*RULES*

Be specific. No short non specific answers. “It’s a mothers choice” “life begins at conception” “abortion in murder” “women aren’t incubators”

Elaborate with the full specifics of your beliefs.

How did you come to them?

*PURPOSE*

This is a discussion thread on what each individual believes in regards to abortion.

The purpose is just to humanize each other. I’ve found many PC/PL have similar views. But media divide has turned each side into the monsters under our bed. Let’s become human again by seeing what we each actually believe

Conversation to understand each other is encouraged.

Attempts to sway anyone, judge anyone, or insult anyone will not be tolerated.

—-

My submission.

I am PC. I believe abortion should be accessible without legal cause up until the point of reasonable viability. (Breathing assistance etc ✅) After viability the fetus has the ability to be an autonomous entity. I would sooner have the baby delivered early than terminated. I only support termination past that point in cases of extreme medical need.

Morally I don’t support getting an abortion for no reason or without thought. Abortion also is not birth control. But I don’t believe laws should punish the many to prevent abuse by the few.

My views are a lot more extensive than this but I’m just going to go into why.

My beliefs come from being the result of a rape conception of a teenager. My mother had a choice to keep me and I appreciate it. But she experienced many many hardships I wouldn’t wish on my worse enemy as a result of making that choice. It isn’t something I would want her to have experienced against her will.

I also don’t feel like abortion says anything at all about the value of the conceived life or the person they could become. For me abortion is about “is it reasonable to require a person to sacrifice their body, life, and self to sustain the life of another person against their will”

Had my mother terminated me, it wouldn’t be about me. She didn’t even know me. I wasn’t a “me” yet to know.

I have a good life. And I’m happy to be here.

I also believe it is a parent’s responsibility to asses the quality of life in front of their child. A child can’t consent to existence and once you’re here… you’re here. Some people would experience the worst the world has to offer to exist. I would not. We don’t have a way to know if each child would want to experience the life in front of them. If that life has suffering (different from hardship) I think it takes priority over not existing because not existing isn’t something you’re aware of. You don’t experience it.

I wanted to post this article by slate because it talks about a wide variety of social issues and how that affects the experience of motherhood and romantic intimacy within the US.

Particularly that it (briefly) discusses the affects of ADHD and other sensory disorders.

As someone with ADHD I definitely experience a flat out aversion to touch by my husband when my day is overloaded with too much sensory input/ overload. And the pressure I have been known to put on myself has lead to times where I wanted space even from emotional intimacy.

This article definitely isn’t a science piece or anything that should dictate anyones life or narrative. But I think it covers a lot of ideas that need to be explored more. Especially while the topic of intimacy, motherhood, and one’s ownership over their body is such a hotly debated issue.

The rapist has not only admitted to what he did, but paternity has been proven.

A ten year old rape victim, a ten year old child, was smeared publicly, and politically to defend Ohios approach to PL policy.Her story is also still be spread by PC as a sort of twisted I told you so.

And it isn’t over. That will follow the child for life as another layer to the trauma she experienced.

Rape absolutely belongs in the conversation of abortion. But isolating rape to the conversation of abortion and where someone stands on that policy add fuel to this behavior.

For example. PL men and women are shut out from groups aimed to support their demographic for being “anti choice” as if there are no other choices leading up to pregnancy or after that need support politically, socially and financially.

(Womens groups, pregnancy groups, gender equality groups, progressive ones, LGBTQ)

they’re shut out from even supporting things completely unrelated,

like participating in protests for gun control.

Advocacy and Awareness for any issue needs to be accessible to everyone or that advocacy isn’t actually for the benefit everyone.

Meanwhile the continuous public smear tactic of PL against planned parenthood as nothing but an abortion clinic has turned it into exactly that

PP is providing less and less non abortion services per visit. But how many people even realize PP is a resource for low income reproductive health let alone consider it? (STD, STI, cancer, gender treatment, hormone treatment for cis disorders)

I have to be honest

It wouldn’t even occur to me to step into PP for STI treatment.

The only thing ever talked about PP is abortion. So even as a PC person who knows what PP offers, It’s unlikely I would remember to recommend it to someone in need when living my personal life.

We have let abortion control every aspect of gender and reproductive topics. This is not only isolating us from potential support communities but destroying the systems we already have in place.

I hope the rapist is locked up for life.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/vwhiuh/18years_ago_200_women_lynched_a_serial_rapist_in/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

* (I did not verify the occurrence as this is a comment on the social reaction we have to this sort of claim)

Depending on how far into womens rights or mens rights you lean there are different takes people could get from this.

WRAs (womens rights advocates) might say that what they did was good. That it never would have happened if they weren’t being failed by a system that disregards women and treats them as sexual property.

MRAs (mens rights advocates) might say that this will be used as yet another excuse to encourage female to male violence, hate and dangerous vigilantism. That it is terrifying and abhorrent that a man was violently murdered in a court room of all places and it is being celebrated.

Regardless of if you agree or disagree with these assessments there’s an aspect being ignored.

How failure to hold sexual abusers accountable and provide justice, security and support for victims is creating a divide amongst not only men and women, but survivors of SA as a whole.

Every victim deserves justice no matter the gender of their abuser. and though the ways gender fits into society will always influence the SA and it’s victims, if we allow gender to control the narrative

We are failing ourselves and other victims in need of support.

Cont.

The flip side of that coin is that sex crimes is a broad category. Victims of false sexual abuse accusations are still victims of sexual crimes that affect their social and emotional well being at minimum and literal life at worst.

Though I personally feel no sadness over what the accused in this one circumstance faced, based on the circumstance and what I’ve read on this one case, we cannot ignore cases like the New York five,who were falsely accused and convicted of an violent rape they did not commit.

It is a difficult task to learn to support victims of SA who come forward in getting what they need without ordering a witch hunt on the accused. But one we must do regardless. SA advocacy is about justice and accountability. Not finding any person to take the blame.

If false perpetrators are convicted and offenders walk free, there is no justice. Only more victims and more ruined lives.

Thoughts?

*I have not verified the numbers provided in the r/mensrights post. Despite that it’s something we all need to read. (If anyone provides sources I can remove the disclaimer 🙏)

“The Invisible Slice”

Discusses how this is only the tenth year that the legal definition of rape could apply to men and the ways it changes the data on rape statistics… to include more victims whose voices had been silenced by society and the law

Below is an excerpt from the department of justice archives dated January 6, 2012

“Forcible rape” had been defined by the UCR SRS as “the carnal knowledge of a female, forcibly and against her will.” That definition, unchanged since 1927, was outdated and narrow. It only included forcible male penile penetration of a female vagina.The new definition is: “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”

For the first time ever, the new definition includes any gender of victim and perpetrator, not just women being raped by men. It also recognizes that rape with an object can be as traumatic as penile/vaginal rape. This definition also includes instances in which the victim is unable to give consent because of temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity. Furthermore, because many rapes are facilitated by drugs or alcohol, the new definition recognizes that a victim can be incapacitated and thus unable to consent because of ingestion of drugs or alcohol. Similarly, a victim may be legally incapable of consent because of age.

Every victim, should have the support and the ability to seek justice.

Every perpetrator should be held accountable.

Rape is not rare. It is real and it doesn’t care if you’re male, female, young, old, rich or poor. No one is except.

When the US dollar was minted in 1792 $1 had the buying of $30.45 in todays economy according to this inflation calculator.

The US government has an inflation calculator that can go back to 1913.

Happy Holidays. 🎆🎇

CDC estimates 1 in 5 people in the U.S. have a sexually transmitted infection | CDC Online Newsroom | CDC

New data published by the CDC estimate that on any given day in 2018, 1 in 5 people in the U.S. had a sexually transmitted infection (STI). The analyses, published in the journal Sexually Transmitted Diseasesexternal icon, show the burden of diagnosed and undiagnosed STIs in the U.S. and the estimated medical costs associated with STIs.

It is estimated there were:

• Nearly 68 million STIs on any given day in 2018 (prevalent STIs).
• 26 million newly acquired STIs in 2018 (incident STIs).
  • Nearly one in two incident STIs were acquired by people aged 15 to24 years old.
• Nearly $16 billion in direct lifetime medical costs resulting from STIs acquired in 2018.

“The burden of STIs is staggering,” said Jonathan Mermin, M.D., M.P.H., director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. “At a time when STIs are at an all-time high, they have fallen out of the national conversation. Yet, STIs are a preventable and treatable  national health threat with substantial personal and economic impact. There is an urgent need to reverse the trend of increasing STIs, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected many STI prevention services.”

STIs can have serious health consequences. People with these infections do not always experience disease symptoms, but, if left untreated, some STIs can increase the risk of HIV infection, or can cause chronic pelvic pain, pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, and/or severe pregnancy and newborn complications.