In this current climate when each Southern state feels the need to come up with a crueler-than-the-one-before legislation regarding abortion and women’s health, I keep seeing this meme.
My initial visceral reaction is to scream “Fuck You! Are you fucking nuts!?!”
But that is not how I respond. I say something along the line of how cruel this statement is to women who are raped, who are unwilling partners, girls who are raped by family members. women who are in abusive situations and cannot afford to leave.
In my head, this statement says we always have a choice when the truth is we don’t. The truth is someone we know or don’t know will force us into something we don’t want. And should we complain, tell, or file a report our word will be questioned every step of the way.
All of these new laws carry dangerous ends for women. Some of them want to force a woman to report a miscarriage to the local police. Some want to imprison women if their miscarriage is found to be an attempted abortion. So the mother will be at fault if something goes wrong, depending on how the judge and jury finds her liability. So does that mean women with hostile wombs will be in jail a lot? I hope it isn’t because her partner hit her in the stomach on purpose because we all know what will happen. His jail term will be much shorter than hers.
Some of these laws will make a woman guilty of filing a false report of rape if the case goes to trial and the man is found not guilty. Considering only 2 in 10 rapes make it to trial and 1 in 10 get a jail sentence. Even then there is no guarantee the judge will give a justified sentence as we saw in the Brock Turner case.
Do we really want this for our daughters or granddaughters? Do we want to judge them all so harshly?
Considering birth control isn’t always covered by insurance (but viagra still is), considering that there are many options that may not be available to a person, I am not sure there are affordable options, let alone those free options are that the meme talks about.
But more importantly, in an age when the birthrate is the lowest it has ever been in America, this meme slut shames every victim who couldn’t fend off a relative or a religious person or a serial rapist or a person they thought was a friend or a true love. I don’t care that you think this meme is speaking the truth. What you are really saying to these women is “Fuck You! Too bad you couldn’t get your happily ever after. I got mine and I don’t give a shit about you.”
I wouldn’t say or imply that too loudly because you never know when the laws set forth by these Christian Sharias will turn on you and take away your rights as well.
Notes from Rumbly Cottage 
I do agree with most of what you say here. I had a very bad experience in my younger years with a man who forced himself upon me. But, to me, the meme is not speaking to everyone. To me, it is speaking to those who are willingly having sex unprotected. The emphasis is on WILLINGLY. I taught my kids this same thing. Sex causes babies and if you are willingly having sex, then be prepared to accept the responsibility of a child. I think it’s just saying to not be so fast and willing to throw away a life because of poor choices. I know it’s a loaded subject with so many angles. I just wanted to express my opinion on the meme.
The problem is, this is meme is directed at any pregnancy. And we know not all interactions are by choice. I had someone tell me the amount of pregnancies by rape are not even worth noting because it is such a small number. But the thing is, it matters to the person it has happened to.
It’s not just the Southern states. Totally crazy. The extremists from both sides have gone clear over the edge.
We have to pull back to commonsense.
My question is where were all the sane women and people when these bills in multiple states were composed, presented to committees, sent to the legislative houses – all before it got to the governors who were the last stop? People have to get up and get involved in local/regional/state legislation as it is created and flows through the system – waiting until after it is law before screaming, protesting, and filing lawsuits is counterproductive. These are elected officials – when legislatures are in session – stay on their radars – the squeaky wheel gets the grease – get off the couch, email is fine ( but deleted) so write letters (oddly those do get seen as people want to clear off their desks) and show up in person in their office with a smile, a 3 sentence prepared speech (what you want/your concern, why it is important,, how that can be achieved / the action you expect that person to do) Be polite. Tell them you plan to follow up ( and do so – all the bills’ progress are posted on line) and DO follow up.
It’s said people get the government they deserve. This should be enough scare to get people actively involved during the process.
It’s not gender specific. Individuals must be access to a procedure necessary for their health. That’s a Human Right. Any bill must include exceptions for rape, incest, mother’s health and for severe genetic /extreme malformation as some are simply not able financially/emotionally/physically able to take care of one of these children ( I will not judge them). Here’s where it gets tricky: Once a child is viable outside the womb, though, that is a life and an individual who also has the right to live.
Abortions are like guns – if you don’t want one, don’t get one.
So true but you really have to be following closely. My state has a pro-abortion bill that was passed and very quickly once our new governor came into office. We only heard about it in the final stages.
That’s the critical thing – those who snooze, lose. Gotta keep up and watch towards the end of sessions. Last minute protests are futile