Quirkyalone

Over the last two years on this website, I’ve hesitated to get too political, knowing that quirkyalones come from all points on the political spectrum. But I am tired of holding back. The issue that is really sparking me is the religious right’s continuing efforts to chisel away access to abortion and contraception. No other issue could be more relevant to QAs: in our 2005 poll, 94% of you said you are in favor of abortion rights.

As Dan Savage and many other commentators have pointed out, the hard-core religious right aren’t just against gays–they’re coming after straights too. They’re against straight sex before marriage and when it’s not linked to procreation. They’d prefer that we don’t even have condoms, and they’re having success limiting women’s access to abortion in a thousand different ways. There’s one abortion clinic in Mississippi and one in South Dakota. There are two in Missouri and two in Arkansas. An excellent profile in the LA Times tells the story of a 70 year old doctor in Arkansas who continues to perform abortions because there’s no one else to take his place: He calls himself an “abortionist” and says, “I am destroying life.” But he also feels he’s giving life: He calls his patients “born again.”

Women like me in San Francisco have access, but women who live in more conservative states don’t. The war over abortion serves both political parties–it’s an effective political organizing tool for both liberals and conservatives. But the real losers are women who don’t have control over their bodies and their futures. Now, controversy is swirling aroung Target, which allows pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception if the pharmacist is morally opposed. What?! What if it’s a Catholic cashier? Does she have the right to refuse to sell condoms?

I want to encourage myself and others who identify with the QA mindset to speak up about choice. Write Target about their emergency contraception policy, and make your voice heard in letters to the editor and in conversations with friends. We can’t afford to be silent on this issue.

Related posts:

1. In this political environment, we need quirkyalone bumperstickers!
2. Singles’ Scene or Revolutionary Gathering?
3. Attention Europa