Hello and welcome, dear reader!
I hope this post finds you well, and enjoying your day. I write to you from the confines of my one bedroomed flat in the currently moist south of the British Isles, because as indicated by the title of this blog, I am housebound through the combined disabling forces of myalgic encephalomyelitis and fibromyalgia. These are conditions causing primarily, among a whole host of symptoms, extreme tiredness and exhaustion, combined with permanent, excruciating pain...fun!
This, however, shall remain secondary, as I am still in full possession of my faculties, and as such plan to engage these in order to compile a blog for your edification and entertainment...or just to get shit that annoys me off my chest (if we're being honest, here!)...because these days, there's more than enough of that to go around!
We live in extraordinary times, kids. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the steady erosion of our supposedly 'inalienable human rights' - a topic broached by yesterday evening's BBC1 episode of Panorama: The Great Abortion Divide. This pantomime of 'fair and balanced' (to coin an ironic Fox phrase) reporting, introduced this sensitive yet straightforward issue of the right to autonomy over one's own body, by highlighting the vicious assaults perpetrated on women by "pro-life" (the most ridiculous political classifications ever? Are you pro-life? Hell, no! I think we should kill everyone!! Are you pro-choice? Hell, no! I think one guy ought to be dictating life to the entire planet!! ...HINT... You are pro- or anti-ABORTION, folks. Let's keep it simple.) protesters either while trying to gain access to an accepted, legal medical procedure, or indeed while simply walking down a public highway. You see, I don't get to walk around with giant pictures of mutilated unverified propaganda of the things you do that I don't like. I don't get to harass you in one of the most vulnerable states you'll ever experience in life, in order to force you to change your mind from a rational, time-considered decision to my irrational, emotionally charged yet practically entirely negligent, way of seeing the world.
I have yet to find a protest group which holds as its primary directive the inextricable elements of talking women out of abortions, coupled with a well-conceived and actionable plan for pre- and post-natal care for these women, not to mention serious financial backing for all the babies. It would appear from this that their concern is not, in fact, as so widely touted the 'protection of innocent life', but rather the removal from women of autonomy, choice and the right to make decisions regarding their own bodies. Surely, if this had anything whatsoever to do with preservation of life, the main focus of every group would be providing shelter, care, nutrition, clothing, education, et cetera, et cetera for these infants. But as is glaringly obvious from a brief glance at the actions in Brighton of late, it doesn't. It's just another dictatorial effort to run our lives as women.
Even better is that Panorama uses this opportunity to employ the ridiculously out-of-date 1967 Abortion Act as a means by which to denigrate women's choices. As could probably be imagined of such an old act, covering such a prominent issue in women's lives, its mode of implementation is somewhat lacking, primarily as a result of the fact that regardless of the situation, an abortion may only be carried out where there is a medical need. Now, given that this is grotesquely arbitrary and bears absolutely no relation to the concept of civil rights, doctors have, over the years, had to use their professional discretion in order to work within the confines of the system. In context, this means that where two doctors have to sign to authorise the termination of the pregnancy, they will use the reasoning that pursuing the pregnancy will cause a great deal more emotional stress than performing a termination.
Given the straitjacket that doctors have been provided to work within the confines of, whereby they cannot simply execute a medical procedure at the request of the patient, this seems a particularly sensible approach. But for the Big Men at the Beeb, this simply means that 'nasty wimmins' are ABusing the glorious system so ably put in place by the upper-class white men that came before them. Not that the rules of this system are arbitrary and penalising to women for no greater reason than that they play the part of the gestational vessel in the process of procreation.
I truly thought that at least having overcome this in the sixties, we could only hope to improve upon the state of female reproductive rights...but we now face a situation that is creeping towards what our American sisters are exposed to on a daily basis, with bombings, shootings, stabbings and permanent pickets at the one or two clinics which are still barely standing. Our M.P.s (male and female - thanks for that one, guys...) are sounding off most vociferously about the time limits, the procedures, the conditions for performing the procedure... These include Nadine Dorries, Maria Miller, Jeremy Hunt, and David Cameron. Yep, your P.M. retains no delusions regarding his duty to you - his priorities are his own, and you can bet your life that they conflict with anything that's good for you...
They're looking to make you beholden in just one more way - we're heading back to an era where women didn't have a say over their own bodies, and in turn, they didn't have a say over their own lives. If you can be subjugated into carrying a child by the mere removal of all other options, and we maintain the status quo of women as the primary/sole caregivers and men as the primary/sole breadwinners (because isn't that just the greatest stereotype that ever existed?!), then I'm afraid, my dear, that you are all out of choices.
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