For those who may not be aware, I used to work for “the Welfare Department” (in both California and Washington, by the by.)

I worked the old AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) program, which was later replaced by TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families) in the 1990s.

I had to stop working in those programs after my SECOND 10 year old mother reported being pregnant, again. Yes, quite obviously child rape, and while the Department had some suspicions as to who the abuser was, we couldn’t prove it. But, nonetheless, there were two 10 year old girls with babies of their own.

It’s just as wrong to force someone to be pregnant as it is to force them to not be pregnant. But at the rate we’re going, before much longer, women will again be at risk of being fired for being pregnant, just like before Roe v Wade.

Struck v. Secretary of Defense, a case that was on the Supreme Court’s calendar during the same term that Roe was decided. Susan Struck was an Air Force Captain who got pregnant while serving in Vietnam and sued the Air Force after it said she would have to either get an abortion at the base hospital or leave the service if she wanted to have the child. She told the Air Force that she didn’t want to get an abortion; she wanted to use the vacation days that she had saved up to give birth and then put the baby up for adoption because abortion violated her Roman Catholic faith. Before the Court could rule, the matter became moot, as the Air Force changed their policy.

I became aware of this case during Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s SCOTUS confirmation hearing. She has said in the past that this was the case that should have been decided; I believe she may be right.

The US Military was just as wrong in their position as those States and parties who seek to recriminalize abortion.

I’m 65 years old this year. I’ve been pro-choice since 1965 when I first learned how limiting a forced pregnancy can be. My stance was strengthened in 1973 and subsequent years as I volunteered as a clinic escort, beginning when a college friend asked me to go with them.

You have a right to choose not to undergo an abortion. You do not have a right to deny anyone else their choice to have one.

It’s that simple.

What sparked this:

Cree Hardegree wrote on Facebook:
Yesterday at 6:09 PM
There was this 12-year-old little girl in Sandusky named Tiffany. She and two other girls were spending the night together when they decided it would be fun to sneak out of the house and go to McDonald’s with this boy they knew and his older friend Christopher Mirasolo, who was 18. As they were driving away from the house, Mirasolo took the girls’ cell phones and threw them out the window. He stole some gas so he could drive them to an abandoned house. Over the next two days, he alternately raped one girl and then the other, multiple times.

A month later, Tiffany discovered she was pregnant.

Under the new law in Georgia, there is an exception for rape. In Ohio, there isn’t — the state would force her to remain pregnant.

In Alabama, under the measure signed into law by the governor this afternoon, whether she was raped has no bearing on the case — abortion is prohibited and punishable by 99 years in prison for the doctor, even in the case of rape.

Her rapist served six months in the county jail for forcibly injecting his sperm into her.

A doctor can be imprisoned for 99 years for removing it.

Her rapist served six months in the county jail for forcibly injecting his sperm into her.

A doctor can be imprisoned for 99 years for removing it.

The law in Georgia is unclear as to punishment for abortion. But the law contains language which says a fertilized egg is a full person ~from the moment of conception~. If tissue is a full human being from the moment of conception, we are no longer talking about abortion; we are talking about murder. Defining tissue formed at the moment of conception as a person, takes the analysis away from abortion laws and puts it within existing criminal laws which prohibit one person from murdering another person.

Georgia still has the death penalty for first degree premeditated murder of a person.

Eighteen months after getting out of the county jail, Mirasolo raped 14-year-old Jenna. He served 4 years for that rape.

Tiffany did not want to terminate her pregnancy.

That was her choice.

HER choice.

Her CHOICE.

She chose to allow the zygote to develop into an embryo and then let the embryo develop into a fetus and then carry the fetus to full term until it became a baby.

She also chose to raise the baby, rather than give it up for adoption.

That proved to be a little more difficult than Tiffany imagined. The $65 per week in food stamps just wasn’t enough. She obtained TANF or Temporary Assistance for a period, then moved to Florida where she was able to move-in with family.

Meanwhile, the child support recovery office in Sandusky filed an action against the father to recoup the SNAP and TANF funds the government had paid out to Tiffany.

The child which had resulted from the rape was now 9 years old.

Mirasolo walked into court, admitted he was the father of the child, and stated he stood ready to pay child support.

Sanilac County Judge Ross awarded the rapist joint legal custody of the child and ordered Tiffany to move from Florida back to Michigan so her rapist could exercise his visitation rights. He also ordered the rapist’s name to be put on the birth certificate as “father.”

After a firestorm and a rally against “pedophiles & prosecutors” held outside the courthouse, the judge reversed his order saying he had not been aware of the circumstances and had just issued the standard orders which he issues in all paternity cases where a father comes into court and takes responsibility.

Mirasolo has since said he was not seeking custody or visitation.

But he could.

Two years ago, Arkansas passed the “Unborn Child Protection From Dismemberment Abortion Act” known as “Act 45” which allows a husband to sue a doctor to prevent his wife from getting an abortion. He can sue to stop the abortion or sue for money damages if the abortion has already occurred. If the husband has engaged in “criminal conduct” — rape — in getting his wife pregnant, he can still sue to stop the abortion but cannot sue for money damages if the abortion has already occurred.

In Massillon, Ohio, an 11-year-old “rebellious” girl ran away from home. Police found her in the upstairs bedroom closet of the 26-year-old man who had raped her repeatedly. Last week she found out she’s pregnant.

If the new Ohio law was in effect, the state would force her to remain pregnant as there is no exception for rape.

In Alabama, under the law signed by the governor today, the 11-year-old girl would be forced to remain pregnant or spend 99 years in prison.

These are not unintended consequences. These are the top-line primary anticipated effects of the new abortion laws — all are designed to result in forced pregnancies.

Abortions are necessary because of unwanted pregnancies.

Every unwanted pregnancy is caused by a man.

Every unwanted pregnancy is caused by a man.

Every. Single. One.

Every forced pregnancy is forced on a woman.

Every. Single. One.

Yes. It does take two.

But the man has the last clear chance to avoid pregnancy. All he has to do is put it back in his pants. Or never take it out in the first place. There has never — not in the entire history of the world — been a pregnancy that resulted from the interaction between a male and a female when the male kept his penis in his pants.

The burden for preventing pregnancy should be shifted entirely to men. Men can get a reversible vasectomy. Men can wear a condom. Men can exercise self-control. They are, after all, the stronger sex with the non-emotional reasoning-ability that makes them more suited than women to be the leaders of society.

Abortion would go away as a political issue if we passed laws that put the responsibility for pregnancy-prevention on the male and set the punishment at 10 years in prison for every male who failed to prevent an unwanted pregnancy.

And that’s not to be funny. It is no more draconian than the current laws which put 100% of the punishment on the female, when the unwanted pregnancy results from the conduct of the male 100% of the time.

THIS is why we need to elect women to congress and the senate and the White House.