Too Damn Pregnant

I'm 35 weeks pregnant this week, which is, in my opinion, way too damn pregnant.

It's been almost two months since the last time I could walk down the street. I have to eyeball distances from parking lots to appointments to make sure I can make it (I've been wrong at least twice). Lightning bolts of pain shoot down my legs with no warning. Every new ailment comes from a sympathetic wince, and an "oh yeah that'll happen" from my midwife. None of this is uncommon.

Most days, I wake up feeling like I was in a bar fight with a rabid raccoon.

Even with all of my privilege, access to healthcare, and ability to work from home, this shit is rough.

So I can't recommend being this pregnant. And I actually chose to be pregnant.

Last night, the Arizona legislature passed a 15-week abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. On Wednesday, Idaho passed a 6-week abortion ban, a copycat bill to the one in Texas. These bills incentivize vigilante citizens to sue anyone who "aids and abets" abortion healthcare, including doctors, and the pregnant people who receive care.

Some bills also allow the families of rapists to sue the victim of rape if they access an abortion. Read that shit again.

Now, these bills are usually struck down in appeals court because they're unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade. But both bills come after a 15-week abortion ban in Missippi that made its way to the Supreme Court for consideration back in December, and will be voted on in the coming months.

Republicans know Roe is on thin ice, and they're coming for our rights.

I didn't know I could become more passionately against forced birth until I got pregnant, but here we are.

No one who doesn't want to be pregnant should be forced to stay pregnant.

Pregnancy is a 10-month, life-threatening condition that changes your entire body, your hormones, and your entire brain chemistry (not to mention the steep emotional and financial responsibility of parenthood to follow, nbd).

I can't imagine going through this without healthcare. Or having to work at an Amazon warehouse through immense pain, vomiting, and nausea. Or carrying the baby of someone who violently assaulted me, knowing that his parents could sue me if I tried to access healthcare to reverse the pregnancy.

None of this has anything to do with life.

It has everything to do with cruelty and control. Specifically, control over the poor and people of color. And in most cases, the people wielding that control will never have to endure a pregnancy. They want to be in charge of your uterus buuuut only for a short window. Then they want no responsibility for pregnancy healthcare, postpartum care, maternity leave, childcare, or education.

They want control over our bodies without any responsibility for the outcomes. That's some deadbeat behavior.

So what the fuck do we do?

We pay attention. We vote. We donate to Planned Parenthood. We stay loud.

And men, this is your fight. You benefit from abortion healthcare, so speak the fuck up about it.

This is not a women's rights issue ya'll, it's a human rights issue.

And we all need to get in the game.