Choice

Today, two more Texas abortion providers closed their doors, including one in McAllen.  The only one, in fact, remaining in south Texas.  Women in the Valley will now have to travel all the way to Corpus Christi.  I would appreciate it, Dearly Beloved, if you would ponder that for a moment.  Remember that there is a waiting period and a mandatory ultrasound.  All in all, it takes two or three visits to the abortion provider before an abortion will actually be provided.  And now, for a woman in McAllen, Harlingen, or other points in the vicinity of the Mexican border, a trek of 150 miles has become mandatory.

The Mexican border is a lot closer.  Just saying.  Drugs, both street and prescription, are readily available there.  I have no personal knowledge of the quality of medical care available in Mexico, but I am sure that there are abortion providers.  Legal and otherwise.

Maybe it's time to have a little talk about choice.  Proponents of the Second Amendment are always on about their Constitutional right to own, carry, buy, sell and  trade whatever weapons they choose.  I have a choice when it comes to owning a gun.  I choose not to.  After Jim's suicide, even the most rampantly enthusiastic supporters of the Second Amendment will allow that they understand why I don't want guns around.

The right to obtain a safe and legal abortion is just as valid as the right to own a gun.  Just as Constitutionally protected.  Any time people, even a majority of people, evince a desire to impose even a tiny scrap of control over the purchase or ownership of guns, the defenders of the Second Amendment rise up en masse.  "Infringement!" they howl;  "slippery slope!"  And yet, there has been infringement after infringement of abortion rights in recent years, until there are many states where it is virtually impossible to get one.  Many states, including Texas, are only too happy to grease that slope when it comes to abortion.

A person adamantly opposed to actually having an abortion can still be pro-choice.  I choose for me, you choose for you.  The same way we choose whether or not to own a gun.  We could change our minds.  I was not opposed to having guns in the house until Jim used one to kill himself.  Some of my friends think I woke up to the dangers of gun ownership; some think I just went all ("understandably") girlie and got scared of the nasty things that go bang and kill people.  Still...my choice.

I think we should be on top of this erosion of abortion rights.  Which right will be under attack next?  Free speech?  Religion?  Gun ownership?  If one right goes down, might the rest not follow?