My Uterus, My Opinion

What was that in the middle of the quad on Wednesday, April 4, around lunchtime?

The short answer is “nothing good.” The long answer unfolds in the next paragraphs.

First I saw a small group of students setting up a tall, black banner, which I quickly realized was being used to cover up a set of narrow posters. From my seat near the fountain, some of the posters looked like pictures of marinara sauce. It was all very intriguing, until I got close enough to realize I was looking at gruesome abortion pictures, right next to ultrasound pictures: death versus life. Right at that moment the whole experience became absurd. I wasn’t standing by the MU anymore; I was outside a Planned Parenthood on Abortion Friday. Only, instead of a crowd of angry protesters, there was the one man in sunglasses hanging on to a huge pile of flyers nobody wanted for very obvious reasons.

By Spec-ta-cles

I couldn’t help but ask myself: “who are these students who agreed to help put up these images?” Don’t they know? There is never a time you can tell a woman what to do with her body. Never. Incessant, however passive, badgering with brutal images of aborted fetuses is a clear attempt at forcing women away from getting abortions they may need by misinforming them and making them feel scared, guilty, and cruel.

Fear and guilt cannot miraculously trick a woman into falling in love with her fetus. Fear and guilt are the tools of thoughtless women-haters. No one who actually cares about a woman would ever dare pretend they had any authority over her body, her emotions, or her soul. The pro-life message is not one that seeks to help women. Though if in principle it does mean to protect us, it feels like a misdirected effort in dire need of a makeover.

Furthermore, the pro-life pro-choice debate is meaningless. Life is a necessary outcome of the choice of keeping the baby, if the pregnancy proceeds without complications. Setting up “life” as the opposite of “choice” is miserably illogical, no matter how one looks at it. To be sure, there is also pressure on women to get abortions when they may not want one. However that is not an excuse for forcing all women, regardless of their circumstance, to carry the pregnancy to term. Each pregnancy is unique, and should be treated as such.

A university is, among other things, a place for intellectual growth, humane interaction, and broadening of horizons. The pro-life message does not fit in any of those categories, and messages that promote such ignorance should not be allowed on our campus. The pro-life movement is very often extremist, portraying itself as having learned or understood very little about women. Its presence on the quad reflects poorly on UC Davis, its students and its leaders.