Open letter to a movement

Cosmopolitan Magazine recently had an article on the annual crisis pregnancy center conference. In it one of the leaders stated that it is their job at crisis pregnancy centers to “protect” women from abortion just like “ an adult teaches a small child not to touch a hot stove.” This type of rhetoric is of course nothing new to us who work for reproductive justice. Laws all over the country disguised in the cloak of “wanting to protect women” have been passed in order to save women or so they say. Everything from TRAP laws designed to close down clinics to bans on telemedicine or forcing doctors to lie to patients about the risks of breast cancer from abortion even though that has been thoroughly debunked. In a way I am very glad that this woman said this. She did my job for me by exposing what is at the heart of the anti- choice movement: a paternalistic worldview that sees women as helpless individuals incapable of making their own decisions who need someone to make them for them because they do not have the intelligence to do it themselves. Never forget folks what these people are really about. In response to this insane ideology I have only this to say.
ANTI-CHOICERS: I do not need to be rescued. I am a grown woman with the life skills necessary for making decisions and accepting whatever consequences good or bad might come from them. I have stated before that should I ever become pregnant abortion will be my choice although I hope to never need one. If my life ever goes down that path, I will accept any fallout from that decision whether it be positive or negative. And the women of this world do not need you to lead them like wandering sheep about to fall into a creek. We are a strong capable people who own our choices and none of those choices concern you.