From a woman of the 21st Dark Ages
To the editor:
I was gratified to see Carson Feld’s response, “P.O.W.: Prisoner of womb,” to the recent anti-abortion article in The Collegian. It was the article I should have liked to write, had I not been fuming with anger over the poor analogies, unidentified and obscure quotes and terrifyingly anti-female sentiments in the original article.
It is 2009, half a century since the Women’s Liberation movement, but at times it can feel as if we’re still in the Dark Ages. I have had people tell me that I should “joyfully submit” to my future husband because I am female. I am a survivor of abuse, inflicted upon me because I was female and weaker than my abuser, and told that no one would believe me, which was proven true when I revealed my secret and found that the authorities didn’t believe me.
Now I am to be a slave to my womb because apparently the lives of the unborn are more important than those of the born.
I sometimes worry I will be refused my doctor-prescribed birth control because of a pharmacist’s personal beliefs. I sometimes despair that this country has been hijacked by the religious right, who seem to believe that women should not have rights over their own bodies. As Carson pointed out, everyone in this country certainly has a right to free speech. But everyone should also have a right to choice, and my choice is not to be enslaved by my womb, by religion or by anyone.
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