The Unpublished LTE That Inspired The Creation of this Blog
You may recall that at the beginning of summer there was a bit of controversy over Dr. Henry Morgentaler receiving the order of Canada. Well, Bronwyn Eyre, a cringe-inducing editorialist at the Star Phoenix published a screed that was painful for me to read and required a response from me. I just could not let her anti-feminist sentiments go.
I do realize that thanks to a successful public relations campaign from the likes of hateful jerks like Rush Limbaugh that most people wouldn’t touch feminism with a ten foot pole. So I fully expect men to have their worthless anti-feminist opinions published in the newspaper. But when that kind of garbage comes from a woman, it really burns my britches. So here you go, the unpublished LTE.
Morgentaler award renews women’s rights debate
I wonder why I have not yet seen this headline. Just about every article about abortion that I have seen emphasizes the fetus while completely ignoring the woman. While I expect men, especially those in the Catholic church, to act as the uterine police, I can’t help but be especially angered by women who choose to judge women for acting on their bodily rights. Bronwyn Eyre’s article “Morgentaler award renews abortion debate” was especially disappointing.
“96, 815 babies were aborted in 2005 alone.” You can not abort a baby, you can only abort a pregnancy. No mention of the woman carrying the pregnancy. No mention of the fact that women have been ending unwanted pregnancies for generations. Eyre opines that we need to discuss the effects of abortion on women. Why not a discussion of the impact of pregnancy? Even with the best of medical care, carrying a pregnancy to term is a much riskier activity to the emotional and physical health of a woman than a legal abortion. Why not a discussion of the dangers of illegal abortions? Dangerous abortions kill millions of women worldwide every year.
Eyre complains about the misogyny of Morgentaler’s writings. Let’s talk about the misogyny of the Catholic church and religion in general. The Bible is an instruction manual of oppression. It has it all. Instructions for selling your daughter into slavery and/or marriage and continually referring to women as the property of some man are just two of many shining examples of misogyny.
The Catholic church still refuses to ordain women as priests and is still telling women what to do with their own bodies. The organization has misogyny woven into its’ very structure. The worldwide oppression of women is a humanitarian crisis. When is that debate going to take place?
