Sticky Subject.

As an initial disclaimer, I know nothing about politics. I KNOW i dont understand everything involved and that is why I usually avoid talking about it in the hopes of avoiding making a fool out of myself or pointless confrontation. AS another disclaimer if I say anything to offend anyone i'm sorry, but I'm just going to write what comes to mind. Reading Vivan Dames "Chamorro Women, Self-Determination, and the Politics of Abortion in Guam" left me very confused regarding my opinion. I've always been a bit uncomfortable with the fact that the government has control over so much of our lives, even down to our very bodies. For a woman, I think the body means so much more than just the physical definition. A woman's body is a source of life, and I suppose what the Chamorro women were trying to do was protect the life that comes from a woman, but I still feel that a woman should be able to choose when and what life comes from their body. The ramifications of a ban on abortion are terrifying. Imagin a world in which abortion is completely illegal... If a woman is abducted and raped, and becomes pregnant with her rapist's child, she must, BY LAW, bear that child. Child birth is a physically and emotionally demanding event, but adding the psychological hardship of bearing a child that belongs to someone who has abused a woman and violated her body would be like punishment. I'm sure i'm not the only person in this class who knows someone who has been raped, and if you do know a victim, you know the effect that event had on them... and if you try to imagine what would have happened if they had been FORCED to bear the child of their attacker... Well I cringe at the thought. Now this is all very dark and gloomy, but what left my confused from the reading is that I could kind of understand the Chamorro women's perspective. Which left me with an internal dilemma on my opinion.

Another interesting thing that occurred to me was that I had never heard of this before. I have heard of Roe v Wade, I've heard about other movements/fights/attempted appeals/and whatnot against and for abortion laws but never have the groups or races of the groups involved been specified... let alone the gender. I think its interesting that its truly an assumption that all women who identify as feminists would be against abortion, when clearly there are diverse opinions and the Chamorros are a great example of that.