Since the elections are coming up within a few
months, Obama’s campaign ads are becoming more visible in popular media. One
concerning Mitt Romney and his stances on abortion has created predictable
controversy with the right wing alleging it “victimizes women” among other
things. A lot of the vitriol comes in the form of antiquated stances on
abortion rights and also claims that “Obamacare” is infringing on religious
liberty by making religious organizations, but not churches specifically, fund
contraception. I briefly mentioned this two months ago in “Where Religion andPolitics Should Not Cross” and “Catholics, Contraception and Conscience”,
both of which made the point that contraception is not a license to have sex
without any sense of discipline or self control and it shouldn’t be encouraged
merely for the pleasure of others. Viewed as preventative healthcare, it is
within the Affordable Health Care Act’s structure to cover it under insurance
plans. Women are still in a state in inequality, particularly with men and
women stuck in a backwards thinking paradigm where females are regarded as
subservient, and in order to advance forward, abortion rights must be enforced
more effectively. There may not be a literal war on women, but the “fairer sex”
is still treated as if they need to be coddled, instead of given the same
standing as a man in terms of reproductive health, which includes both
contraception and abortion as medical practices. And it is a scary time to be a
woman, even if the president doesn’t hold full sway over legislation. The
influence the executive branch has cannot be denied and the effect of peoples’
votes in terms of partisan politics cannot be overstated. If Mitt Romney and
Paul Ryan win the election, women are in danger of having all their
advancements be set back almost half a century if the Republicans have their
way, and they have a slight numerical advantage in Congress, not to mention the
Supreme Court. So the fight against these anti abortion agendas is that much
more difficult with the branches of government stacked against women’s rights.
Men should recognize this problem and seek to find a solution, which does not
mean treating women as delicate flowers or anything, since they go through far
more difficulty than men do psychologically and socially, let alone
biologically. They deserve a bit more recognition and fairness in politics than
they appear to get.
First off, you aren’t victimizing women in the
literal sense when you say they are under attack in some sense by political
campaigns. If you observe that they are victims of something else, that is
different than making them your victim. There might be a claim of painting
women as victims, but this is demonstrably different than an explicit claim of
Democrats and social liberals “victimizing” women in their abortion rights
policymaking. This is not to say that women are asking for special treatment
with insurance coverage of contraception, since it could be equally justified
for insurance providers to cover male contraception, since they can be argued
to be preventative healthcare. Romney is
admittedly out of touch with women, due in part to his upbringing as a
conservative Mormon, but also because he’s a man. I’m also guilty of being out
of touch with women, not being one myself. But I can at least empathize or
sympathize in trying to aid them in gaining what I’d call reproductive equality
under the law, which was gained in part through Roe v. Wade, but not entirely.
To claim the Obama campaign is creating an artificial status of victimhood is
still flawed, since any examples of sex selective abortion procedures, women
who suffer psychological repercussions from abortions or even women who have
died from abortion procedures are far and above exceptions to the rule,
Abortions are far safer when they are regulated and can be prevented by sex
education and proper birth control application through the same entity that
does abortions which constitute only about 3% of their services.
Planned Parenthood seems to be one of the larger
targets in the proverbial “war on females” as I’d say, even though women and
females are distinguished by age. The claim from conservatives is that they are
encouraging sex, which then leads to pregnancy, which then necessitates their
abortion services and thus is creating a circle of exploitation. First off, to
reiterate, statistics suggest that a minute amount of PP’s services are
abortion related. The rest are various forms of contraception, mammograms, pap
smears and other preventative measures to guard against STDs, various female
cancers that can spread if not checked and generally maintain reproductive
health. But Planned Parenthood isn’t creating a cycle if they are encouraging
both a happy and responsible sex life, which would prevent unwanted
pregnancies, which would also lower the rate of abortions they’d have to
perform. And women are not being portrayed as sexualized objects merely because
they admit they have a sex life and want to have safety measures concerning
pregnancy, STDs, etc. Quite the contrary, women would be at least partly
desexualized when their value is severed from their reproductive functions.
Illegalizing abortion or making reproductive health and rights not a primary
aspect of policy would reduce women to breeders in that they are not expected
to be able to choose not to have children or delay childrearing until they are
more financially or emotionally prepared. Ultimately the argument that the GOP
and conservatives either don’t understand women or don’t understand the sexist
and misogynist positions of social conservatism is only bolstered by recent
revelations about their platform and the major figures of the party supporting anti
choice and anti woman legislation in practice, even if they say the principles are the opposite.
Men shouldn’t try to argue that this is special
treatment for women, since women are biologically the only members of our
species to have children, so giving them a basic legal right to abortion is not
any different than men choosing to get a vasectomy, though it is admittedly a
bit more extreme than birth control for men that does exist; it kills sperm
through a layer of material in the male genitals that allows for urination and
the like. Women are not simply their uteruses and are definitely not mere
domestics meant to serve men by any means. Women deserve equality in career
pay; supposedly they are still only paid 75 cents to the dollar compared to the
other sex. Women also deserve basic equal career opportunities: as long as they
are qualified, the fact that they have breasts and a vagina should not factor
in unless it’s particularly relevant to the job (i.e. a Chippendale’s dancer)
Men have more status in this society than they realize. The Bible favors them
in terms of marriage, since they can divorce with some grounds and women
cannot. Then there’s the obvious problem of men being able to walk alone
without much fear of being sexually assaulted, while women are still harassed
to this day and have to walk in groups so as not to be molested or, worse,
raped. Both men and women should feel remotely safe from sexual assault in this
modern age.
It’s fair to say that perhaps government sponsorship
of contraception could create the wrong impression at first, but it’s not as if
males aren’t getting special treatment from culture, as established prior, so
women getting support from the government to advance their reproductive rights
evens out the playing field. Now women could conceivably be more self
sufficient in other areas when they can maintain a responsible and regulated
sex life, severing them from the expectation that they will just be housewives
and raise children while men continue to be breadwinners. This sexist and
outdated idea only persists because there is a mutual agreement to that setup
in a marriage and/or family. Because of this, women become repressed and
generally stifled from the potential they have. There isn’t a reason to stratify
jobs based on sex or gender unless it’s a prerequisite from the start (see my
Chippendales example or consider a Playboy Bunny as a counterexample). The
capacities men and women have for jobs are as generally equal as job skills
tend to be considered, so that shouldn’t be the issue. Women’s reproductive
rights and health have been sacrificed for too long for the convenience,
prejudice or ignorance of men. It’s time to make a change. Until next time,
Namaste and aloha.
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