Our Rage is Not Hysterical

Also about how, for years, I’ve listened to Democratic politicians distance themselves from abortion by calling it tragic and insisting it should be rare, instead of simply acknowledging it to be a crucial, legal cornerstone of comprehensive health care for women, people with uteruses, and their families. I have seethed as generations of Democrats have argued that if we could just get past abortion and focus instead on economic issues, we’d be better off. They never seem to get that abortion is an economic issue, and that what they think of as economic issues — from wages and health care to housing and education policy — are at the very heart of the reproductive justice movement, which understands access to abortion to be one (pivotal!) part of a far broader set of circumstances that determine if, when, under what circumstances, and with what resources human beings might have and raise children.

In vast portions of this country, Roe might as well not exist already.

And still those who are mad about, have been driven mad by, these injustices have been told that their fury is baseless, fictional, made of chewing gum and recycled copies of Our Bodies Ourselves.

Rage works. It takes time and numbers and a willingness to express it, but it is among the most reliable catalysts of social and political change.

And this is an old article…

When I think about the religious asshole scumbag pieces of shit who want to control my body and police my sexuality, I can literally feel the rage simmering up inside me. (It’s not about the fucking babies. If it was, where is the universal health care to ensure mothers have healthy pregnancies, UBI for mothers so they can stay home with infants if they choose, funding for WIC so babies and kids eat healthy meals, healthy school lunches and breakfast free for all kids, parental leave for both parents for an actual reasonable amount of time on par with actually modern countries so that both parents care for kids and women of childbearing age aren’t discriminated against in hiring and promotions, and free daycare and preschool so women can return to work? Where is support and protection for part-time work so parents can care for kids and have a career with benefits like a human fucking being? Where are the demands for the things we know reduce abortions, like free contraception and safe sex education? Fuck anyone who wants to get rid of abortion without implementing all and I mean all of the above. They don’t give a flying fuck about babies if they don’t want to help them live healthy lives out of poverty once they’re actually born.)