ah, the good old "WHAT IF UR MOM HAD ABORTED YOU!?!" argument. uh..i wouldn't care, because i wouldn't exist. Is that really your top argument?

And considering the top reason women get abortions is because they can't afford another child... maybe you should follow your own stupid economic logic and make children more affordable, rather than stupidly try to end an act by eliminating supply. Yeah, that works so well with prohibition. and the war on drugs. and prostitution. but seriously, keep playing your stupid economics game with faulty science and logic on our bodies and lives. i'm sure it will work eventually.

I read about Rep. Tiahrt on the operation rescue page. I keep on trying to post comments about how illogical their argument is, and that it's the same as saying that all of those fetuses are future Hitlers, murderers, and rapists and should be aborted. However, my comments never pass through the moderation system. I guess they just can't take it when someone tries to express a pro-choice, pro-woman opinion.

As a pro-choice radical working class feminist of color, anytime the "black genocide" comment comes up I think it's important to point out that reproductive "choice" is not truly a choice if you live in race-based generational poverty. I would like to have the "choice" to give birth in five years if I were to become pregnant, but that "choice" is burdened by the reality of bringing that child into povert. Therefore, the "choice" is really not a "choice" at all. I would be chastized by my community, especially the "liberal" counterparts. "But you're a feminist," they'd say, "you're pro-choice! you have access to abortion! why give birth right now?"

Just as the choice to have an abortion is burdened by economic reality, social and religious pressures, the choice to give birth is often met with these same challenges from "liberal" communities. Us brown women do not reap the privileges of the second-wave white middle class feminists who have framed the language and polities around reproductive rights, who have framed many young feminist's introduction to reproductive issues. Giving birth can be one of the most liberating and empowering experiences in a woman's life if she chooses it, and being told by majority white policy makers to celebrate her recent access to abortion doesn't cut it. Access to abortion for oppressed women should also come hand-in-hand with access to jobs, housing, food, health care, education, etc. True reproductive freedom means the absolute freedom to choose to give birth in a society that supports the life of your child - both economically and socially.

We should also not forget that Planned Parenthood's founder, Margaret Sanger, was an outspoken racist and proponent of eugenics, so the "black genocide" comment does have some factual rooting. I am not speaking against PP, but merely reminding y'all that the racist and classist motivations for eugenics within the first- and second-wave feminist movements are still often alive today in white, middle class, "liberal" communities. It is not rare that I hear young "feminists" speak of their ideal "family planning" practices that sound a whole lot like race and class motivated sterilization. I challenge all feminists to greatly examine their privilege as well as ingrained classism and racism whenever speaking about abortion/reproductive rights.