If Life Choices is about nothing else, it is about perspective, and perspective about abortion is important. Women are caught in the crossfire of the currently overheated abortion wars. An epidemic of distorted legislation is spreading across the country in the form of bills that would give “personhood” to the fertilized egg in pregnancy, and more proposals that violate women’s bodily integrity by requiring ultrasounds for anyone requesting an abortion.
The patriarchy is alive and well and still living in America.
Forced motherhood has been the way of of patriarchy and dogmatic patriarchal religion for the millennia. It is the main way women have been subordinated to men throughout history.
Remember how it was not very long ago. Margaret Sanger and others who spent their lives ensuring the health and safety of women and children had to struggle hard. They were steadfast and courageous. Their work is not yet done.
Feminism, too, is alive and well, and growing.
If the women’s movement (around the world) stands for nothing else, it stands for the freedom of women to choose whether to have sex, whether to become pregnant, and whether to have a baby, or not. What I’m offering is a deep, earth-oriented perspective.
Women have been the arbiters of human life on earth as long as there have been humans.
Earth is where we live and what we are, and it is through our bodies, the body of Earth, that life renews itself.
Renewal comes through life dying into and giving birth to itself, which includes women’s choices to turn back some pregnancies.
Renewal and growth occur on all levels—physical, psychological, mental, and spiritual.
Human consciousness is by its nature a consciousness of choice because it is a consciousness of awareness and responsibility.
The intrinsic power of women to mediate between life and death is a defining aspect of Earth’s way of balancing life.
Abortion helps us learn both individually and collectively how to care consciously for the Earth and All Life.
Each of the above ideas is part of a holistic perspective about pregnancy choice making. I will share these concepts and more during the Life Choices west coast tour in March. I’ll be in San Francisco at Modern Times Bookstore, Ukiah for private meetings, Ashland at Bloomsbury Books, Portland at In Other Words, Seattle at Elliot Bay Book Company, and Bellingham at Village Books. Click here for more information.