Women's Rights & Issues
Related: About this forumConversion of pro-life voter to Joe Biden! Yes, you heard me right.
Last edited Sun Oct 11, 2020, 01:13 PM - Edit history (1)
This is one amazing story, not mine but my neighbor friend. I will call her Mary. She is around 70 years old.
Living in the U.P. of MI, very rural, very Red, very poor, especially in the 1960's when Mary got married. She married straight off her farm at the age of 17 and got pregnant right away. Her overbearing mother in law decided that her son was starting a family too soon. She decided that my friend should have an abortion. Mary did not want one but her husband told her to get one so she obeyed. Mary was and still is a very devout Evangelical Christian. She still suffers PTSD from that day. I won't go into her descriptions however if you could see her tell it in her face as if she were right back there experiencing every second of her experience. You see, she had to have a back room abortion because Roe v Wade had not been decided and abortion was illegal. Mary nearly died. She was 4 weeks in the hospital from a unsafe abortion. Well, she punished herself her whole life over it and so did all her good Christian family and friends. She caught all blame, the mental anguish over something that was NEVER HER CHOICE.
She knows that I am pro choice, lefty democratic socialist. I told her that if I were there with her I would have advised her not to have the abortion. I would have done my best to help her. IT SHOULD BE THE WOMAN'S CHOICE. PERIOD. It is her life.
So we talked about the election and how she has always voted one issue, pro-life. She voted for Huckabee. I asked her if she ever thought about that poor young girl sitting on that toilet in that dirty motel room... alone and being forced into something, against her will and moral judgement. The most important decision of her lifetime, should be her own. I asked what will happen when you take away Roe? You won't get rid of abortions just because a new SC Justice gets on the court. "Those days will happen again for poor young girls just like you Mary." I asked Mary if she would like for that to happen to another woman. She said, "I never thought about that." No one in pro-life world ever considers the woman. Not even Mary, she always saw herself as a murderer and not the victim of these monsters running her life. They used her. The pro-life movement used her.
We talked about abortion and I provided some data about how the goal is to reduce abortion (Obama did it) by the use of education, free contraceptives for young people, ACA expansion for women's healthcare .... these all have reduced abortion, improved health and the health of newborns as well and we can do more using our brains to solve problems instead of speaking in tongues. Also, abortion laws would protect the young Mary from being forced into abortion because laws would protect her by keeping them safe and legal. No doctor would perform a abortion an a woman who did not want one!
She called me yesterday to tell me she is VOTING FOR BIDEN! She prayed it out with her husband who is still going to vote for trump(a kind, wonderful old farmer, very conservative but such a good neighbor to us). She divorced the first abusive guy after a few years and a couple of kids later. The final straw was that one of her son's from her first marriage called to say if Biden loses he will lose his healthcare because ... preexisting conditions where his meds would cost $1,000 per month and he would die without them.
That's it! She put LOVE first! She showed love for that broken young girl, that had no one, that was her. Mary held her in her heart for the first time, without pain and guilt and loved her. And I loved that young girl right along with her. She put LOVE first, her son. Mary wants her son to have his medicine, She told me even if trump has a plan even if it takes 6 months her son will be dead because he can't afford the medicine and the stress alone would kill him. A true mother's love. LOVE FIRST, a far better message than America first.
This vote is healing her, believe me. Mary is a special person. "I have a feeling that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship'!
The facade is crumbling for the religious right. Mary has new eyes. Watch out world. Her love has been awakened.
Walleye
(35,092 posts)Is the education of girls and women
wnylib
(24,223 posts)Wicked Blue
(6,601 posts)It goes far beyond changing a person's vote. You have enlarged her heart and changed her view of herself.
I admire you greatly.
Miigwech
(3,741 posts)niyad
(119,488 posts)Truly made my day.
Miigwech
(3,741 posts)"live and let live attitude" "the golden rule"... trump has destroyed that balance. People are turning against each other over his shit. I refuse to let that happen in my life. I will not stoop to hate. I know the good people and they deserve respect even when I disagree. And look, we found love. We found the common ground. I think that is what Joe and Kamala want from us now. Let's try and reach out in the final weeks. Closing message folks! We can do no more than vote and work on those in our circles. Some need a really good reason to change and it is not only about trump. Find it if you can. "I am grateful" for my friend's epiphany, hence the meaning of my name in Ojibwe, Miigwech!
Ferrets are Cool
(21,943 posts)she is ANTI-choice. Words matter.
Miigwech
(3,741 posts)wnylib
(24,223 posts)use biased, inacurate terms. They say pro life versus pro abortion.
The real issue is pro choice or anti choice.
If the anti choice people spent more time on issues like health care, contraception, improving the quality of people's lives, caring for unwanted and/or abused children, fighting domestic violence and rape - alleviating the situations that lead women to seek abortions - they would nearly eliminate it.
Ferrets are Cool
(21,943 posts)Karadeniz
(23,359 posts)Miigwech
(3,741 posts)TomSlick
(11,793 posts)You show how minds are changed - one at a time.
Whatthe_Firetruck
(600 posts)...there's a page of personal stories on abortion floating on the net.
Put the words "The only moral abortion is my abortion" and it will show you a half-dozen or so of the original set of essays, and more pages where they're talking about it. Worth a read if you haven't seen it yet.
ETA - Many are junk copies. This is the real stuff -> http://archive.is/eLE8g
Miigwech
(3,741 posts)I don't appreciate your untrue claim. I just wrote this myself and posted it no where else and first and only time time on DU. Your statement about my post is wrong. Retract your claim.
Whatthe_Firetruck
(600 posts)I wasn't saying anything about you or your friend, and I think you helped her a lot.
Just pointing out most conservatives tend to be hypocrits about abortion, and linked to a (related topic) page that shows this. I'm sorry if you thought I was accusing you of someone.