this darkdaughta is a pro-choice, furious survivor of a spiritually/emotionally/ psychologically bankrupt/botched abortion who nonetheless reaffirms the right of all wimmin to access appropriate care and information through the entirety of their sexual/reproductive life cycles.
darkdaughta.com supports the reproductive rights of all wimmin. this includes queer wimmin. this means that queer wimmin are wimmin, too and should have access to whatever information about their sexual and reproductive health necessary to make conscious and clear decisions about their sexual health and well-being without having to out themselves or come under the scrutiny of homophobic health practitioners who have not done the work of unpacking their heterosexist shit.
darkdaughta.com supports the reproductive rights of black wimmin, wimmin of colour and first nations wimmin by recognizing that our access to caring, safe, respectful, knowledgeable information about our sexualities and our sexual health is mediated not just by our experiences of oppression, but also by our histories of state-sponsored, white, western, european originated/instigated genocides and by the willingness of available sexual health practioners to dominate us, sterilize us and sometimes to poison our minds against the natural functions of our own racialized bodies, instead of questioning their own oppressive, racist, dominant-cultured, classist, lookist, generally fucked up tendencies.
darkdaughta.com supports the reproductive rights of poor and working class wimmin. the poor bashing of economically challenged pregnant wimmin and mamas is a reality. there are disincentives offered to us in the form of lack of social services, lack of ecstatic welcome by those around us for our pregnancies, lack of access to affordable daycare, lack of...just plan everything that expectant mamas would need to comfortably carry a child full term...which acts to dissuade us from seeing our pregnancies through or to make us feel guilty, suspect, decadent or stupid if we do. we are not offered the support, care, coddling and unconditional attention accessed by middle and upper class wimmin who are not any more proficient at childrearing than we are. instead we are more often offered chemical methods of birth control that prove poisonous to our bodies. we are more often seen as being irresponsible about our pregnancies. we are more often offered subtle judgement in the form of maltreatment or condescension by health care professionals who have not interrogated their classist, elitist value systems. we are more often offered sterilization as a means of limiting the size of our families. our families and communities are most often asked to question the births of additional children as a strain on dominant society/world resources rather than to question the ways the right to procreate has always been and continues to be linked to messed up class-linked, capitalist, consumer idea[l]s about survival [breeding] of the supposed 'fitest' . darkdaughta.com says the power to choose will only be an inalienable right when working class and poor wimmin can make decisions about their own reproductive health without systemic domination being a factor.
darkdaughta.com supports the reproductive rights of all wimmin and calls for these choices to be combined with an analysis of systemic genocidal ableism that insidiously offers wimmin the 'choice' to terminate, under duress and stress, pregnancies of children with birth 'defects' rather than making universal health care/support, universally available accessible housing, accessible community support, accessible cities and anti-ableist education a priority and a societal responsibility.
darkdaughta.com supports the reproductive rights of transgendered and intersexed people who, can and do bear healthy children and should be able to make choices about their reproductive health with support from well-versed and politicized medical health practioners. darkdaughta.com supports the right of transgendered and intersexed people to access ample information about their reproductive options grounded in their lived biological/chemical/social/emotional realities, without having their experiences and needs tainted by any form of binary gender-linked oppression. darkdaughta.com believes this work begins with an agreement from the medical health establishment to stop tampering with/operating on/attempting to otherwise alter the gender of any child who crosses/messes with dominant understandings of gender simply by being born against the grain.
darkdaughta.com supports the reproductive rights of young wimmin. systemic [youth oriented] ageism includes the belief that young wimmin do not possess the intellectual/ethical/experiential capabilities/faculties to make choices about their own maturing sexual bodies. darkdaughta.com is for sexual health clinics in every high school, adequate sexual health ed. in schools minus of any social/religious judgements/messages about the morality of sex outside of marriage or sexuality that cuts against the heterosexual grain. darkdaughta.com supports easily accessible reproductive, sexual health and sexuality information and counseling for young wimmin in the languages of their choice when they decide they need it not when their parents/elders/ politicians feel it's necessary. darkdaughta.com supports access to birth control and abortions for young wimmin without the consent of parents or other guardians.
darkdaughta.com supports choice because, i believe a woman should be able to decide without harassment whether or not she will bear a child and whether or not she will parent with any man if she should conceive.
darkdaughta supports choice for all wimmin since we're the ones with the ovaries, the uteruses and tha birth canals, who end up with post-pregnancy stretch marks, varicose veins, pregnancy-related health conditions and exhaustion. and since wimmin have not yet been officially declared handmaidens [ see atwood's dystopic novel ]/walking orifices/incubators/vessels devoted to the carrying of sperminated ova, the right to choose/plan/embrace/end our pregnancies should be a fundamental one.
reproductive rights should include access to abortions, midwives and doulas, sound gynecological and sexual health information, a full range of natural [and if we desire it, chemical] contraceptives, safer sex tools, sex toys, negotiation/self esteem/assertiveness training/support and the right to make safe choices, choices not made under economic or social duress about our own fucking pregnancies with full support from our families, lovers, friends, communities and the society at large.darkdaughta supports choice because an empowered woman is a happy woman and a happy woman is a stress-free woman and a stress-free woman is a loving, mindful, unresentful, compassionate and conscious mama, now isn't she?
darkdaughta supports choice because she believes all children born should be born to a tribe who loves them, welcomes them, honours them and envelopes them unconditionally. darkdaughta supports choice because welcomed children are safer children, more grounded children, children with more avenues of support and guidance.
darkdaughta supports choice because without it a woman's desires and sexual/relationship options will be defined by others.
darkdaughta supports choice because wimmin sex workers should be able to decide which pregnancies they will continue and which ones they won't.
darkdaughta supports choice because wimmin who get pregnant due to rape, incest or other forms of unconsensual sexualized aggression should be able to decide for themselves what they'd like to do next.
are you protecting wimmin's reproductive rights?are you speaking up about wimmin's right to choose?
are you thinking about how this debate effects you and your options?
are you willing to demand choice for all wimmin?
darkdaughta encourages you to think, engage, challenge and speak out for wimmin's reproductive rights.
what i found while attempting to educate myself online...
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how you can make abortions more accessible
sexuality.org
an activist dyke discusses self-care, queer reproductive rights, and her os
get your own speculum
the woman who chooses sex over marriage
doing a cervix self exam
natural abortifacients
blood sisters
more later...
related pages:
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mamawork
delivering baby
fierce delivery
my abortion story
counter-insurgence
mamawork listserv
desir[e]volution
radical anti-oppression, anti-performance discussion series
walk on by
