Reproductive rights is something I often take for granted. Commemorative activities, acts of remembrance, are good ways to acknowledge that nothing should be taken for granted because things always change.
I recently heard from someone that she thought she might be pregnant. What surprised me most about our conversation was my hesitance to say out loud a point I found she was not making.
She had a choice.
Don't get me wrong. This, ahem, pregnant pause was not about a shift in my belief that women should have the right to choose. It was about wondering why she wasn't voicing the availability of choice to her. It was about wanting to give someone a wide berth as she shared something with me that seemed to carry with it the shadow of barely articulated. It was about waiting to see if I was being asked for advice or rather, simply, to listen.
It was the first time I thought about choice, as in reproductive choice, in a long time. Yet, it is something that women and girls, boys and men encounter and are affected by every day. The exercise of reproductive choice is highly personal, but it speaks volumes that we live in a society that, for now, protects this choice as a right.
I never did speak my bit. But, I will, if the occasion calls for it. I am grateful for the opportunity to offer support to any girl/woman/couple/family dealing with the issue of what to do when challenged by an unplanned pregnancy.
Regardless of what the choice made ends up being.
2 comments:
I love not only your pregnant pause, but the "wide berth" you afforded your friend.
Thanks for mentioning men and boys in this, too - something I always forget...that our boys have as much of a right and need to be taught about reproductive choice as our girls do.
Thank you. And thank you for bringing "Blogging for Choice" to my attention. On to thinking about my lunchbox! xo
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