Shaming and Blaming

Being an Anarchist and a generally Odd Person is trying on a regular basis. I say the Serenity Prayer a lot. And I need to . . . God grant me . . . 

My natural and instinctive response to North Dakota's new abortion laws is to fantasize burning the North Dakota State House down. These bills will kill women and harm families. 

Sanity came back when I read the Editorial in the Fargo-Moorhead Forum. The last paragraph in the editorial says it all:

The governor’s decision to sign the bills is more than a disappointment. He has unnecessarily put the state into a costly and losing legal struggle. More importantly, his deference to legislative malfeasance dismisses women’s rights and undermines best practices of medicine in North Dakota.

Be a terrible sin and shame to harm such a beautiful Art Deco building. And going to jail like the Cheryl Sullenger  filth is beneath me. Crazy person that I am, I am no terrorist.

So, having read the excellent editorial in the Forum, I was all kool and feeling reassured that there are sane folks in North Dakota, until I went to a message board and read this comment. And then I got upset all over again.

"These same politicians want to ensure that effective and efficient birth control is not available and they see abortion as birth control. It's not, but there seems to be no way of convincing these "folks" of that."

A big part of the oppressive control of women is shaming and blaming. I know this is a good pro choice person who sees herself as enlightened. And indeed, she is that. And yet, she is apologizing for women who do or might use abortion as birth control. She is apologizing because ultimately, in some obscure corner of her psyche, she feels shame about abortion. And that shaming is the only argument Forced Birthers really have, when I think about it. This is stupid counter productive pearl clutching. 

So I say, take a good hard look at reality, shall we? Anthropologically speaking, Homo Sapiens has three strategies for birth/population control - contraception, abortion and infanticide. These strategies are in use currently around the world.  Ipso facto. 

Those who restrict contraception and abortion make infanticide inevitable. That is immoral by any standard. My evidence? Ceausescu's Romania and the murder of street children in Central and South America and in India. Am I the only one who sees this?