Menstrual Poetry

It is NOT Okay to Harass Women–And Here’s Why

Many women are all too familiar with being harassed on the street. For some reason, when men get together they exude so much testosterone that they tend to believe that not only is the world their personal playground, but the women living in the world are also purely placed there for their amusement and enjoyment.

While men may think that they are just having fun at the time, their ignorance can go terribly wrong and in some cases, can cause a deadly situation. Of course these men can’t comprehend that such things can happen through their just having fun, trying to pick up some hot chicks, or any other excuse they use trying to cover up that they are blatantly harassing women.

Mildred Beaubrun is an 18 year old woman living in Florida. On the night of May 23, she and two of her girlfriends had stopped at a 7-Eleven. Then, a car full of men pulled up and decided that it was a great night to have some fun.

“Hey, baby, what’s your phone number?” they called out as the cars traveled west through Orlando.

Then the banter grew more aggressive. The men threw a T-shirt, then an AA battery, at the Nissan. One of the women threw a broken cell-phone charger back. At one point, the HHR swerved into the Nissan’s lane and tried to run the car off the road.

When the Nissan turned north on John Young Parkway, the HHR followed. Then, at Princeton Street, a shot rang out. Shrapnel flew as the bullet pierced the door and struck 18-year-old Beaubrun, who was sitting in the back seat.

You can see coverage of the event that appeared on the news here.

This is a tragic story, especially since something like this shouldn’t have happened in the first place. The world and the women in it are not for there simply for your enjoyment and it is never okay to harass women, especially since it turned into something that could be deadly, since it is unknown if Beaubrun will live at all.

A Lovely Example of Anti-Abortion Extremism

While reading some kick ass feminist news over at Feministing, a picture on their Flickr widget caught my attention.

The picture to your left is yet another lovely example of anti-abortion extremism. This picture was taken at the 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington, DC. By holding a sign that says something so incredibly hateful and ignorant you are doing nothing but putting more hate back into the world around you. By holding a sign that says “You killed the next president” first of all is grouping all women who walk in the March for Women’s Lives as women who have had an abortion, which is not true at all; it also goes to show you that anti-abortion extremists do not care what they have to say to you to make you think like they do.

When you look at this technically, a woman who has had an abortion less than 35 years ago certainly did not kill the next president, which was mentioned in the comments for this picture on Flickr. In all likelihood women probably just aborted fetuses that would have grown up to be the kind of people that pro-lifers hate anyway–You know, liberal, homosexual, atheists; the list can go on. Logically speaking in response to this sign, a woman may have also killed the next Hitler or the next Charles Manson; but no, pro-lifers can’t see it from that standpoint, they see it as “You killed an innocent baaaaaaaaaabyyyyyy!” and then whatever happens after that “innocent baby” is born is the mother’s problem…And welfare’s problem, because we can’t forget about welfare, another thing that pro-life people complain about.

Another point that must be brought up is that anti-abortion extremists must stop comparing abortion to the Holocaust. It is demeaning and frankly holds no weight at all in a debate. Are women having unwanted children and then sending them off to torture chambers and gassing them to death by the hundreds? Uhh, no. Aborting a cluster of cells is by no means comparable to millions of men, women and children being starved, overworked, tortured and gassed to death, sorry.

The Frightening Truth About Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Sadly, very few women know what the term “crisis pregnancy center” really means and that is exactly what crisis pregnancy centers prey upon.

There is a personal story from Allyson Kirk published on AlterNet of a woman who got caught in the trap of these centers, thinking it was a regular reproductive rights clinic, as these centers have tried their best to look like to lure women in and intimidate them into carrying their pregnancies to term.

After calling the National Abortion Federation Hotline seeking an abortion, she got a number for a health care clinic, but a crisis pregnancy center located themselves a mere two doors down from the clinic, where the woman ended up walking into thinking it was the clinic she was in search for. What these people put her through is sick, twisted and no woman should have to be put through this when making a personal decision regarding her body.

“She asked me about my religious beliefs. I was immediately defensive at this point. I asked her why this was a relevant question to ask in a medical facility. “Because I can’t properly counsel you on the issue of abortion unless I know your moral standing,” she said. I decided that this was not the kind of place I felt comfortable seeking medical care so I asked her to complete the free pregnancy test and then I would be on my way. I gave her a urine sample and she agreed to run the test, but only if I watched an educational video while the results were processing.”

First of all, the woman felt the need to ask about the religious beliefs of the patient just to feel around and see if she had to intimidate her to stay there so she could “counsel” (ie: push her moral standing onto her patient and make her believe what she wanted) and the woman of this clinic, after seeing the hesitancy, started bartering with the woman over getting a pregnancy test done at their clinic. “You can have your pregnancy test if you watch this video.” That is not the way to treat the women who walk into your clinic, but they knew that this woman was hesitant and was starting to realize what was going on and knew that she should not be there, so I guess bartering is the only other viable option since these people are completely unprofessional and exist only to terminate a woman’s right to choose.

“The video I was forced to watch made false claims including: doctors who provide abortions graduate at the bottom of their classes and can’t get real jobs; abortion is dangerous and often results in serious injury, even death, to women, and abortion causes severe psychological and emotional damage to women. The woman on the video said many women who have abortions have nightmares of babies crying and have guilt about their decision so intense that it sends them into depression.

The second portion of the video showed an illustrated enactment of a surgical abortion procedure. A picture of a uterus with a fully formed fetus inside filled the TV screen as illustrated metal instruments appeared. The instruments were shown probing inside the uterus and dismembering the fetus. Then a suction device entered the screen, pulling the fetus out of the illustrated uterus for disposal.”

These centers should not be able to give women completely fabricated information. “Abortion providers can’t get real jobs?” Sorry, I believe that abortion providers have one of the most important jobs–Giving a woman power over her own body and giving her the respect to know that she can make her own decision. I would think that the people who “can’t get real jobs” would be the ones who make a living off of scaring the hell out of women who walk into their trumped up office. I would think that these people can only get jobs in which they must lie to scared and impressionable women in order to push their personal beliefs onto other people–whether they’re willing to listen or not because if they don’t, they’ll just barter with them–”We’ll let you out of this room as long as you agree to pray with us.” This makes me sick.

I am willing to bet that their claim that abortion results in serious injury and even death are taken from statistics published before the early 70’s, since they would be right–Back alley and illegal abortions that women are going to have to resort back to if abortion is ever outlawed, do cause serious injury and in a lot of cases, even death.

That, my friends, is why the option of a safe and legal abortion is a hell of a lot better than an abortion done with a wire coat hanger either in your home or in unsanitary surroundings because I, for one, would rather an already living and breathing woman be able to continue with her life before I would put the life of a cluster of cells before her.