Watch Your Reproductive Rights Vanish Right Before Your Very Eyes!

It's hard enough to stomach this administration's claims of a "War on Terror," when fighting that war (as if that wasn't ironic enough already) involves taking water and work away from civilians, and thousands of deaths and injuries for Iraqis and American soldiers alike.

But when, today, the Supreme Court negated federal protections for abortion clinics against violence, when the Bush administration supported a "pro-life" group with a validated history of a wide scope of clinic violence, including bombings (again with the irony), all one could really ask oneself was...

War on terror again, how? And our government seeks to protect the men and women of this nation...or just the men?

These rulings, combined with the poised bill in South Dakota to ban abortion should be waking up some folks sleeping at the wheel. Both of these matters combined with the mountain of antichoice laws and policies which have been passed nationwide throughout this administration have let those of us who couldn't pull ourselves out of our malaise for weeks after the last election know that it's every bit as bad as we knew it would be.

A recent poll of high school seniors were almost equally divided between being pro and antichoice. And about 70% of the young women of the group stated that they would not have, need or even consider an abortion. But that isn't reflective of general abortion demographics, which have shown for some time that while less than 20% of abortions are performed for teens, that number takes a giant leap to over 50% of abortions which are performed for those under 25.

Maybe you're one of those young women who thinks she won't have need or will never have an abortion. You might be. But you've got just as much of a chance of being one of those women who DOES. Maybe you'll become pregnant from a forcible rape. maybe you'll become pregnant and do the math and realize there is no way you can financially sustain a healthy pregnancy or feed a child. Maybe you favor adoption, but might discover the child in your belly has a disability which would likely land he or she in perpetual foster care, rather than in an adoptive home.

Maybe you just plain will not want to be pregnant or become a parent.

Even if none of those situations are in your future, even if you do remain a woman who will never need, want or have an abortion, what about your sister? What about your mother? What about your best friend? Think beyond yourself: think about what is needed for ALL women, for all our varied lives and situations, for all of our different wants, needs and beliefs. Working to protect the right to have full reproductive choice is just that: it's working to assure that all women get to choose what is best FOR them, and have full ownership of every inch of their own bodies.

Think about what world we are living in if all of us, any of us, do NOT have the right to that ownership. Here, have some food for thought: