Holy ... Whatever ... SCOTUS Just Overturned Roe Vs. Wade! May God Have Mercy on These Women (And So Should We)

(*Edited - content added, PS added)

After which, we received word by our local news that the Kentucky Supreme Court just banned abortion nearly entirely, from the moment of conception 

NO EXCEPTIONS FOR PREGNANCIES RESULTING FROM RAPE OR INCEST, EVEN OF A MINOR CHILD. 

The only exception is the potential of death for mother or child.

If a doctor is found to perform an abortion under any other circumstances, it's a Class D felony and he or she will go to prison.

Unclear on what happens to women who travel to get abortion or abortion providers in other states or internet providers of "abortion pills."

Thus, with variance only by states - those states similarly prohibiting abortion entirely (or with the above only exception) - the United States now joins just 24 countries in which abortion is either entirely or nearly entirely illegal.  These 24 countries are all considered "third world," and are found in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Latin and South America.

Regardless, either way this decision went should never be cause for celebration.

The decision to terminate a life due to extenuating circumstances is  tragic and sad - celebration of doing so is wildly inappropriate, deeply immoral, and horrifying.

- *HOWEVER* - 

Just as horrifying, wildly inappropriate, and deeply immoral is celebrating the federal government allowing state laws that deny abortion to victims of rape or incest  - even if a minor child  - as well as automatically sentence tens of of thousands of women and their babies to a life of abject poverty, as there is no plan for their provision or support  -  a situation which should be equally tragic and sad.

Thus, if you were to celebrate either way, I would suggest you give your moral compass a swift kick, because it's definitely on the blink.

And as hard as "splitting" or black-or-white thinkers try to simplify the issue of abortion as either always morally wrong or always morally right, it is almost never that simple - there are gray areas and extenuating circumstances that should be considered. 

As for me, my thoughts went first to my (Great) Aunt Marie - happily married  to my grandmother's brother, my (Great) Uncle Bob - who was once an engineer on the Panama Canal. 

She became pregnant in the 30s, during The Great Depression, and though they both wanted children, she had a medical condition (no one is certain now, but suspected to be kidney issues), in which they were told by several doctors, in second, third, and fourth opinions, that she would die if she didn't have an abortion - and thus had a back-alley abortion.

She nearly died from it, but then when she recovered, the entire family shunned her - so she killed herself - trying to prove it wasn't because she valued her own life more than the unborn child's life, but so as both not to leave the child motherless and burden her husband during The Great Depression.

And yet still, though much beloved until this happened - not a single soul went to her funeral but Bob :(

(Who later cut ties with the family completely.)

Then my thoughts went next to a recent revelation, finding out a little more than a week ago that my never-married (Great) Aunt Elizabeth  had a daughter which she gave up for adoption in 1943, when she was an Army Corps nurse in WW2.

She must have watched Marie's situation in horror, hoping to never be in it herself - but now understanding, having to make that choice herself - because unlike Marie, she was unmarried.

So she made a different choice, which was no doubt no less painful.  

She carried that child for nine months in hiding, then gave her up for adoption, believing she would have a better life.

The family was apparently so ashamed that they never spoke of it again, taking this secret to their graves, so we're only finding out just now, 80 years later, when contacted by her daughter through a genealogist, who didn't know herself until she took a DNA test.

(This explains why certain members of the family barely spoke to my aunt.)

The timing of this revelation is almost too coincidental, right?

And then finally, I think of myself ...

One family member threatening to never speak to me again if I didn't get an abortion, the rest of the family pressuring me not to.

In the end, of course, I didn't - but still accusations made that I got pregnant on purpose, that I was slut  - despite living with the father and never cheated, but clinically depressed and not remembering to take my pills properly - the usual stuff, none of it true.

Much shame and blame, all excuses to justify themselves from not helping me, by family (except my grandmother) -  that I've never really gotten over. 

So I think what men - and women who've never been in these situations - don't understand is, this decision is almost never taken lightly, we literally toil over it.

Regardless, in the end, we're damned if we do, damned if we don't -  keep it, give it up for adoption, or abort it -  you WILL still be shamed and there WILL be pain.

The mere fact that you got pregnant at all outside of marriage can get you shamed, falsely accused, and shunned for life socially,  and immediately thrown into poverty - and don't you dare go on welfare for help (though it isn't much anyway).

Thus, I'm literally crying now ... for my Great-Aunts, for myself, for ALL women ... because the manner in which this was done - no consideration of extenuating circumstances or plan for financial assistance -  feels like yet another a scarlet-letter, shaming punishment for ALL women.

It will especially be a punishment for women so desperate that they get one anyway, an unsafe one, in some back alley, or will be thrown in jail of they travel outside of the state to get one.

While the men get no consequences - pats on the back,  assumptions that the woman has loose morals and seduced him, or that she was trying to trap him into marriage, etc., and thus pity - from both men and women - then finding multiple excuses not to pay child support or lie about how much they make and how much they have to pay.

 

Okay - so it's done regardless, it is what it is.

So then like I've said before, those happy with this decision need to be thinking now about how to be best support these women to raise these children - both financially and emotionally, with both publicly and private funding, including for child care while women work  - instead of continuing to assume, shame, and abandon them - for the love of God?

And if you aren't prepared to do support these women in those ways, then maybe you should've thought of that before voted/cheered this on?

And if you're a woman, if you're making assumptions about these women being irresponsible sluts, trying to trap men into marriage or  trying to get on welfare (which isn't much - try about $200 a month per child) - you're not helping, and you're not making yourself look better with most people - in fact, the only thing you're accomplishing is adding on extra shame to what they already feel.

_______________

PS 

You know what I think we should do?

I think every woman in America should walk out of work for at least one day, at least until rape and incest - especially of a minor - are included as exceptions in these state abortion bans.

Let them see how much their precious businesses depend on the voices and work of women to run ;)