Word

Mary makes a number of great points in this post. She says it's her longest post ever, but it sure is worth reading. Here's a paragraph (note: Mary is responding to a letter written by some idiot law student to a Notre Dame newspaper):

Yes, women are liberated by abortion. The day we start living in a perfect world where they aren't generally the primary caregivers for their children, that might cease to be the case, but right now, today, often the only thing that stands between control and chaos for a woman is a thin layer of latex. Pregnancy without the possibility of abortion means that her life as she knows it is over. She will always have that child, whether she wants it or not. If she keeps it, she will always have to support that child, whether she wants to or not. If she gives it up, she will always have to live with the fact that she gave up that child, whether its life works out for the best or not. "Tough shit," right? I mean, women have sex, they get pregnant, they gotta face the consequences rather than take it out on innocent babies, yeah? Except if you're gonna sit there and tell me that a 6-week old fetus is worth more in the scheme of things than a woman's entire life...well. We really have nothing to say to each other. And no, abortions don't affect men like they do women. Clearly they do affect some men a great deal, but if you're gonna sit there and tell me that a man, any man, really knows what it's like to be an abused woman carrying a potential life inside of you and knowing that both its entire future and yours, good or bad, now rest in your hands...well. We really have nothing to say to each other. And yes, abortions do provide equality, because punishing a poor woman and her child for their entire lives because the woman overslept and was 30 minutes late taking a pill one day is not by any stretch of the imagination treatment that we would tolerate for men, and if you're gonna sit there and tell me I'm wrong about that...well. We really have nothing to say to each other. You see, I, too, can master the Rhetorical Device of Imminently Won Lawsuits.

Word, Mary.