Inside Gigi's World

What is Roe Vs. Wade?

Roe Vs. Wade was a landmark decision that was passed down from the Supreme Court in 1973. The Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States of America protected a woman’s right to decide what happens to her body when she becomes pregnant. This was regarding abortion.

The right to an abortion also includes medical necessities such as D&Cs (Dilation and Curettage) which happens in the first trimester of pregnancy and is done by dilating the cervix and scraping the uterine lining. as well as D&Es (Dilation and Evacuation) which happens in the second trimester of pregnancy is done by dilating the cervix as well to remove abnormal tissue -the abnormal tissue that is being referred to is uterine lining, pregnancy tissue and dead fetus.

While 50% of pregnancies that miscarry before 10 weeks gestation will not need a D&C (again, performed in the first trimester), 50% will. After a 10 week miscarriage, that number continues to incline, as well as the risk of an ectopic pregnancy.

Here’s some fun and helpful vocabulary for you:

Miscarriage: also called spontaneous abortion (it’s all about linguistics people!) is the spontaneous loss of pregnancy before the 20th week, it is typically painful physically and emotionally.

Miscarriage is the #1 most common type of pregnancy loss and often occurs because the fetus isn’t developing normally.

There are more than 3 MILLION cases per year. One more time, 3 MILLION cases per year.

Late Miscarriage: is also called a second trimester or mid-trimester loss– this is when the D&E we discussed earlier would be performed.

Missed Miscarriage also known as a silent first trimester miscarriage is when the fetus is no longer viable, but the body doesn’t expel the abnormal tissue a.k.a dead fetus, until after 14 weeks.

Stillbirth is typically the loss of pregnancy after 20 weeks and the unviable fetus is expelled either vaginally through induction or c-section.

A fetus is unborn offspring that develops from an animal embryo. Fetal development in a human fetus usually begins around 9 weeks gestation-that’s a whole 2 to 4 weeks after a heartbeat can be detected.

To date, a man has 0 laws regarding his reproductive rights.

To date women have about 500.

A male can walk into his doctor’s office and get a vasectomy, no questions asked.

If a woman under a certain age asks for a tubal ligation, she is usually denied because what if she changes her mind or her future husband may want children someday.

If she is married, most OB-GYNs require a signature from her husband before a tubal ligation is performed.

A fucking permission slip.

Are you kidding me?

Here are some fun facts:

1 in every 6 American women will be the victim of sexual assault.

The age that occupies the largest group of reported sexual assault victims is 14.

The age bracket with the largest number of reported victims is 3-17 years of age- this group of individuals has more sexual assault victims than any adult age group (18+).

The fun facts just keep coming,

2 year olds have more reported sexual assault victims than any age group of 40 and above. 2. Let that sink in, 2.

Roughly 32,101 pregnancies result from rape a year-not 5, not 10, not 20 but 1- that is 365 days. If you do the math, that is 87.94 pregnancies that result from sexual assault in 1 day.

The biggest age group of sexual assault perpetrators of males is 30 years old.

Let me help you with some more math, that is 16 years older than the age group with the highest amounts of reported sexual assault. In case you forgot, that was 14.

Of those reported:

59% were sexually assaulted by acquittances.

34% were sexually assaulted by family members

and only roughly 7% were by strangers.

I wonder how many of them asked for it?

1 in 4 women will undergo an abortion in her lifetime.

The highest age demographic to receive abortions is 20-24 years of age.

The race/ethnicity with the highest abortion rates is white at 38.7% and that is because they are in a higher income bracket and have access to better insurance and privatized abortion.

Women that receive abortion are also educated.

27% are high school graduates,

64% have some college or higher,

and only about 8% have no diploma at all.

59.3% of women who receive abortions are already mothers.

Not really the demographic of women you picture when you think of abortion recipients, is it?

The biggest demographic of women that will be affected by overturning Roe Vs. Wade are low income, women of color. This will create intergenerational poverty which keeps a certain class of people-typically rich, white males- maintaining the systematical power over certain groups of people which is also fondly called, “status quo.”

I have used science and statistics. Nothing about religion, which is supposed to be kept out of politics, at least if you believe in something called the Constitution.

I’ve grown up knowing-just as the sky is blue- to be female is to be at a disadvantage.

I’ve known the difference between pro-choice and pro-life and I did not care to know how a person fell on which side of the fence as long as they still had the choice to decide if they ever had to.

I have grown, much more aware of the discrepancies, as I have aged.

When the penalties of abortion are greater than those of rape…

If an 11-year-old child has to carry a pregnancy to full term after being raped by her grandfather…

When you are forced to carry another life even though it may end your own…

If you want to take away social programs because you don’t want to pay for someone else’s child-even though that pregnancy was unwanted, and your legislation forced them to carry that child full term…

When adoption is thousands of dollars…

When birth control can be denied by insurance companies for religious reasons…

When ejaculation of a man does not constitute as mass murder and doesn’t get investigated as potential miscarriages now could-I mean they are living, aren’t they?…

When a mother with a full-time job cannot afford the food, rent and formula that you do not want to pay for…

When a man can get 100 women pregnant in 9 months while a woman can only carry one pregnancy within those same 9 months…

When men can leave while women are forced to carry that physically, emotionally and mentally…

When a man can have 10 children with 10 different women and only has to pay pennies for child support while the woman is ridiculed for have the audacity to go after a man for child support…

When the woman is looked at as the problem…

When a man is free to do as he pleases…

The issue is no longer about abortion.

The issue is about power.

Let me ask you a question.

You’re standing at the top of a building, in one hand you have a petri dish with 5 fertilized eggs, in the other a baby. A breathing, wide eyes opened, plump little baby. You have to choose one to drop and one to save, which is it?

Seems like it should be an easy choice, right?

But according to some of the bull shit-yes, I stand by what I said-bull shit, I’ve seen the past few days makes me wonder what some of these hypocrites would do.

It’s God’s will until it no longer fits their agenda…or it is black, gay, trans, poor or an immigrant.

Here’s another question,

You say you believe in the constitution, doesn’t that you mean you believe in a separation of church and state?

Or maybe you just don’t believe in that part of the consititution?

I know now, maybe your God told you the founding fathers didn’t mean that part…He spoke with them and they took it back…

Here’s another one,

I don’t believe in your God, so now what?

The God I believe in chooses to stay out of politics because she thinks 98% of politicians are full of shit and are going to burn in the proverbial Hell that they’ve created themselves someday.

The God I believe in is a Goddess and she is pissed off.

Don’t bother coming for me. I do not care at all what you have to say. All that psycho-babble bull shit about your feelings and your God and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, means nothing to me. Being a woman has made my skin extremely tough, unbreakable. Your words and feelings have no bearings on my opinion just as mine have nothing on yours.

I wonder how many mistresses of senators, governors and other elected officials will still have access to abortions…

I have been lucky enough that I have never had to make a choice like that but far be it for me to tell someone else what they should be allowed or not allowed to do.

There is no longer pro-choice and pro-life. There is pro-choice and forced birthers.

Now is the time ladies, this is what we have been training for. We must show our daughters how to fight and our sons how to be different. Now is time we raise our voices, even when they rattle. We vote in the masses to feel our voices shake the ground beneath their feet. We must make this world a place for our daughters to live side by side her male counterparts, not behind or below. Think of our mothers, our grandmothers, our great grandmothers that came before us, that already put in the work. We deserve better. Now is the time we build our army ladies. If it is war they want, let’s not make them wait any longer.