By Christie Ann Reynolds
He is our President. He governs our country. He brought us to war. He regulates our educational funding. Oh, and he’s the father to millions of unborn children. Well, lets just say he thinks he’s the father. How is this so? It’s simple: Bush doesn’t want anyone to wear condoms.
Boys and girls, this is high school health class: Abstinence! Abstinence! Abstinence! Remember laughing at that one? Well, abstinence is the only solution to your raging hormones. Condoms? Sorry that’s considered an extreme form of birth control and no, no; using condoms are not “natural” according to our Commander in Chief. Can you imagine Bush’s very publicly wild daughters obeying this?
Everyone may as well practice abstinence because you will have very limited, if no other family planning options available. You ask- what about The Pill? As in birth control? Sorry, but Bush would just love to make its usage illegal. Just like marijuana and drunk driving.
Oh and how could I forget ladies: cramps. Those painful, bloating, irritating muscle spasms that cause you to puke and act crazy for one week of every month. Yes well Dr. Hager, one of Bush’s many appointed comrades has prescribed-ready for this-a good old dosage of readings straight from the bible. Because that’s just what I want to do when I don’t feel like moving from the bed; read some ancient scripture. HA!
I hope you are all laughing as you read this. If you are laughing it’s because you all know that kneeling before the altar will never, I repeat never ever in a million years remedy the annoying, nauseous anger that menstruation causes. If you think this is all about women, guess again boys-especially when you think that birth control has got you in the clear. Imagine if your girlfriend wasn’t allowed to take it- by law.
There is another loophole in Bush’s administration. Apparently certain words-in a country of freedom of speech have become “taboo”. The words, “gay,” “men who sleep with men,” “homosexual” and “transgender” were asked to be removed from grant requests that HIV researchers at the University of California depend upon for their studies. They were told to “cleanse” their grant applications of those words and that those grants would be, “subjected to a more intense review.” So far, Bush has decided to tell us what we cannot say and what we cannot do with our reproductive organs.
Much of what I have already said may appear to be a bit extreme. Well that’s because it is. And it’s happening. These few birth control issues are just the beginning of President Bush’s war against women. He is thoroughly happy to sign our rights away to a panel of men who decided that women should not have reproductive freedom. According to our president, a woman should not be allowed to make decisions about her pregnancy.
Instances of rape on this campus are heard in whispers. We all know someone who has been victimized. Maybe it has happened to you too- you reading this. Now imagine having that child. Is Bush going to help you? Of course not. In a matter of an hour you could receive emergency contraception. Emergency contraception is 90 percent effective if taken within the first 12 hours. The Federal Drug Administration has also approved this drug to be dispensed over the counter. However, instead of being released about a month ago, the administration has requested that a 90 day hold be placed upon it-even after the FDA approved it.
Therefore, the Bush administration has been making it increasingly harder for women of sexual acts of violence to protect themselves. Perhaps, you have become alarmed by reading this, however, not because of the issues I am obviously opposed to. Perhaps you are alarmed because you do not support the ideas of pro-choice or namely, abortion. I myself do not think that emergency contraceptives or the choice to have an abortion means that we should all run around and have sex with anyone and everyone that we want because within a few hours we can pop a pill and be on our merry way to the next person.
My point is that women should have a choice. What is freedom without the choice to pursue all aspects of freedom?
Women should have reproductive freedom. President George Bush and all his Ivy League education is not going to tell me or my sister or my girlfriends what to do with our bodies. If I need to make a decision- whether it is to take birth control, use a condom or emergency contraceptives, or have an abortion-I better damn well be able to. It has been my body for 20 years and it will remain my body until the ground comes to claim it. How anyone can decide what we are to do with what should already be our own choice is absurd.
What happened to land of the free? All these constitutional rights promise us the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Well, Bush wants to take away the rights to our own lives, the liberty of our bodies and the happiness that goes along with our freedom of choice. What all of this is going to come down to is a separation of the rich and the poor-separation of social classes. Those who can afford to pay someone to do an abortion for them may sneak around Bush’s future plans for family planning restrictions. Those without money will be reduced to poisoning themselves to abort a fetus, or worse, they will die in a back alley abortion clinic because someone messed up one of the quickest and safest procedures there is today. This society is already extremely capitalistic and most people can’t even afford health insurance. There are already enough gaps in our social structure. Why does it have to affect our reproductive decisions and health as well?
The separation between science and religion has plagued our past. But shouldn’t we, in this country, with so many different cultures and religions be able to decide what sexual mores we will follow? Just because Bush doesn’t believe in sex before marriage doesn’t mean we have to as well. He is basing many of his decisions about reproductive choice on the platforms of his religion. Not everyone believes in Jesus or the Virgin Mary and the Immaculate Conception. Therefore, decisions about our bodies should be made based upon our own personal mores. These issues are important to support. Women are not property. We do not deserve to be owned by a law. Our bodies and the choices we make should not be overridden by someone else’s belief. There is a little saying that I have heard and I’d like to pass on: “If you don’t believe in abortions, then don’t have one.”
If you don’t agree with skydiving and throwing your body out a plane-you don’t go up in that plane. But you aren’t going to tell someone else they can’t just because you wouldn’t. That would be ridiculous. If you cannot support the fight for freedom of choice you may as well show up at the White House naked, a cage in tow and say, “Here! Here I am! Here is my body, its all yours!” You will not have a choice to your own reproductive health.
I ask all of you-men and women-student and professors-faculty-hear this: Support freedom of choice in a place where freedom is supposed to exist. Come and march for women’s rights in Washington D.C on April 25, 2004. Hofstra students are going together on a bus to stand up for their rights. This isn’t just some crazy thing that you have heard of people becoming a part of. This is real. It is going to be a major part of our history.
If you believe in owning your own body, if you believe in reproductive care for all women-immigrants, black, white, Hispanic-then prove it. I ask you all to prove how much you care about all this freedom that you pay for with your votes. In the end, our voices cannot go unheard. I believe they cannot ignore us forever.