I get to live my consequences. You get to live with yours. Hands off!!!

“As heartbroken as I am, as pissed off as I am, I refuse to be silent. I refuse to give up. Women across this country are going to rise up like you’ve never seen. If you thought we were a lot before, just wait.” – Maria Shriver

“On a day of many thoughts, my heart breaks especially for the most marginalized members of our society. The burden is almost always heaviest for those who are already burdened.” – Dan Rather