Wake Up Mainstream Feminists There Are Actually Women Behind Those Rights! By Charlene E Campbell
Featured Rightgrrl December 1998
brdhswife@aol.comI was doing a little "research" on a National Abortion Federation site and came across an article on post abortion syndrome. It basically states that the millions of women, like myself, who have had abortions feel nothing more than relief afterwards. They plainly state that there are very few of us who have adverse psychological effects from previous abortions. Unless, of course, the abortion was for medical reasons (i.e. a less than perfect baby) (1). REALLY????? This is amazing news to me. I suppose all of the women that I know who have had abortions and have been destroyed by it emotionally and spiritually do not exist. I have not met one person who has had an abortion who has not suffered because of the "choice" they made. I have never seen a woman come out of an abortion clinic with a smile on her face. Even those women that I know who remain pro-choice admit to feelings of guilt, loss, and grief.
I can not believe that those who call themselves feminists would put up w/ such a thing. The American Psychological Association and pro-abortion America are dismissing an entire group of women as non-existent. They are basically saying that my emotions, as a post-abortive woman, are invalid. They are telling me to "be quiet and get over it already honey!" If this were a group of women complaining about the psychological effects of sexual harassment in the workplace the mainstream feminist movement would be marching in the streets and down the halls of congress. But to complain about the psychological effects of the movement's sacred cow, abortion is considered high treason. Sacrilege. Unfortunately for them I am a loud mouthed, aggressive, pro-woman, "reformed" feminist.
The controversy over post abortion syndrome is just one example of how mainstream feminism has forgotten that there are actually real live women behind all of those "wonderful" rights they keep shoving down our throats. Another example is a woman's right to work outside the home. Sure, it is wonderful that women can choose whether or not they want to stay home or work. Every man would love to have this choice. But somewhere along the line it became a disgrace for us to choose to stay home and take care of our families as we saw fit. I, personally, spent the first three years of my son's life feeling inadequate and useless because I wasn't working a full time, high paying job. I felt as though I was contributing nothing to my family or to society. You see, I had been an ardent "feminist" for years. I went to an all women's college, I was a member of the women's center (where we were taught to perform home abortions on women if abortion were ever outlawed), I was taught that in order to have value you had to work, and that women who chose to stay home and have babies were being oppressed by their husbands. After years of this indoctrination I believed it all...And then I grew up and formed an opinion of my own based on correct information and personal experience.
I began to reflect on my life as a "feminist". As I looked back on my liberation from male domination I began to notice a disturbing pattern. It all began when I was 15 years old and pregnant. The woman at the Planned Parenthood clinic where I got my pregnancy test done was "enlightened" enough to consider me, at 15, a woman, not a child. There was a parental consent law in my state, but she never asked me how old I was so the law didn't matter. She never counseled me about options. She was "enlightened" enough to let me choose for myself with out the benefit of all of the facts (apparently I wasn't smart enough to make a decision based on fact rather than emotion). She even called the abortion clinic and set up the appointment for me.
When I got to the clinic on the day of my abortion no one asked me for identification to prove my age. When I went in for my pre-abortion counseling, the woman that I spoke with lied to me and told me that my 11 ½ week old fetus was nothing more than a blob of unformed cells that couldn't feel a thing. The female nurse in the procedure room did nothing to stop the doctor when he discovered that I was "further along" than they thought. Therefore, they were actually doing a second trimester abortion in a clinic only equipped for first trimester abortions. The woman in the recovery room told me I had to leave after 15 minutes even though I was still sick, dizzy and very uncomfortable. There was no one from any mainstream feminist group who warned me that I would be full of grief and sadness from the time I left the clinic to this very day. There were no pro-choice women standing up for my rights to good health care when I gave birth to my mangled baby in the toilet of a public restroom two weeks after the abortion. "There were no pro-choice women standing up for my rights to good health care when I gave birth to my mangled baby in the toilet of a public restroom two weeks after the abortion" Mainstream feminism had failed me miserably. They had secured me the right to kill my child if it was an inconvenience to me at the time. Unfortunately, they didn't reveal to me the consequences of that right. And not only that, but they were so concerned about my "right to choose" that they allowed this surgical procedure to go completely unregulated. The health and safety of millions of women is at stake, but they can't act because it might jeopardize "the right". The mental health of millions of women has been irreparably harmed, but mainstream feminists must dismiss these women as non-existent because to acknowledge their pain might jeopardize "the right". They won't support the harassment claims of any woman who happens to be accusing someone who supports their alleged feminist agenda (the good of the whole outweighs the good of one).
There is a pattern here. The downfall of mainstream feminism will occur because they left behind their roots of true equality in favor of an agenda of rights at any cost. Unfortunately, it is women who are paying the highest price. They are destroying the gender, which they claim to be protecting. And those of us who have lived through this "liberation" and have excersized our "rights" are now coming into the realization that we were sold a lame bill of goods. We realize our rights should be the same as any other human's rights. We know that when you start trampling on other people (the unborn and men) to ensure that you don't get trampled on, you lose dignity. We know that we can not insist on equality while we oppress others. These have all been tough lessons learned. Let's hope that we haven't suffered in vein.
(1). http://www.prochoice.org/facts/index.htm
This article copyright © 1998 by Charlene E Campbell and may not be reproduced in any form without the express written consent of its author. All rights reserved.