Last month Arizona state lawmakers imposed new restrictions on abortions that went into effect September 12; forcing Planned Parenthood of Arizona to stop offering abortion services in all but the Glendale, Tempe, and Tucson locations. Pro-life activists are touting this to be a “move in the right direction” for the safety of Arizona women.  Key word safety…

But in fact the new regulations and restrictions do little more than restrict abortion services to those who may need them the most.

“For the first time in more than 30 years, Arizona women will have far fewer health care options available to them,” says Bryan Howard, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Arizona. “There will be no known provider of abortion outside of Metro Phoenix or Tucson.”

The new regulations require that only a physician can perform surgical abortions.  At first glance this seems to make sense, until one digs deeper. Upon further investigation I learned that in many rural areas where Planned Parenthood does not have doctors, nurse practitioners are trained in the procedure and although they have a comparable safety record to that of a physician, Judge Peter Swan considers this fact to be legally irrelevant.

But…wait, I thought this was all about the woman’s safety?   If nurse practitioners have a comparable safety record why is this new regulation necessary?

Planned Parenthood has had to stop offering abortions in rural areas not because they don’t care about women and are not willing to meet the newly enforced state requirements, as the pro-lifers would like you to believe, but because there are too few doctors available to meet these new standards.  In fact, Arizona law makers made it illegal for the University Of Arizona College Of Medicine to train doctors how to terminate pregnancies.

Hmmm…this is looking like major steps are being made to make abortions unavailable.   We already have a shortage of physicians to perform abortions, but now it’s illegal to train new doctors in the procedures too. I’m getting a sense that this isn’t about my or any other woman’s safety; it’s about making safe abortions completely unavailable!

Just on Tuesday Brewer signed a bill that outlaws abortions done on the basis of race.  This new bill will criminalize doctors and other medical professionals if they can be shown to have performed an abortion for the purpose of the parents selecting the race or gender of their offspring. Never mind that this is not even a concern in our country let along our state.

Is it only obvious to me that Brewer’s agenda is to simply scare physicians into not terminating pregnancies?  Arizona already has a shortage of physicians to perform the procedure, by law they can no longer be trained in the procedure, and now the physician’s that are trained may find with all of the new regulations that it’s just too risky.  Anti-abortion groups are hoping to eliminate abortion by eliminating the trained professionals to perform them!

We all know the history of the black market abortions; women going into the back alleys having unsanitary and unsafe abortions. The abortions were certainly not performed by a physician or even a nurse practitioner; just some guy taking advantage of a poor woman’s misfortune.  Many women died as a result and it appears this is where Jan Brewer is taking us once again.

The new regulations also require a woman to have a face to face meeting with the surgeon 24 hours before the abortion is performed during which “she will receive information she would not have received”. This includes information about the development of the fetus, the abortion procedure, and other options such as adoption and welfare benefits.  Until now, this conversation took place over the telephone with the nurse practitioner.�

This restriction will require women who live in the more rural areas to stay two nights away from home.  Consider….. According to the abortion statistics published by The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, (a significant religious based pro-life funder of abortion restrictions), 48.2% of abortions are performed on women with an income of less than $30,000 annually. Not to mention the fact that 64.4% of the women getting abortions have never been married.  The two night stay away from home will likely make it nearly impossible for the women needing the procedure the most.

I’ve known a few women and girls who made the decision to have abortions and they had already deeply considered their options and what it means for their future.  They have considered the ramifications of terminating the pregnancy and are already afraid about the procedure.  These “face-to-face” conversations with the physician will likely do little more than cost these women and girls more money, more anguish, and more guilt.

So, just who are these people that are slowly but surely taking away your dominion over your body?

They are The Center for Arizona Policy, Alliance Defense Fund, Bioethics Defense Fund, and Life Legal Defense Fund, all of which are religious based pro-life organizations, supporting religious freedoms.

Well…my God believes that it’s my decision to maintain a pregnancy or terminate it considering it is my body that is needed to create another body.  Shouldn’t this be my freedom?

All of you pro-lifers are free to have all the children you want.  However, the rest of us want the right to choose and affordable access to the procedures that support our choices.    The restrictions being put into place are doing no more than making safe abortions inaccessible and eventually impossible.  They won’t stop abortions.  Women who want and need to terminate a pregnancy will risk their lives and safety to do it.  History has proven it so.

According to the same publication the reason for 93 % of all abortions is that the pregnancy is unwanted.

I have an idea!

It may sound radical to you pro-lifers out there, but instead of making abortion inaccessible to unmarried, low-income women and forcing them to have a child they don’t want, how about we funnel all of the money you’re spending to take away women’s right to choose on preventing unwanted pregnancies!

I know…its way outta the box thinking!  But hang on, there’s more….

Since according to your (The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform) statistics 20% of abortions are performed on teen-aged girls, we could maybe teach something beyond abstinence in schools.  Oh…that’s right, you don’t want to encourage the children to have sex by teaching them how to prevent unwanted pregnancies!

Considering that 20% of the abortions are performed on teens, I’m thinking that this abstinence approach isn’t working….

No, instead let’s let them get pregnant at the age of 15 or 16 and make their parents sign and notarize a permission slip to get an abortion. (By the way this same young woman doesn’t need a permission slip to give birth or to give a child up for adoption.) Or we can just guilt her into having an unwanted child, which will drastically change the course of her life.  Oh and where is the teen-aged father?  Yes, he’ll have to pay child support but beyond that his life will probably not be too affected.  Certainly not like the teen mom’s.

Perhaps we can even take this a little deeper.

What is it in a woman’s psyche that allows her to get pregnant when she doesn’t want to be?

According to The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform 52% of all abortions are performed for women younger than age 25.  A true woman’s advocate, rather than a religious fanatic, might ask, “Why do women with their entire lives ahead of them put their futures at stake with the possibility of an unwanted pregnancy?”

Being a woman and having been pregnant at 15 my answer would be that many women and girls want to be loved and accepted by that boy or man she is about have sex with.  She doesn’t want to “rock the boat” or “make waves” by demanding that he wear a condom.  When she does ask he will probably whine and complain about it “not feeling the same”.  He may even say something about “true love not needing a condom”.

She will almost always give in.  Only to find out several weeks later that she is now pregnant.  But when she tells “Mr. True Love Doesn’t Need Condoms” he accuses her of sleeping around.  And there she is, alone and faced with a decision bigger than she is old.

I say that instead of making an abortion practically impossible for this girl let’s just prevent this situation by helping her to find her power.

Let’s give her a voice!

Let’s teach her that her worth goes beyond her sexuality!

Let’s teach her that her future is just as important as anyone’s!

….especially an unborn fetus!!!

Ladies… the Women’s Liberation movement is not over yet.  Our future generations (boys and girls) need to know that a woman’s worth is not based on a man loving her or finding her adequately fuckable.  Every day we hear of women and girls sacrificing themselves for the man they love.  In our society the girls are still growing up feeling inadequate and looking for validation from men.  They often end up pregnant and alone.

When we finally build a society that nurtures a woman’s worth. then abortion will be legal, accessible, free, and completely unnecessary except in cases of medical necessity.

The truth is the pro-life agenda is less about a woman’s safety than pushing religious dogma onto society as a whole.  If you don’t want an abortion then don’t get an abortion, but my and my sisters reproductive preferences are none of your business.

I cordially invite Jan Brewer and all other pro-life supporters to evacuate my vagina!