Real quick here, because I have to do SO MUCH HOMEWORK and I can post all kinds of exciting things about Walk for Choice Ohio LATER, when I am done with two tests and two papers.
Recently I saw, on the wide wide internet, a meme sort of thing. (I can't find it now, which makes this whole sentence rather anticlimactic.) Point is, it said at the top, "Keep your laws off my body!" and at the bottom, "Pay for my abortion."
Though I think the maker of this meme and I have rather different views about abortion, it struck a chord--why, after all, do a lot of pro-choice activists use the phrase "Keep Your Laws Off My Body" ? I appreciate the sentiment of the phrase because really the point of it is just that a bunch of rich white legislators shouldn't be allowed to make terrible, terrible decisions of women's health, that government doesn't have a place in our medical choices.
But I do want the government all up in my healthcare! OBVIOUSLY I don't want government to tell me what I can and can't do with my body or keep me from receiving important medical care. That. Should be. A GIVEN. (It isn't. But it should be.) I would, however, very much like for the government to provide ALL of its citizens with healthcare. I would like for the government to pour lots and lots and lots of taxpayer money into healthcare (and education, and not war, etc.).
"Keep Your Laws Off My Body" sends the wrong message there. I'd much prefer "Make Laws to Take Care of My Body!" There are a lot of laws and legislative whatnot that DO or WILL provide important medical care (or education, etc.) to a lot of people! And we like those laws! So let's not go stomping on all legislation, or all legislators; it's not all bad.
