A Speculum and a Pressure Cooker...

As most of you all know the current Administration has skilfully manipulated vacancies on the Supreme Court and we now have what is likely to be a group of individuals with LIFETIME APPOINTMENTS who are as I see it likely to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 precedent which protects American women's right to lawfully and safely procure an abortion. The Court found that only a "compelling state interest" would justify restrictions. Legal challenges to date have limited the reach of Roe but not overturned it. Recently in South Dakota a particularly vicious piece of state law was signed making all abortion illegal, even in cases of rape, incest or fetal abnormalities incompatible with life. By law a woman would be required to carry to term pregnancies of ancephalic (without a brain) babies or even in cases where her own health is jeopardized. Even more troubling is the fact that many other states stand poised to further restrict or outlaw abortion. Including my own former state of Missouri who has recently passed legislation to deny contraceptives to low income women. Yeah. Really bloody smart. NOT! We'll take away their birth control AND their right to abortion. WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING???

Here's some good news for my Mum in Australia (and a heads-up for my Republican Mother- in-Law in Missouri) . Roe v. Wade gets overturned and I will move back to Australia. I will not live in a country where women cannot safely make health decisions about their own bodies, where the state can decide when and if you can access safe abortion.

If the whole situation isn't enough to blow your mind then this remarkable post probably will. That link will take you to a very thorough and detailed (and from what I can see pretty accurate) instruction to perform your own abortion (though obviously not a DIY procedure). Does that strike you as a safe option? Nope? Me either. But here's the thing: women have been determining their reproductive status by themselves for aeons. If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade and states continue to restrict women's right to determine their own reproductive destiny then believe it or not this is one of safer methods by which women will continue to determine their reproductive status.

It struck me as particularly poignant and telling that one of the first things women are moved to do when their rights are threatened is that they reach out to each other to share the knowledge and techniques with which to take care of themselves. I for one have those instructions printed and filed.

I only hope that we never have to call on it as a resource.