Wednesday, November 2, 2011

NaBloPoMo Day 2: Bread and Amendment 26

Day 2, yay me.


I know, this is such a sad-looking photo. But I'm putting it up just for record-keeping purposes. I love to cook and bake, but for whatever reason, have never been successful at baking yeast breads. I now have an abundance of bread flour that I'd like to use up soon, so I've been gingerly trying my hand at yeast bread recipes.

This was my attempt at Japanese cream-filled bread ("cream pan"). Aside from the obvious spillage, the bread itself was kind of dense, but not too bad taste-wise. Well, I'll keep trying.

On a more serious note, as I've started to read up on progressive and feminist issues, the topic of abortion has caught my eye. First, it's an issue personal to me, as it is for many women. But also, on a general feminist level, I feel quite outraged and dismayed at what's going on in Mississippi and elsewhere.

Next Tuesday, November 8th, Mississippi voters will decide on Amendment 26, which will define a fertilized egg as a legal person (much like how a corporation is a legal person), which makes abortion and some other means of birth control, as well as possibly some miscarriages, murder.

This is apparently the work of a movement within the anti-abortion contingent that call themselves "Personhood." This is just insane. How does a mass of cells with the potential of life trump the rights of a living woman or girl?? How can you possibly charge a woman who suffers a miscarriage because she slipped and fell with murder, because maybe she shouldn't have walked on a slippery sidewalk or wore shoes that some might consider too high? (I've grown fond of 4-inch heels and even though I'm not the pregnant one, I take offense at anyone who challenges a woman's right to wear whatever shoes she wants to.)

It seems the initiative is likely to pass, and there are others states considering such measures. How is this getting done without more general knowledge of it and outrage against it?!?

About the personal part - I was a teen mom, pregnant at age 15. I did seriously consider abortion. I knew I didn't have the means to raise a child, and I knew my boyfriend at the time, age 16, didn't have the means to support us. I was naive, ignorant and uneducated (about reproductive health, options, etc.), and ultimately I was unable to get an abortion. Fortunately for me, I was able to rely on a family willing to support me, us, through it all and now my son is grown and is finishing college. But just because my story has a happy ending or because my son will likely grow up to be a productive member of society doesn't mean it wouldn't have been right for me to have the choice to abort.

I hope to be able to speak more intelligently, less emotionally, about this soon and help spread the word. In the meantime, these have been good resources and food for thought:

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