NARAL Pro-Choice America is sponsoring a "Blog For Choice" day on this, the 37th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. The case affirmed a woman's right to choose to have a legal, safe abortion if she saw fit.Our nation was fighting over the issue long before that day in 1973 and the argument certainly hasn't died down since. In fact, the debate has probably only grown more heated and, in some tragic cases, deadly.
But today, NARAL is simply asking you and me to answer one question: What does Trust Women mean to you?
And this is my answer: To trust women means to leave up to them all decisions pertaining to their own bodies and minds. Whether that decision is to terminate a pregnancy or to see it through, we as a society must trust each other to do what is right for ourselves.
We must also work to provide the kind of education and support necessary for informed decision making and healthy living.
That means comprehensive sex education (can we please hire Dan Savage to help write the curriculum?) from an appropriately early age. That means good, affordable access to contraception and general medical care. That means well-funded child care programs both in and out of the work environment, as well as better maternity and paternity leave policies.
Because you can't have real, lasting, meaningful choice without a healthy, supportive environment in which to make it.
The first element in this process, then, is trust. And you don't build trust by screaming in each other's faces, passing swift judgment, assuming that you know what's better for someone than they do, or painting your opponent as evil.
Once we get that through our heads and really learn to trust one another, everything else will follow.
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