by Molly Sheahan
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On Monday night you accepted your Golden Globe award with the words, "I'm grateful for the acknowledgement of the choices I've made." But what choices, Michelle? And at what cost? Choice of course refers to the choice of abortion. But that word, abortion, is fraught with debate, so you left it unsaid. Personal choice sounds more like liberty, more like freedom and autonomy. In a Time's Up world, where powerful men quiver because they know they can no longer attack women's bodies with impunity, women's agency deserves celebration. Yet the word “choice” sanitizes the reality of a decision that violently kills a growing unborn child. The abortion choice is not freedom. It is oppression redistributed.
You said, "I'm also grateful to have lived in a moment in our society where choice exists, because as women and as girls, things can happen to our bodies that are not our choice." But Michelle, pregnancy is not rape. To equate the natural process of pregnancy to the violence of assault is a deep trivialization of sexual violence. They are not the same at all.
You urged "women 18 to 118, when it is time to vote please do so in your self-interest. It's what men have been doing for years, which is why the world looks so much like them." This statement effectively erases the political aspirations of the billions of women who have lived on this planet, fighting and loving and yes, voting. Women in every age act in the best interests of their sex and also of their communities. It is precisely because of the grit and heart of our feminist foremothers that women can vote, work the same professions as men, overcome sexism and receive equal pay - the causes you support. We women have an intense desire for justice and non-violence, it's true. But abortion? It is both unjust and inherently, deathly violent. Abortion is one more assault on women's bodies. It is the tool of traffickers and abusers and deadbeats, making the world look more like the worst of men. It kills. Women only want abortion "like an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg."
And so Michelle, millions of pro-life women in this country reject your belief that killing our children is in our self-interest. Our dreams are not in opposition to our children. For many of us who are mothers, our children are our dreams. For an interest in the self cannot be complete unless it is in the interest of us all. So you can keep your oppressive anti-feminism. We will live the non-violent love in our hearts. We will continue to champion our interests… but abortion is not one of them.
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