TRICK OR TREAT
Yes, it's that time of year again. Overall, we've been treated pretty well via the President's veto pen as the Repugnants came closer and closer to taking a bite out of our reproductive rights.
And there have been some local and federal initiatives dealing with day care, education and health benefits that have helped us.
But there have been some very nasty tricks.
No one in the nursing home knew she was pregnant until the woman in a coma was nearly at term and ready to deliver. Who was the daddy-dear, the CARETAKER, on the nursing home staff that violated a comatose woman?
It seems that this sort of thing happens quite a bit. It happens to old and infirm women, but also to young, severely disabled women.
A trick that happens more often than we know since women are more likely to end up in substandard nursing homes than are men. We are usually paid less throughout our working years, and generally we receive less pension money.
A recent survey found that a woman had to work five years to make up for losing one year's (perhaps taken off to have a baby) contribution to her pension. It's a treat to see that it is becoming more and more acceptable to society for girls and women to exercise, play sports and use their bodies freely as men always have.
Not just because it is enjoyable, and unfetters us, but because study after study has demonstrated how very important exercise is for women's health.
And that's another treat. We, the other, are finally getting some of the medical research dollars spent on us and some recognition that we have hearts.
A trick in the making is frightening. We have all heard the Repugnants and others explain that "Hey, it's OK. It wouldn't be upsetting the will of the people to impeach President Clinton because V.P. Al Gore would take his place and he's a liberal."
Ah, yes. Another target for the Special Prosecutor too. And if the right-wingnuts get him we will be blessed with the Speaker of the House, President Newt along with Secretary of HEW, Ralph Reed; and Attorney General, and next Supreme, Kennie Starr.
But the most blatant trick was recently played when
yet another Doctor, who was dedicated to women's reproductive choices, was SHOT IN THE BACK. Already, the terrorists have closed many women's clinics and curtailed some of the needed services for women.
Already, their threats are severely limiting the number of doctors willing to risk their lives.
Already, many medical schools are no longer teaching or researching safe abortion procedures. This impacts especially on Ob-Gyn students.
Already, in many states, it is a crime for a grandmother to take her granddaughter into another state for a safe, legal abortion.
There is a trick on the internet called "The Creator's Rights Party," which lists pro-choice supporters and puts a line through their names when they are murdered. It contains highly graphic images.
The media looked briefly at this latest killing of a doctor, and are now engaged in a blitz of interpretation and direction for women. More tricks.
They tell us that many women are choosing to stay home with their children without guilt because the back of the women's movement has been broken.
Also, that the woman's movement is finished because it did not support P.C.J. and Kathleen Willey, thus proving that it was a flawed social experiment.
Tuesday, November 3, 1998, we can get out the vote and show them that their tombstone with RIP on it greatly exaggerates the state of our health. Or we can stay home and bitch about the results brought about by this election. Maybe even sing a little in the months and years ahead as we watch our future unfold on the tube. For a preview of that future, try the History Channel.
Or if you want something more recent, consider that 13 women qualified as astronauts back when hero John Glenn made his historic trip into space.
And 13 women were disqualified because they had no combat experience, and that they were prevented by law from ever getting this experience. "My Country 'tis of thee, sweet land of LOST liberty, Of thee I ..."
1998-045
Copyright 1998 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@ConnRiver.net.
G e n d e r G a p p e r s T M
[liznote: That women were not permitted into military combat aside, query whether being a military test pilot even had anything legitimately to do in the first place as a requirement for being an astronaut. These women were all experienced pilots. The artificial hurdle itself was not even a bona fide occupational requirement. John Glenn himself testified twice in Congress against women being astronauts.] RETURN TO TEXT
