I recently read a book (fiction) called When She Woke, by Hillary Jordan. It takes place mid-21st century, when the line between church and state has been dissolved. Roe v Wade has been overturned, and women who have abortions are guilty of murder. Criminals have their skin color genetically altered to reflect the class of their crimes for the duration of their sentences, and murderers are turned bright red. Probably the most disturbing thing about the book is how easy it is to imagine it becoming reality.
I have never had an abortion, so I am not going to claim to understand the feelings around it, though obviously I can assume I understand them. I am, however, a survivor of sexual abuse, and I am intimately acquainted with the feelings surrounding it. I also know I can’t be the only one reading this thread who is a survivor, so I guess my question to the other survivors is, do you believe this can be called rape?
I don’t. I can see why some people do, I can see that it’s coercion, I can see that it’s force, but for some reason, the word just doesn’t sit well with me. Somehow (for me) it seems to diminish the word rape, somehow (for me) it takes away some of the horror, somehow (for me) it allows a tiny bit of minimalization, and (for me) that can never happen.
I have also had the displeasure of enduring 2 transvaginal ultrasounds. Were they pleasant? Not one bit. Were they necessary? Turns out they were. Would I want to have another one? I’d rather have a root canal. Would I have one if medically necessary? Yes.
The point here is that a transvaginal ultrasound is not medically necessary prior to having an abortion, I believe we all agree on that. The point here is that our rights are being taken away one by one, I believe we can agree on that as well. But while we argue over what to call it, an all male panel of witnesses speaks at a congressional hearing on contraception coverage. While we argue over semantics and choose our opposite corners, our choices are being stripped away. And while we argue, Kobi’s point about the next steps goes largely unanswered, but strikes a deep chord of fear for me because it doesn’t seem so far fetched to imagine a woman being told she is responsible for the burial of the fetus.
It doesn’t even seem so impossible to imagine her being genetically altered so that her skin is bright red.
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