When a person enables the creation of a new helpless yet sentient living being, they should be responsible for taking care of this creature and ensuring its wellbeing. Be it a puppy, a pet rabbit or a human baby. But the question is who exactly ought to be held responsible for children—their biological parents or the society that forces people to give birth against their will? [Read more…]
Nowadays I do not read news on a daily basis anymore. It’s just too depressing. But I do have to catch up with the news at least every now and then, because I prefer to have at least some clue about what’s going on in the world. Basically, getting sad and angry roughly once per week is better than experiencing it on a daily basis. So I looked at the news today. [Read more…]
People who want to be parents are the ones who should be having children. What to do with their reproductive organs and life in general should be each person’s individual choice. Unfortunately, some bigots disagree with these, in my opinion, obvious ideas. [Read more…]
Nobody has abortions for fun. Nobody wants to have an abortion. And I swear that, as a pro-choice advocate, I do not get any sadistic pleasure from knowing that there are late-term abortions happening in the world. I do want there to be as few abortions as possible. And I also want elective abortions to be done as soon as possible—when a pregnancy is terminated at the pregnant person’s request for reasons other than maternal health or fetal disease, it should not be a late-term abortion.* Nobody wants or enjoys abortions, and there is no evil conspiracy to abort as many fetuses as possible.
There is some fearmongering among pro-life activists that people will decide to have late-term abortions on a whim just because they got bored of being pregnant after a few months. Here’s what literally nobody is thinking: “My belly is starting to get big, this is getting annoying, because it disturbs my ability to exercise, I think I will get an abortion today morning, I’d like it to be quick, so that I can get to my hairdresser’s appointment today afternoon.” This is something that never happens. In reality, late-term abortions are performed on people** who wanted a child but lost their baby due to medical complications. [Read more…]
Mandatory parenthood is a trap that can turn out to be hard to avoid for a person who doesn’t want children. In my opinion, if somebody doubts about whether they want children, it is safer to stay childfree, because regretting not having a child is better than regretting being a parent. If you wanted a child but don’t have one, that’s certainly sad, but you can still find other meaningful activities that can make your life happy and fulfilling. If you didn’t want a child but ended up being forced to play the role of a parent against your will, then that’s tragic, because every child deserves a happy childhood and loving parents. [Read more…]
A week ago I had a laparoscopic bilateral salpingectomy. In case you don’t already know these medical terms, salpingectomy is the surgical removal of one (unilateral) or both (bilateral) fallopian tubes. And laparoscopy is an operation performed in the abdomen or pelvis using small incisions (usually 0.5–1.5 cm) with the aid of a camera. There are a number of advantages to the patient with laparoscopic surgery versus the more common, open procedure. These include reduced pain due to smaller incisions, reduced hemorrhaging, and shorter recovery time. The obvious drawback—laparoscopic surgeries require extra medical equipment and are a bit longer, which means a more expensive medical bill. In the transphobic and backwards country where I live neither the state nor insurance companies pay for the procedures that are necessary for people who are either trans or don’t want children. Thus I had to pay from my own pocket. Lucky me. [Read more…]