Lady Sybil died\u00a0at Downton Abbey tonight because two powerful men overruled the\u00a0doctor who had known her since\u00a0childhood and the mother\u00a0whose reasoning powers were not poisoned by the need to be right.\u00a0 Childbirth has always been dangerous and still is for many women.\u00a0 But when men with large egos\u00a0are given the power to decide who lives and who dies, who suffers and who doesn’t have to,\u00a0we\u00a0are all\u00a0the worse for it.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s time we faced what is really behind the\u00a0decades long erosion of\u00a0women’s reproductive rights.<\/p>\n
One of the guests on Bill Moyers’ program this Sunday said that we are living through a time very much like that of 100 years ago when men were afraid of sharing political and social power with women.\u00a0 The most direct way to control women is to control their sexuality.<\/p>\n
The issue of abortion rights has never been of much interest to me, but the\u00a0other night I heard a nun (one of the Nuns on a Bus group) say that anti-abortion activists are not pro-life; they are pro-birth.\u00a0\u00a0 That makes a huge difference and helps me understand why the same legislators who vote constantly to make it harder to get an abortion are also the ones who vote against increased funding for pre-natal care, infant feeding programs, family leave, subsidized child care, Parents as First Teachers, Nurses for Newborns, and medical services for new moms and their\u00a0 babies.<\/p>\n
Now that the anti-women extremists have made it very, very difficult to find an abortion provider, they are going after contraception.\u00a0 So that makes it very clear this is NOT about abortion.\u00a0 It’s about controlling women by controlling their sexuality.\u00a0 The male decision makers in the Catholic Church are steadfast in their dictates and pronouncements about women’s reproductive restrictions, but the lay women and nuns\u00a0who actually keep the Church running are much less\u00a0dictatorial about it.\u00a0 Why is that?<\/p>\n
I’ve complained\u00a0for years about using\u00a0“pro-choice” as a rallying cry.\u00a0 It makes\u00a0the heartwrenching decision to end a pregnancy seem so trivial.\u00a0 The two women on the Moyers program\u00a0open up the whole conversation about “reproductive justice” in such a way that makes more sense to me.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One thing I know for sure.\u00a0 Men who need to exercise power over women should not be allowed to make any decisions or pass any laws\u00a0about sex and reproduction.<\/p>\n
Watch the video and see what you think.<\/p>\n