The Feminist Francophile

Technically this was Thursday (about 43 minutes ago), but I fell asleep. Oops:

For Blog for Choice Day this year, we are given the theme:
“What is your top pro-choice hope for President Obama and/or the new Congress?”

Good grief, as though I could pick just one.
I’d like to see the recently enacted “conscience” rule wiped out, for these ten reasons and a few more. That’s one specific issue that clearly relates directly to choice. I’d like to see the Global Gag Rule repealed, and restore funding for UNFPA. I’d like for our laws to allow women to exercise their choice without being subjected to misinformation under biased counseling laws or forced ultrasounds that assume women just haven’t worried their pretty little heads enough about what they’re doing. I’d like to see our discussions of these issues be evidence-based, science-based, instead of agenda-based.

So many other things, though, have an effect on women and the choices they make. I’d like to move away from abstinence-only sex education, so that individuals will be better informed about how to control their own reproduction. I’d like to make pharmacies put up signs indicating whether they will or won’t fill prescriptions for birth control, or dispense emergency contraception. I’d like WIC to include more than a suggestion of fresh fruits and vegetables. I’d like for all people to be able to afford healthcare, including contraception. I’d like our approach to “the war on drugs” to be overhauled so more people can be with their families instead of in jail. I’d like for us not to assume we know who “deserves” to have children, to recognize that choice is an issue of being able to have children, too, of reproductive justice that isn’t just about abortion. I’d like people to make a living wage. I’d like women to be able to talk about abortion without fear or shame, given how common an experience it is across the nation.

But you know, I think that’s all an awfully tall order a handful of days into a Presidency.