In my senior year, at the seriously deficient private religious school my parents sent me to, our civics teacher assigned us the task of doing class presentations on the policy topic of our choice.

I chose abortion.

(Now, mind you, this was a school that would give students an excused absence if you wanted to get on the church bus and ride to DC on January 23 to march with the pro-birthers. What can I say? I’ve always enjoyed kicking hornets’ nests.)

I quickly realized that we’d all been so indoctrinated with pro-birther claptrap that there was no way I’d get the class to actually engage with the issue.

So, day of, I started my boring presentation and then told a little lie.

“I’m pregnant.”

OK, maybe not so little.

Everyone in the class knew my boyfriend, who was in college at the time. And did I mention that they also knew that I’d already been offered a large scholarship to a good college myself?

They still came to the conclusion that, because of God, I had to keep my baby (thank you Madonna), but at least it made them actually think through the implications of that stance.

(Yes, I told them the truth at the end.)

In the intervening years, I went to college, graduated at the top of my class, went on to a top-20 grad school in my field and earned a graduate degree, and have had a very successful career that includes launching my own business several years ago.

So I stand with Planned Parenthood because I was raised in a world that told me that if I were a pregnant 17 year old, I had to have that baby. Not that none of that other great stuff would’ve happened if I really had been a pregnant teenager and carried the baby to term, but in the pro-birth world I was raised in, I HAD NO CHOICE.

Because that’s the thing about pro-birthers. All they care about is the damn fetuses. Not the women who are the “hosts” (anyone else find yourself thinking of the movie Alien?). Not the people those fetuses become after they’re born. Just the fetuses.

And don’t think they give two shits about reducing unintended pregnancy, because they don’t. In their view, women who have sex deserve to be punished. We deserve anything that happens to us: pregnancy, disease, rape, you name it.

If they really cared about babies, women, and families, they would’ve supported Hillary Clinton (and of course you KNOW they didn’t).

What policies do we know, because of data, are effective in reducing unintended pregnancy and providing support for women who become pregnant, so that they can choose the best option for them and their families?

Comprehensive sex ed

Easy, universal, free access to birth control

Comprehensive, free prenatal care

Universal parental leave

Subsidized, high-quality child care

Wrap-around adoption support

What policies do the pro-birthers support?

Abstinence-only education, despite data that proves that it leads to dramatic increases in teenage pregnancy and STIs

Classing most types of birth control as “abortifacients” – and then outlawing them (but don’t you dare touch their insurance-subsidized Viagra or Cialis!)

Trumpcare, which means that if you can’t afford health care, you should just “die, and decrease the surplus population”

No mandatory leave – that puts an “undue burden” on business, dontcha know?

Why would you need child care? A woman’s place is in the home (despite the fact that women of color and working class women have ALWAYS worked, but they only care about middle/upper class white women, so….)

The pro-birthers claim to LURVE Jeebus and the fetuses (worst band name ever), but they don’t give one single damn about actual humans actually living on the actual planet right now. They’ll fight tooth and nail for birth, but once you’re here, you’re on your own. Their “morality” is hypocritical bullshit.

That’s why I stand with Planned Parenthood. Because I see the pro-birthers for what they really are, and it’s ugly and evil.

(Oh – and 80% of Americans agree with me.)

Image found here.

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