Quotation

“Many feminists insist that abortion is necessary for women to participate freely and equally in society. Anyone who disagrees, they argue, has merely adopted patriarchal standards and accepted women’s ‘place’ in society. Yet this argument demonstrates how deeply the roots of sexism run in our culture. Its premise is a sexist one—that women are inferior to men and that in order to be equal, we have to change our biology to become like men—wombless and unpregnant at will. What other oppressed group in history has had to undergo surgery in order to be equal?"

Marilyn Dickstein Kopp

The beautiful picture is from here

Katie x

Anglesey Abbey

My new camera came in the post the same weekend my in-laws came to visit. We took a trip to Anglesey Abbey and I took the chance to have a play around. I hope you like my snaps of the odd items in and around the Abbey.

Katie x

Acrostic

On my commute I wrote this acrostic.

Pro-life

Personhood cannot be diminished

Relying on others is okay

Opportunity for a change in values

Life is precious

Invest in the next generation

Fertility doesn’t need a cure

Everyone deserves a chance


We'd love to read your poetry, life themed or otherwise.

Katie x

It's okay to change your mind, I did. 

Katie x

You is kind, you is smart, you is important.

Recently I watched the brilliant film ‘The Help’ (I know it came out some time ago but I’m a bit behind!)

Not only is this a film that passes the Bechdel test (1. the film has to have at least two women in it, who 2. who talk to each other, about 3. something besides a man) but it has heart and integrity by the bucket load.

The story centres around Skeeter a white upper class girl who returns back to her neighbourhood fresh out of university, ready to being her career in journalism and a black maid Aibileen who has been looking after white babies since she was a teenager. Aibileen narrates most of the story showing her perspective on the way the white women leave her to not only clean up after them and their babies but also leave her to be the one who gives the children love and makes them feel special. Aibileen whispers to her little girl Mae Mobly, who is ignored by her own mamma, “You is kind, you is smart, you is important.” 

Aibileen is a woman of courage and love who is unafraid to put herself in positions of danger for others. When Skeeter has an idea for a book which will candidly tell what it is like to be a black maid working in Mississippi Aibileen, although at first cautious, starts to tell her story. This act of courage is highlighted by stories of the Klu Klax clan and racial murder interwoven into the backdrop of the film. The discussion of racial equality is banned by law so Skeeter must meet Aibileen and the other brave women who, inspired by Aibileen start to talk as well, in secret. As they tell their stories the viewer is invited into wonderful vignettes of the lives of these women who talk about extreme suffering with realism and often candid humour. The blend of different characters, Skeeter’s eccentric husband-mad mother, the pantomime-like villain Hilly Holbrook, the angelically chubby Mae Mobly, the weak minded white mothers contrasted with the strong and loving black women and the vulnerable and yet determined young writer Skeeter attempting to find her way in a new world as the old starts to pass away are all woven together with incredible skill and sensitivity. The result is a brilliant film that left me feeling both peaceful and restless for change in our own time.  

Alice X

Pro-woman and Pro-life: Just my cup of tea!

Despite what many feminists may claim being pro-life does not automatically disqualify you from being a feminist. In fact many of the first women to fight for women's suffrage and better education were pro-life.  Mary Wollstonecraft is a case in point. She wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, a cutting edge book in its day that argued that women should receive the same education as men (rather than be trained in husband hunting) because both men and women are creatures of reason and have the same human dignity. She also argued that men and women should share parental responsibility and that abortion was morally wrong. In her own words:

"Women becoming, consequently, weaker, in mind and body, than they ought to be, were one of the grand ends of their being taken into account, that of bearing and nursing children, have not sufficient strength to discharge the first duty of a mother; and sacrificing to lasciviousness the parental affection, that ennobles instinct, either destroy the embryo in the womb, or cast it off when born. Nature in everything demands respect, and those who violate her laws seldom do so with impunity."

Inspired by Wollstonecraft's example we should strive to look for solutions to unwanted pregnancies that respect the woman and the unborn. It shouldn't be either or.

To learn more about pro-life feminism go to:

http://www.feministsforlife.org/index.htm

Alice x

Would Savita have lived if Ireland was a pro-choice country?

On October 28th Savita Halappanavar, a 31 year old dentist who was 17 weeks pregnant, died from septicaemia after doctors failed to induce birth because they detected a heart beat saying that terminations are not allowed in Ireland. Allegedly they gave the excuse, "This is a Catholic country."

However, it should be pointed out that had the doctors induced an early labour to save Savita's life it would have been neither against Irish law nor against Catholic teaching.

Professor John Bonnar, then chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, gave this comment at the All Party Oireachtas Committee's Fifth Report on Abortion, saying:

"In current obstetrical practice, rare complications can arise where therapeutic intervention is required at a stage in pregnancy when there will be little or no prospect for the survival of the baby, due to extreme immaturity.

In these exceptional situations failure to intervene may result in the death of both the mother and baby. We consider that there is a fundamental difference between abortion carried out with the intention of taking the life of the baby, for example for social reasons, and the unavoidable death of the baby resulting from essential treatment to protect the life of the mother."

It is this good medical practice that means that Ireland has one of the lowest mortality rates in the world. Unicef rated the lifetime chance of maternal mortality in Ireland as one in 17,800.

Although no one religion should guide the making of law it is important to note that Catholic teaching also permits induced labour in these circumstances.

Pope Pius in 1951 said, “the saving of the life of the future mother … should urgently require a surgical act or other therapeutic treatment which would have as an accessory consequence, in no way desired nor intended, but inevitable, the death of the fetus, such an act could no longer be called a direct attempt on an innocent life. Under these conditions the operation can be lawful, like other similar medical interventions — granted always that a good of high worth is concerned, such as life, and that it is not possible to postpone the operation until after the birth of the child, nor to have recourse to other efficacious remedies.”

Quotes are taken from http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/1117/1224326702610.html

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/eils-mulroy-prochoice-side-must-not-hijack-this-terrible-event-3294723.html

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2012/11/15/the-tragic-death-of-savita-halappanavar-should-not-be-exploited-to-sweep-away-irish-abortion-law-under-which-she-could-legally-have-been-saved/#.UKUCuqMlBzk.twitter