As a disabled woman, whenever disability and abortion are in the same sentence I get angry.
The most popular post on this blog is from 2013, when I wrote a passionate piece about why the use of disability in abortion dialogues to be so hurtful. Pro Choice Should Not Mean Ableist has been shared, reshared, and viewed over and over again.
Things haven’t changed, and in fact, now the pro-life lobby is using disabled bodies as a reason to ban abortions.
Ohio lawmakers are considering a controversial bill that would ban abortions sought because the baby has Down syndrome, placing the swing state at the center of a new battle for anti-abortion advocates. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/08/24/ohio-legislature-to-consider-down-syndrome-abortion-ban/
This bill makes it a felony to perform an abortion based on a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome.
When I say that a disabled life matters as much as an able bodied one, I mean that.
When I say that I believe that abortion is a choice a woman makes for herself, and herself alone, I mean that too.
Does it make me feel emotional when I hear that there are people who want to make the choice to abort a fetus because of a disability they will have when they are born?
Of course it does. Because I, and other disabled people have heard that people encouraged our own parents to abort us.
Because our lives do matter, and are worth living.
However, just because a disabled life is worth living doesn’t mean that I am going to restrict choice. I believe in abortion as a choice that people can ONLY make for themselves.
Putting disability and abortion into the same discussion not only muddies the waters to a point where it becomes an inscrutable debate of emotions and heartstrings, but it’s also unfair to people like me who fight for disabled rights and champion disabled lives.
For writing this, I’m signing up for hate mail.
The pro-life lobby will say this means I don’t actually value disabled lives.
The disability community will come at me for saying that I want people to be able to choose abortion if their child has Down Syndrome.
Fact is, I just want people to have the choice.
My disabled body- and other disabled bodies – should not factor into this discussion. Leave our bodies out of it – except when a disabled woman wants to make the choice to have an abortion.
This is what really bothers me at the core. It isn’t just about the choice to abort a disabled fetus or a non-disabled one, it’s about the fact that safe sex, reproductive health, and yes, abortions, aren’t as readily available to people with disabilities.
In this discussion, it’s ONLY about disabled fetuses. It’s not about who gets the kind of care we need.
Furthermore, while I cringe at the notion that someone would want to not have a disabled child because they’re disabled I also want to acknowledge that not every person out there in the world should be a parent to someone with a disability.
Not everyone has the finances and resources to support their child. Not everyone will be kind to a child with a disability. Not everyone will make that child feel wanted.
Banning abortion isn’t the solution.
The solution is including people with disabilities in the discussion of their own bodies.
That means bringing disabled voices to the forefront when we ave these discussions. It means giving people with disabilities the trust we give able bodied women to make choices about their bodies.
The solution is asking us we feel. The solution is valuing disabled lives, no matter what, and giving the people who are already here the chance to make the best choices for themselves, leaving them to live their best lives.
I’ve had friends who chose to keep their child with a disability – and they’ve been asked repeatedly “are you going to keep it?”
Because there’s a perception that disabled lives aren’t worth living.
The conservatives who are pushing this bill don’t value disabled lives. They might say that a disabled person is a special gift from God, but the behaviors of conservative politicians and their supporters towards people with disabilities is proof enough that this isn’t about disability.
To many conservatives, people with disabilities are simply sucking the pool dry of money. We’re taking advantage of a medical system that consistently denies us coverage (and this is a huge part of why the ACA is so important, and they keep trying to take THAT away.) Rick Santorum has a disabled son, and he rallied AGAINST the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Using disability in this context ISN’T ABOUT SUPPORTING OR VALUING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. If it were, then we would see a lot more support for adults with disabilities. Support for people who have reached the age where their parents insurance no longer covers them, or fo those who can’t find a place to live because accessible housing is both overbearingly expensive, and difficult to find. We would see more support for students with disabilities in elementary, secondary and higher education.
We would see change. As it is, I only see disability addressed when it benefits able bodied politicians. Rarely does anyone in power choose to support those of us who live our lives with disabilities because we deserve the support. Either our bodies are used as examples for why/why not abortion, or our bodies are used to show why we need to have death with dignity laws – laws which many people with disabilities do not support because without real boundaries, disabled lives are in danger from those statutes.
So, as I said in 2013, as I have continued saying throughout my time on Feminist Sonar, and as a pro-choice disabled woman: leave disabled bodies and disabled lives out of your abortion debates.
I say this to both sides – because until a disabled life is valued as a disabled life, not as a tool to be used to tug at heartstrings or guilt people into agreeing with one side or another, until people with disabilities are heard on both sides of the aisle, you’re not actually taking stands for the rights of people with disabilities.
We’re just being treated as pawns in a game of who gets control. And that is unacceptable.
Instead of using people with disabilities to make politicized statements about a procedure, we should be focusing on creating a world where able bodied and disabled people are seen as valued. We should be focusing not on the reasons of what fetuses should gain entry into this world (or how, or who chooses what) but focusing on the people who are already here, fighting for equality.
{{Comments Are Closed For Obvious Reasons}}
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.