Thanks to author Leila Radan for letting us re-publish this article off of A Band of Wives. Check out ABOW - it's free to sign up, and it's magnificent!


by Leila Radan

Once upon a time I was Miz BoheMia. Once upon a time I wrote this. Many parts I'd edit for the me I am today and the critical writer/editor who knows it can be better. But that me that I was had a message I still agree with. And given what's going on today, I thought I'd share this with you.
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The abortion debate is getting hotter by the minute as well it should. A whole bunch of mostly men are pissed that women want complete ownership of their bodies. They claim to fight for the rights of the fetus. They are human rights activists they bellow! They have to put their foot down against all evil, abortion-crazy women who just want to get their freak on and f**k away, get pregnant, get an abortion and move on to some more f**king. Yes, because these women, them there that get these abortions do so easily and blindly and think only of themselves.

I have a vagina. That is all these men want to know. No need to tell them that I am a woman. No need to tell them anything about me it seems. It is my vagina and my uterus that take center stage. Me, I am just the receptacle that holds them. I have no mind, no heart, no soul.

There are some who claim that this must be a scientific debate. Forget religion, they declare in their show of openmindedness, and allow science to decide. And where am I woman, through it all now? Still just a uterus and a vagina only that now I am on the cutting room floor, being dissected, as men in white jackets search to decide my fate.

Yes, I have no mind, no heart, no soul. I am only a vagina, a faceless uterus with phantom fetus' floating around who must be saved from the cruel, cold-hearted receptacle that I am.

Funny how my children came out of that vagina, how I bore them, nurtured them, sacrificed my body for them while pregnant and how I sacrificed my body yet again after birth in order to feed them... yet I am only a uterus, only a vagina and my voice seems not to matter.

Well, I have news for you. Take your heads and scalpels out of my vagina and look up for a second. See the face, the mouth, the heart? That is where I am and I have plenty to say!

Talk of zygotes and embryos and fetuses and the unborn's rights and men's opinions, and the rights of fathers-to-be BE GONE. Science holds no answers and men, well, unless you agree that my body is mine as is the right to choose then your voice matters not. Women have the floor now and our stories matter and we will and we must speak up.

Like I said, I have two children. I bore them, nurtured them, sacrificed my body for them while pregnant and I sacrificed my body yet again after birth in order to feed them. I am not the same anymore. My body is not the same. My pregnancies affected me and only me physically. Funny how I am supposed to shut up and take it, grin and bear it then when this all affects only... say it with me now... me!

Abortion is not an easy task. Abortion is not a pretty task. You think it's evil? Then call it a necessary evil because that is just what it is...

I am sick and tired as a woman to have this reduced to a fight about body parts and women's rights... like homosexuals, we are tired of being a minority, of being second class citizens and we need this issue to simply be a part of the larger scope of human rights because these here men are stepping on my rights as a woman, on my rights as an individual, on my rights as a free being capable of making my own choices and of exercising my free will and when it comes to abortion it is, must be, should be and will be MY choice. ONLY MINE. Take that away from me and you are taking away my freedom, my equality and I am reduced to second class citizenship and so where is the equality and... enter Human Rights...

I have two children... count them... 1... 2.

My first pregnancy was not planned. My initial reaction was to get an abortion even though deep down I was happy about my pregnancy. I was just afraid to admit it. I was lucky in that I was in a committed, loving relationship with a loving and supportive partner who knew I was his equal. Saw me as, no. Knew because my not being an equal has never been an option.

So yes, I wanted an abortion and my husband wanted to keep the child... but... that did not matter he said. It was my body. Pregnancy had happened to me. Pregnancy was going to affect me. I would be the one giving birth. My body was going to suffer permanent changes. So yes, the choice was to be mine. Only... mine.

I decided to keep my child BECAUSE of the very fact that I was free to choose. Had I not had the choice, I would have found a way to abort. I don't like being caged in and I don't like being forced to do something I don't want to do and so I will not submit and I will get my way whether legally or no... I am not an animal to be caged. My free will shall not be stripped of me. Choice is my right.

The fact that I was free to choose and that I had a partner who wanted to keep the baby but said it was my body, my choice and the very fact that he would stand by me no matter what gave me the freedom and the empowerment to say yes to motherhood.

You want to strip us women of our rights? Then consider yourself at war. This is a war against me and my fellow sisters and we are outraged and we will NOT sit there and take it. And to the men who support our right to freedom, because that is what it is ultimately about, you shine, and thank you.

And psssst, let me let you in on a little secret. I said I have a vagina and I have a uterus. I never said I was one so take your filthy hands off me.

This is a human rights issue. Anything less is an insult. So women, speak up, write, scream, shout and ultimately fight. It is your right. It should be your duty...

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Posted on the Daily Kos on Monday, April 10, 2006.

Please also read wife Amy Everitt's War on Women's Reproductive Health. (Amy Everitt is the State Director for NARAL Pro-Choice California.)

I also highly recommend MoveOn.org's Top 10 Shocking Attacks from the GOP's War on Women.

And please, STAND WITH PLANNED PARENTHOOD!

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