*Sigh* Where to begin...

When I was in high school, a classmate of mine approached me in the library and asked me to name for him one thing women did better than men other than having babies---as if childbirth didn't count. "You try pulling a cabbage-patch doll out of your nose," I thought later. "And then tell me if that wasn't an accomplishment." I only wish I'd had the presence of mind to say it to him at the time. At least I didn't dignify his question by responding to it.

"Men" like that are the reason the Feminist movement was invented.

The early feminists did a number of useful things for women. We get to vote, hold jobs, own property. We have the freedom to make our fortunes, rather than marrying them.

But somewhere on that journey, the movement got carried away, and things got ugly.

And that is why, around this time of year I feel very lucky. And very sad. And very annoyed. And angry.

Lucky because my mother could have had me killed, but she didn't. Sad, because other mothers made different decisions, and now live with the horrifying emotional consequences, instead of with their children. Annoyed that the pain these women feel, and the relief I feel at being alive are cheapened by "feminists"in order to advance a political cause. Angry that it is all perfectly legal, and in the name of social progress.

Thirty-four years ago, the Supreme Court of of the United States of America made a decision that has been fatal for millions. (See the counter in my earlier blog post), and left others deeply wounded. It marked a shift in our culture which has been a distinct step back in the cause for Human rights in general, and for women's rights in particular.

Abortion, my parents' generation was told, would be liberating. It would allow women to escape the tyranny of men who controlled them through pregnancy. Women would die less frequently as a result of childbearing. It would end child abuse, because every child would be wanted. It would reduce poverty (which, it was implied, was clearly the result of irresponsibly having too many children), and in the process it might even help with overpopulation, pollution, and maybe even global warming. Plus, if it were legalized, abortion would be safer.

But, for some reason, women are still abused by men, and even bullied into having abortions by men who are terrified of paying child support, and are often abandoned by these same men if they choose not to abort. Child abuse and abandonment is still rampant. Families and children who live in poverty are still with us. People still talk about overpopulation, there is still smog in the air. Al Gore says the planet is heating up like an oven and the ozone layer still has that stubborn hole.

On top of that, abortion remains among the most unregulated of surgical procedures. Many states (including my home state of California) do not require that women be informed of potential medical risks of the procedure, including death. Children under 18 can still get abortions without this information, or even their parents' consent, but the school nurse can't give them a Tylenol without a permission form. It is being discovered that abortion clinics often fail to report child abuse victims to the authorities, and that they do not always staff doctors with hospital privileges--just in case a patient needs emergency care if something goes wrong. Several abortion doctors do not even have up-to-date licenses. Planned Parenthood will happily give a young girl an abortion, and then send her back to the statutory rapist who made her pregnant. This puts the lives of girls and women in danger, and yet we are told that it is safe!

There is also a growing number of women who have had abortions, who are now speaking out about the physical and psychological damage they have endured as a result of this barbaric procedure, very often leading to years of mental anguish, and self-destructive behavior. Many speak about the intense pressure they experienced when they faced the "choice" of abortion, and the sensation they had of having no other option. Many were pressured by their boyfriends, husbands, and even their fathers. Yet the "feminists" who should have stood up for them in such situations now tell them that their feelings of grief are ridiculous.

With abortion legal and unrestricted, our fertility has come to be thought of as a chronic illness, to be treated and suppressed. Pregnancy is a sexually transmitted disease, and unborn children treated as malignant parasites. Men can have their fun, and not worry about paying child support.

We deserve better than that. We deserve to have our intelligence recognized with complete patient information. We deserve properly certified physicians. We deserve to be protected when we are victims of rape and incest. We deserve not to be ridiculed if we regret an abortion.

Another vivid moment I remember from high school was in a class on Christian Morality. (Yes, I went to a Catholic high school) We were doing an exercise where the teacher would make a statement and we would stand in a part of the room that corresponded to our opinion. The issue of the day was abortion. The students who were most in favor of abortion, who most unwaveringly supported a woman having one, were all male, and, by reputation, anyway, the most likely to find themselves paying some unexpected child support. It is into their hands that the Supreme Court played on January 22, 1973. The promiscuous, love-em-and-leave-em young male, who prefers to abdicate responsibility for the consequences of his decisions: who prefers to be oblivious to the dignity of women, and use them as toys. It has been over thirty years, and some of us are still waiting for the "feminists" to get wise to this.

In the meantime, I've called my mother to thank her for my life (and my dad too, since he was man enough to stick around). She deserves some credit for the sacrifices she made to raise me, especially since she never planned to.

Welcome to the 21st century.