Alceste
Vagabond
I've been reading a lot of women's history lately, and it's incredibly striking how the cycle of near-constant pregnancy, childbirth and child-care entrapped women in a perpetually second-class, non-liberated state.
A typical pioneer story I read was a woman's account of how she had squirreled away $10 just in case she didn't like the homestead her husband had prepared, she could run away back to civilization, where she thought her husband would probably join her eventually.
So they got there and she absolutely hated it. She immediately resolved to leave as soon as possible, but by the time they arrived, she was pregnant. She waited for the baby to be born, then thought she could flee when he was old enough to walk. But by then she was pregnant again. On and on that story goes, with her resolution to leave enduring for YEARS, until eventually her husband fell off a roof and was debilitated, so she felt like she had to stay. She ended up spending her $10 on a plow.
My great grandmother lived that life. She was married at 15 and continually pregnant or nursing for the next 25 years - 16 kids, she had. She ran the homestead herself and raised all those kids alone - food, clothes, water, everything from scratch - while my great grandfather worked on the railroad. It was miles from anywhere. I have no doubt that she hated it. But how do you leave with 16 kids tugging on your skirts?
When I was brought to my great-grandparents for the first time, my mother put me into her grandmother's arms. Baba said (in her limited, heavily accented English) "Ugh - too many babies" and handed me straight back in disgust.
Pioneer women often begged each other for ways to stem the tide of endless pregnancy, but it was actually illegal for any doctor to help them control their own bodies in ANY way. Including innocuous home remedies to attempt to control conception.
Anyway, reading these stories is making it totally clear why complete, autonomous control over our reproductive health is totally fundamental to our liberty. Are there any pro-life feminists here who disagree? Any thoughts on the subject?
A typical pioneer story I read was a woman's account of how she had squirreled away $10 just in case she didn't like the homestead her husband had prepared, she could run away back to civilization, where she thought her husband would probably join her eventually.
So they got there and she absolutely hated it. She immediately resolved to leave as soon as possible, but by the time they arrived, she was pregnant. She waited for the baby to be born, then thought she could flee when he was old enough to walk. But by then she was pregnant again. On and on that story goes, with her resolution to leave enduring for YEARS, until eventually her husband fell off a roof and was debilitated, so she felt like she had to stay. She ended up spending her $10 on a plow.
My great grandmother lived that life. She was married at 15 and continually pregnant or nursing for the next 25 years - 16 kids, she had. She ran the homestead herself and raised all those kids alone - food, clothes, water, everything from scratch - while my great grandfather worked on the railroad. It was miles from anywhere. I have no doubt that she hated it. But how do you leave with 16 kids tugging on your skirts?
When I was brought to my great-grandparents for the first time, my mother put me into her grandmother's arms. Baba said (in her limited, heavily accented English) "Ugh - too many babies" and handed me straight back in disgust.
Pioneer women often begged each other for ways to stem the tide of endless pregnancy, but it was actually illegal for any doctor to help them control their own bodies in ANY way. Including innocuous home remedies to attempt to control conception.
Anyway, reading these stories is making it totally clear why complete, autonomous control over our reproductive health is totally fundamental to our liberty. Are there any pro-life feminists here who disagree? Any thoughts on the subject?