Thread by @VABVOX

We really need to talk more about #abortion as an option for women.

It's hard to say this and hard to hear it for many, but just because you discover you are pregnant doesn't mean you must carry that pregnancy to term. Your decision will last the rest of your life--and the rest of the life of any child you decide to carry to term.
#abortion

And no, I am not advocating #abortion.
I'm advocating thinking about parenthood & all it entails.
Because once you have a child, you can't just walk away from that life.
And women/girls are talked into maintaining pregnancies every day.
More discussion would change that.

On May 22, Trump employed a #gagrule that would prevent and criminalize discourse on #abortion. That's an end-run around #RoevWade.

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Even other women want to shut down this conversation.
We're told to say #ReproRights instead of #abortion.
We're asked, accusatorily, "What about #BirthControl?!"

HOW DO WOMEN GET BC WITHOUT #HEALTHCARE PAYING FOR IT?

Birth control isn't just expensive, it requires a doctor.

Others ask: "What about the morning after pill?"

Well--@POTUS44 nixed the availability of that. Obama said he didn't want it on the shelves next to "band aids and bubblegum" and directed his Sect of Health, Kathleen Sebelius to contravene the #FDA.
nyti.ms/2J3GWzi

Even our self-declared feminist allies make bad decisions for women.
Obama's said he didn't want his daughters making these decisions without him and Michelle.

Except not every girl has the Obamas as parents and sometimes it's the male head of household who impregnated the girl.

Sometimes the healthiest choice for a woman is #abortion.
And right now, in most places in America, abortion is more accessible than is #birthcontrol.
That's a pretty damning reality.
Being #prochoice means working toward women/girls being "allowed" control over their own bodies.

You need ID and to ask the pharmacist for #PlanB from behind the counter.
And you need money.
And you need to know Plan B even exists.
The demands on women/girls to access their own reproductive autonomy are immense.
We need to talk about this--not shut it all down.
#abortion

I had no intention of talking about this. I was watching a TV show in which a woman derailed her entire life to have a baby of a man she wasn't involved with past the initial sex.
She didn't want a baby, but decided she had to.
This isn't the way to start your family.
#abortion

I'm going to end this thread with a surprise: I am personally opposed to #abortion. When I was raped a few years ago I prayed I wouldn't get pregnant (or #HIV or Hepatitis or #Herpes), because I couldn't have an abortion.

But my feminism isn't about me--it's about women & girls.

That's what #prochoice means: Knowing that there are women who will need something and you want it to be available to them even if you would never access it yourself.

So work for that. Work for reproductive freedom, which is the basis of all female autonomy.

Compulsory #pregnancy has derailed the lives of women & girls for millennia & continues to do so globally. There's a whole other thread to write here about how pregnancy kills girls in developing nations & the US South, but that's for another time.

For now: talk about #abortion.

Oh and on May 25 Ireland votes to #repealthe8th and hopefully will finally cease to allow the Church (my Catholic Church) control women's bodies and will legalize #abortion.

Support this by tweeting about it. Women/girls ARE dying because abortion is illegal there.
#Together4Yes

A few women have told me that "you can just order Plan B online & have it delivered," which totally misses class/economics of unwanted pregnancy.
#PlannedParenthood lays out the expense: It's between $40-$60. And may not work & has a tiny window for use.
plannedparenthood.org/learn/morning-…