What is your opinion on abortion becoming legal again in some states? I am heartbroken.
#Roevwade #susanstrasser #susanstrasserblog #amwriting
A week ago the world was turned upside down. Or at least this American woman’s was. Roe v Wade was overturned. As I reflect and live in shock that this event has actually taken place… I ponder the following:
Are more folks than ever online researching and signing up to adopt all these unwanted babies?
Are taxpayers prepared to financially support all the mothers with families as big as the Brady Bunch?
What if a mom is in the hospital giving birth and her life is at risk…
What if that is my daughter someday…
Oh, and what about all the one-night stands we’ve all had at one point in our lives or the other?
What if parents don’t have a good relationship with their adolescent or teenage children and they get pregnant and have to travel a long distance to have someone who is not a doctor try to abort it? Or what if in their travels to said place something happens to them and they still don’t call?
How many babies will be born without proper development (vital organs, etc.) that will put a strain on not only their families to be kept alive but the U.S. health system which is already a trainwreck?
And oh, what about the babies born addicted to drugs and alcohol?
What about birth control and the rights of LGBTQ? Americans who are also at risk?
The local Frederick News-Post ran an article on Monday entitled “Some women fear setback to their rights; Reproductive freedom was key goal of the feminist movement.” The article was written by Jocelyn Noveck. It went as follows:
“At 88, Gloria Steinem has long been the nation’s most visible feminist and advocate for women’s rights. But at 22, she was a frightened American in London getting an illegal abortion of a pregnancy so unwanted, she actually tried to throw herself down the stairs to end it.
Her response to the Supreme Court’s decision overruling Roe v. Wade is succinct: ‘Obviously, ‘ she wrote in an email message, ‘without the right of women and men to make decisions about our own bodies, there is no democracy.’
No democracy. Oh my God. Well said, founder of the feminist movement that I studied growing up!
Tuesday’s wire reports included a blip about international reactions to Roe being overturned, this time from Israel. The world watches us. We have a reputation for being one of the most powerful countries in the world, so (ISRAEL LOOSENS ABORTION REGULATIONS IN RESPONSE TO OVERTURNING OF ROE) as follows:
“JERSUSALEM- Israel on Monday eased its regulations on abortion access in what the country’s health minister said was a response to last week’s ‘sad’ U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.”
And we developed the reputation for being a superpower after centuries of struggles and progress of our own.
A chilling photograph in the Washington Post that ran Sunday of a person standing in front of the Supreme Court, with a handmade sign which states “STATES RIGHTS GAVE US SLAVERY.”
Did you know that?
Mr. Thomas Campion, my 8th grade U.S. History teacher taught me that. SLAVERY WAS NOT A PRIMARY CAUSE OF THE CIVIL WAR as is often assumed by Americans. IT WAS STATES’ RIGHTS. When we denied, as a country, a large group of human beings, in this case brown and black ones, to have their rights to freedom and to be U.S. citizens as guaranteed by our Declaration of Independence and Constitution to individual states to decide? It broke us. The union was never the same.
The South chose to have slaves; massive plantations necessitated it.
Interestingly enough, the states rushing to (or who already have) enacted illegal abortions are predominantly in the south again. But more about that in a second.
Also approximately 150 years ago, Abraham Lincoln gave his famous “house divided” speech, which is often attributed to being a cause of the Civil War:
“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”
Of course, Lincoln’s quote emanates from this line from the Bible:
“If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. ” Ephesians 6:11
And here we are again! After a fifty-year reprieve from illegal misogyny, the Supreme Court has reversed its federal protection of women and our bodies. But notice above that Lincoln does say that there is hope for the country to come together again. Wow.
So, where does your state stand at this moment? Check it out:
As you can see, the oppression of black and brown people (one entire race of human beings), has now been transferred to women. (an entire gender)
In this crazy era of racial tension (still) and a perpetual pandemic, how is Roe v Wade being overturned showing love?
It is not.
In Corinthians, the Bible eloquently and simply states what love is:
4″ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.”
All women of child-bearing age are no longer protected and certainly are not being treated kindly.
Prior to the Civil War era of the 1860s, there was something called the Revolutionary War era of the 1770s, which of course, we celebrate this weekend with American independence from the British. A King over there wanted us to be subjugated to his country, somewhat similar to how Putin wants to steamroll Ukraine and make it part of Russia.
Mr. Putin’s mental health, similar to Donald Trump’s, has been questioned. I agree. Black and white thinking or “all or nothing” thinking is not healthy. It smacks of dysfunction, toxicity, and the disease of addiction. Individuals showing such symptoms should be treated if at all possible.
Now is not a time to divide Americans and return such a serious right to individual states.
Now is the time to choose love and return Roe v Wade to federal jurisdiction. Every individual woman in this great country of ours has the right to choose what she does with her own body.
susan strasser 
Well said , very i informative !!!
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I’m with you on this issue, Susan. Lots more women are going to die during pregnancy and at childbirth. I keep asking myself: Who gains in the growing divisiveness in our nation?
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