As the war on the poor escalates, states are making birth control and abortion inaccessible to poor women.  Missouri recently allocated $1 MILLION to bully low-income pregnant woman into giving birth and then giving the child up for adoption! South Dakota went so far as to violate the US Constitution in their efforts to control women’s fertility and freedom.

In March, South Dakota passed a law to make abortion illegal, even for girls impregnated when raped by relatives and for women raped by anyone. AND the rapist would have the same rights to the child as the mother!.Doctors who perform abortions can be charged criminally.  (Remember, Roe  vs Wade and the 14 Amendment is still federal law. Abortion is a legal medical procedure. Maybe South Dakota is planning to secede from the Union?)

Women are pissed off. Kimberly Gadette, WeNews commentator, wrote,

“When the US government puts an uninvited hand up all women’s skirts, these days it’s considered business as usual. Like home buyers during Sunday open house, it seems everyone’s entitled to barge on into women’s private parts and take a good, long look around. If this were terra firma, I’d be able to call on the 4t Amendment to legally defend my property rights.  But since this is terra “femma” I’m expected to simply lie there, gracious hostess to the last. So all manner of judges, legislators and doctors can probe at will.

“The big issue is, well, “issue.” Who issues the babies into the world (women), but who controls the process. With the executive, legislative and judicial branches dominated by males, that would be men. What I’d give to be able to slap those government hands away today.”

Mary Anderson, reporter for MWV writes:

“I'm having body-shaking anger fits over The Handmaidens of  Missouri and South Dakota. First that abortion thing. I've said it til I'm blue in the face and I'll say  it again. Making abortion illegal or next-to-impossible to access really only affects poor women. Women with financial means have always been able to find a doctor or leave the country to take care of that particular inconvenience called pregnancy. (The ultimate STD.) Poor women are the ones

who resort to back alleys and coat hangers and such inventive methods as  having their boyfriends kick them in the stomach.  Poor women are the ones who die.

            “First they make it impossible for all women to avoid pregnancy via birth control or emergency contraception. Then they make it impossible for poor women  to safely terminate those pregnancies. Then they go a step further and use poor  women as living, poorly paid test-tubes. Then rich and middle-income people can have more babies to adopt without having to go through the stretchmark-inducing trouble of actual pregnancy.

            Poor women have always been in danger of having our children snatched away by Child Protective Services or Child Welfare—just for being poor. But at least we get the chance to actually have those children for a while, most of us. Now poor women are just breeders. Good for popping  'em out, adopting 'em out, and getting back to work at McDonald's without demanding time off.

Welcome to the brave new world of shitting on the poor. Welfare deform made it possible to force women in poverty to do the crappy work that most people know sucks, like cleaning toilets and changing old people's diapers and flipping burgers. Now they want to use us to do the crappy work of having the babies, going through nine months of hormone changes, buying new ugly wardrobes, peeing every 15 minutes… and then hours of unbelievably painful labor and delivery--so we can hand them a brand new baby. Gee thanks, rich folks. I'm so glad my kid's going to get a chance in life with rich parents. God knows I'm so poor and dumb I'd probably just fuck it up.

            ARGGGHHHH!!!!! I'd like to find some of those lawmakers and just shake them til their brains rattle in their heads. And then pull the f’ in plugs. Or better yet use their still-living bodies as incubators--maybe I could get a new heart out of it when they finally kick off.

Kimberly Gadette and Mary Anderson

WeNews and Mother Warriors Voice