It's Not Just Politics

The Minnesota House passed a bill to protect the right of AFAB people to abortion.

As stated on the house's official site:

Referred to as the “Protect Reproductive Options Act,” the bill would further establish in state law the fundamental right for an individual to make decisions on their own reproductive health.

Beyond abortion, the proposed legislation seeks to protect sterilization, family planning, preconception and maternity care, fertility services, and counseling related to reproductive health care.

Furthermore, the bill would bar local governments from imposing any restrictive regulations.


According to mprnews:

Only one Democrat, Rep. Gene Pelowski of Winona, joined all House Republicans in opposing the bill. The rest of the DFLers in the House voted for it.

I emailed Rep. Gene Pelowski expressing my disappointment as a woman who voted for him, who also happens to have a daughter of childbearing age that also voted for him, for letting down his women voters and siding with Republicans against us.

His response?

Claire,

I appreciate your past support.

Being Pro Life has always been a personal issue not a political issue. If it is your only political issue I fully understand.

Thank you for your email.

Representative Gene Pelowski

So, you're possibly wondering, what's the issue here? It's his personal beliefs, he's entitled to them, right?

Sorry, but no. When you are elected to public office, you leave your personal beliefs at home. Especially, when you're an old white man and the beliefs have anything to do with women's bodies, reproductive health, and other basic human rights. You don't get to use YOUR beliefs to tell me what I can or cannot do with my body and my life. Period.

As a member of the DFL, he should be aligned with his party on most of the major platforms. If he is NOT, then he should be running as an independent. I saw nothing during the election about his regressive views on women and women's health issues. Unfortunately, as he was running against a Republican for the first time in years (he's been in office since 1986) I would have felt like I had no choice but to vote for him either way. But, that just makes it even more disturbing that, like Republicans, he feels he has the right to ignore the separation of church and state and ignore the will of about half of his voters.

As a woman, this is a terrible situation. If both major parties are voting against my best interests and those of other AFAB people, who can we trust to have our backs? Who are we supposed to vote for? How can we ensure that our rights are being taken seriously and will be upheld?

Since Roe v Wade has been overturned, women in numerous states have been effectively reduced to second-class citizens. Women are in real danger. Not just for pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths, but for real financial troubles, increased risk of domestic violence, and more.

This isn't about politics. It's about basic human rights. We deserve the right to make decisions about our health and whether or not we want children, how many children we want and can afford, and more.

For those ready to throw the Bible and religion in here, please read:

Exodus 21:22

Numbers 5:11-31

2 Kings 8:12

2 Kings 15:16

Isaiah 13:18

Hosea 9:10-16

Hosea 13:16

Matthew 24:19

At the end of the day, whether humans have a soul or not, or whether life begins at first breath or conception, that's not the important consideration.

In an ideal world only wanted children would ever be conceived. But, this is not an ideal world. Forcing women to take on the physical and emotional burden of an unwanted pregnancy is cruel. Forcing children to be born into either foster care or an abusive and/or neglectful environment is absolutely disgusting.

Acting as if having sex is somehow worthy of not only punishing the people who had sex, but the offspring that result is barbaric.

The whole "just keep your legs closed" argument is wrong on several levels.

One: Most people have sex drives. This is natural and nothing to be ashamed of. Healthy sex lives are important to most people's mental health. Birth control fails happen. Men sabotaging a woman's birth control to "lock her down" happens. Treating children like a punishment for having sex is just plain ridiculous as well as cruel and inhuman.

Two: Women don't always have the option to "just say no". There's rape and incest. There is coercion and manipulation. There are many instances in my life where I felt that I had to give in to a man for my own safety. This can literally happen to anyone. Even married people.

Three: The same people who say "just keep your legs closed" are inevitably the same ones who tell women they have to obey their husbands/men.

If they refuse sex with their husbands/partners they end up being abused, shamed, cheated on, and often raped anyway for daring to say no. If you find that hard to believe, you're not paying attention. Check out https://reddit.com/r/whenwomenrefuse for real-world examples.

At the end of the day, no one has the right to tell other adults what to do. You can disagree with their choices, but it's NOT your business. And it's certainly not appropriate for politicians to stick their noses into what should be private between the pregnant person and their medical professionals and possibly their partner depending on the situation.

No one should be denied essential medical care.

No one should be forced to give up a career and become dependent on the state or a partner because the government denied them the right to their own body.

What about teenagers and children?

The case in Florida where they claimed the teen was too young to make a big decision like abortion was beyond foul. She's too young for that? What about raising a child then? What about her right to finish school and/or start a career? And if the parents didn't have the ability to keep her from having sex and getting pregnant why should they get to force her to stay pregnant and have a child?

Children should never have to carry to term, period. It's dangerous. It can permanently damage their underdeveloped bodies and it's automatically rape if they're under 16. Period. No ifs, ands, or buts on this.

Teens 16 and older are old enough to legally have sex and drive cars in most states so they should be able to decide if they're prepared to carry a baby to term and then raise it. Once they become pregnant their parents should not be making that kind of decision for them. If there's any reason to believe there's incest involved it's even more important to appoint a non-family member as a guardian and make sure they're not making decisions based on what abusers want them to do.

To sum up: Women's rights, equal rights, and basic human rights are not "just politics". We're not snowflakes or libtards. We want to be treated with basic decency and respect. We want you to care about our rights as much as you care about your own. We want the right to stop playing victim as if they're somehow the oppressed while they are in fact being the oppressors. We're tired of narcissistic sociopaths demanding respect and their own rights while trampling all over the rights of women, minorities, LGBTQ folk and others.

Stop bullying.
Stop discriminating.
Stop with the whole DARVO thing.
Stop pretending to care about the babies.

If Republicans genuinely cared about the unborn children after they were born, I might see things differently. But, when there was a formula shortage, they didn't care. They vote against programs to help people in poverty while also fighting back against science-based sex education. They don't want people to have access to birth control at all. If they really want to prevent more children in foster care and more people on welfare, they would actually fund programs to help reduce poverty and work to improve our education system. Women would have easy access to affordable birth control. They don't do that, though, they do the opposite. They only care about power and control. Poor people just trying to survive are very easy to control.

Remember, your right to practice your religion does NOT give you the right to force it on others. You can believe what you want, but as soon as you try to bully and discriminate against others in the name of your religion, we have the right to fight back and call you out for your abuse.

That's what taking away our rights is. ABUSE. We are not abusing YOU by fighting back in self-defense.

One last thing: Christians like to claim they're being oppressed and discriminated against while ACTIVELY discriminating against and oppressing others. This is called hypocrisy. So I'm going to leave you all with a quote from their own Bible. One that I think all of us who are decent humans can agree is good advice regardless of religious belief.

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” is also known as the "Golden Rule”. The actual quote from the Bible is from Luke 6:31, “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” Simply put, this phrase means to treat others the way we want them to treat us.

Petition to remove Gene Pelowski from the DFL:
https://chng.it/mrv5NYWd