I remember when bc was illegal [View all]

[gwheezie]

I was about 12 or 13 years old and had an extraordinary discussion with my extraordinary grandmother. She was the one you could call and say "I'm really in trouble". So we were talking about sex and babies and wound up talking about an abortion she had. It was during the depression and it was illegal. And we talked about preventing pregnancy. All the old methods some effective some myths some dangerous. I was appalled and started reading more about why girls had to risk pregnancy when they had sex and it radicalized me.
So at age 13 in 1962 I stood in front of my 9th grade class and presented an oral book report on Margaret Sanger. It would be an understatement to say it created a shit storm and of course my parents had a difficult time explaining my behavior. They were informed I and they could get in lots of trouble talking about birth control. I did not make any more speeches in school about birth control.
I wound up going to planned parenthood when I became sexually active, thanks to Sanger but did wind up getting pregnant the pill and iud we're not available. I had a baby way too young but not sorry for having her. I still could not get bc pills because even though it was post Griswald it was 1969 prior to Baird and every doctor asked for my husbands permission. I didn't have a husband. By this time I belonged to a women's rights group so luckily when I got pregnant again I was able to find a good abortion doctor and didn't wind up dying over having sex. My women's group was very active in a variety of areas. We ran a free child are co op in a room we took over at the university. We ran a drop in center. A group of us rented a large house and lived there. When we found there were no detox beds for females we took them home and detoxes them. We watched their kids. And we taught each other how to do menstrual extractions. In that decade I was turned down for jobs and paid less because I might have a baby someday. The greatest and most life changing event of my life was the day I got birth control pills for free at planned parenthood. Legal birth control changed everything for women. I could have sex without it limiting my potential by forcing me to have an unwanted pregnancy.
So I am telling this story of my life to preface my opinion of the hobby lobby decision. I take it personally. It is a decision made to control women. I believe there are people that hate the legal protections we fought so hard for. They don't want us to have jobs or go to school or have sex unless a man approves. This is personal. I have been slowly seething over the years but I feel it welling up. Between this ruling and the one forcing women to face a gauntlet of deranged dangerous loons in order to exert her right to control her body, I feel more angry than I have since I was a young girl.