As with a lot of people, Wendy Davis is my new hero – she who for 11 hours stared down an armored column of oppression on the Texas Senate floor.
I know Davis won’t be offended, however, to hear me say that she’s not my foremost pro-choice hero.
That person is an individual from Waco, who made me see the abortion debate anew in five words.
He was a college student who sat alone in silence outside a surging, hymn-singing anti-abortion rally in Waco, holding a handwritten sign saying: “Abortion is a medical necessity.”
Five words to start the discussion.
Davis used a lot more words in her filibuster against proposals to craft the nation’s most oppressive anti-abortion policy.
She brought thousands to the Texas Capitol to put a collective human face on the wrong-headedness of inserting government into private medical matters.
Yes, medical. This should need no explanation. The protest in Waco was about the Planned Parenthood affiliate’s offering abortion services, “a first” at the time. The fact is that every hospital that delivers babies performs abortions out of medical necessity. No, this was no “first.”
But these were “abortions of convenience.” Waco had never had any of those before, except for those who could afford a plane ticket and hotel room.
It fascinates me that people for whom the tenet “government is the problem” believe government is the solution here.
If an abortion is medically necessary, with whom does a doctor consult – which agency?
If every zygote is a human being, when is an (allegedly) spontaneous abortion – a miscarriage – not a calculated one?
Curiously, because they hold the birth control pill to be abortive, true “pro-lifers” oppose that, too. However, I saw a study that shows the woman’s body to be a far greater killer of fertilized eggs. Eighteen percent of all fertilized eggs are expelled naturally.
God’s plan? Government’s job to investigate? Menstruation or homicide?
Rape or incest: In no other context does state-mandated gestation seem so oppressive. What about the 21-year-old with the car and the semen, the 16-year-old with the glassy eyes and the womb.
Rape? Prove it. How long will the trial last? How large will the girl’s belly be before the state grants an exception?
Against this, Davis stood for 11 hours, making the red-state armored column stand idle as the clock moved.
Supporters of reproductive justice cheered. Outside, legions gathered.
Each now surely had realized he or she had been quiet too long.
If you are among those who haven’t been talking about it, start the conversation with five words. Then talk some more.
