(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Guess What Guys? Abortion is About Sex! [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-06-23

On this anniversary of the tragic Dobbs decision. I’m listening to the news that support for abortion rights has only grown since. I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.

This may come as a surprise to some, but for women, the right to abortion is intimately connected to our sex lives. Not just if you get pregnant and are facing that horrible choice—but all day, every day of your reproductive life.

When I was a young thing in the 80’s, pregnancy was literally the last thing I worried about when considering having sex. Number one on the list was the AIDS crisis—a horrific, uncurable illness that threatened everyone, not just the gay community. Then came all of the other STD’s we were warned about in my high school sex ed classes. Then, if I had time, I worried about getting pregnant.

If you’re female, you’re all too aware that no form of birth control is 100% effective—including sterilization. That’s where abortion rights come in. Always somewhere in the back of my mind was the knowledge that, if the worst happened and I got pregnant despite my efforts, abortion was there as a safety net. Because having a baby was not not NOT part of my life plan at that time.

Women have a lot to worry about when it comes to having sex. Pregnancy is only one consequence. For example, women are far more susceptible to contracting an STD and to suffering long term effects if they do. We often have pain during sex for many reasons, endometriosis and plain old anatomy among them. We are far more likely to contract a UTI than men—and let me tell you from experience, there is no suffering like that suffering. I don’t know a single woman that takes the decision to have sex lightly.

I’m not sure men realize how important the availability of abortion is to women. Every time we think about sex, every time we consider having sex, every time we have sex, the possibility of getting pregnant is hanging over our heads. The Dobbs decision, for those sexually active women who live in states that have restricted or banned abortion, have to worry about this every day.

I often want to scream at the men pontificating about abortion on TV: how much do you care about sex? Is sex important to you? How often do you think about sex? Do you ever think about the suffering that women risk by having sex with you? And now you have taken away a crucial safety net that makes sex safer for us.

This issue is NOT going away. See you at the polls.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/6/23/2177167/-Guess-What-Guys-Abortion-is-About-Sex

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/