About a half an hour ago Representative Thompson from Texas spoke words that broke my heart.

They weren’t words about how abortion shouldn’t be a choice. Hell, she was speaking FOR women who are survivors of rape and incest. She was speaking FOR the side of the debate that I support, the pro choice side.

But I don’t feel like a part of THAT side of the debate anymore. I don’t feel like my life is what they consider valuable. And I am pissed the fuck off.

For the last two weeks I’ve been following all of the debates in MULTIPLE states as the country begins to restrict the right of a woman to make choices about her own body.

My voice has not been heard.

Representative Thompson said that children of incest are “retarded” and that they are “deformed”.

Hey, pro-choice brethren? THE ABLEIST RHETORIC HAS TO STOP.

The rhetoric that abortion is for getting rid of disabled lives, has to STOP.

The use of the words “retarded” “deformed” “broken” have to stop.

The USE OF DISABLED LIVES WITHOUT DISABLED VOICES HAS TO STOP.

I am a disabled woman.

I am pro choice.

But every time someone on MY side opens their mouths and tells stories about people aborting their disabled fetuses in order to show why we NEED abortion, I feel sick. I feel betrayed. I feel like my life isn’t worth considering.

Yes. Parents should make decisions for THEMSELVES.

Last night during the public hearings another woman said that “not every disabled child has downs syndrome and smiles a lot” – It’s true. Some of us are blind, deaf, and born with heart defects. I had 9 surgeries by the time I was 6 months old (I think, I’m not entirely sure of the number, but it was a LOT. Multiple on my eyes, multiple on my heart.) The point is, the first year of my life was HELL.

But I’m alive, and I’m speaking, and I’m independent and happy. Just because a disabled life is hard doesn’t mean it isn’t worth living.

I hate that I have to sound pro life. I really do.

But I AM pro life. I am pro the life MOTHERS who make choices to terminate based on THEIR choices. I am pro the life of disabled people who choose to live, I am PRO LIFE when it comes to death with dignity, when it comes to NOT having the death penalty.

I just want people to stop using my life and my disabled body without consulting me, without hearing my voice. I am tired of other feminists not speaking up and saying that this kind of rhetoric is not acceptable.

I am tired of the assumptions that I wouldn’t want to be a mother, too. I am tired of the fact that this dialogue has not mentioned once the fact that women with disabilities have the right to have abortions, the rights to access women’s health, the fact that disabled women are raped and impregnated against their will. I am tired of not hearing that women with disabilities need access to reproductive prevention & abortion.

Disabled women have the right to own their wombs as well.

We’re tired of being used. Speak for our rights, not about our worth.

(Andrea just says “FUCK THIS SHIT.” A LOT. And “Texas is getting so much coverage and once a day I get told I should die.” )

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