theanti90smovement:

it’s pretty fucked up that there’s a lot of people in this world who believe that people do not have a right to food, water and shelter and if they dont have the money to pay for it they dont deserve it

Dear Mr. Mourdock,

Sometimes I still flinch when I’m touched a certain way, even if it’s the loving embrace of my husband. I can’t stand to watch TV shows where rape is the central plot line. Even some seasons of the year are harder for me. Those of us who are sexual assault survivors call these triggers. We spend our lives — the lives we lead after the attack — avoiding and managing these triggers.

A congressional debate shouldn’t have to come with a trigger warning. But apparently, Richard, yours should. Because in Tuesday’s debate for Indiana’s U.S. Senate seat, you said this Tuesday night during a debate in New Albany, Indiana.

“I believe that life begins at conception…The only exception I have, to have an abortion, is in that case of the life of the mother. I’ve struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”

Rape and sexual assault are complicated experiences for survivors. Some of us fight, kick, scream, and resist at every moment. Some of us eventually give in to save our own lives or to manage the horror. Some of us know that what is happening is rape, others of us just know it is wrong, but don’t have the words to describe why. Some of us push the memories down and try to forget, others of us battle openly with the nightmares and scars every day. There is no one right way to survive. There is no one right way to feel.

As we heal, we learn not to judge ourselves or to judge our fellow survivors, because we learn that judgment can wound as deeply as assault. If a woman finds herself pregnant after a rape, we do not judge the choices she makes.

I am descended from American slaves. I have foremothers who found themselves pregnant with children whose birth increased the wealth of the very man who enslaved and raped them. Somehow, through the angst and misery of that experience some of those women found a way to love and embrace the children they bore from rape. So I do not doubt the compassion or judge the choice of a survivor who carries a rape pregnancy to term.

But the whole point is choice. Consent. You see, Mr. Mourdock, the violation of rape is more than physical. Rapists strip women of our right to choose, of our right to say no, of our right to control what is happening to our bodies. Most assailants tell us it is our fault. They tell us to be silent. Sometimes they even tell us it’s God’s will. That is the core violation of rape– it takes away choice.

Richard, you believe it is fine to ignore a women’s right to choose because of your interpretation of divinity. Sound familiar?

Let me explain something to you. When we survive sexual assault, we are the gift. When we survive, when we go on to love, to work, to speak out, to have fun, to laugh, to dance, to cry, to live, when we do that, we defeat our attackers. For a moment, they strip us of our choices. As we heal, we take our choices back. We are the gift to ourselves, our families, our communities, and our nation when we survive.

Now let me say this very clearly to you Mr Mourdock, and to all of your shameless endorsers: we did not survive an attack on our consent just to turn around and give up our right to choose to you. Not without a fight.

Are you sure you want to have that fight?

Sincerely,

Melissa

(Source: tv.msnbc.com)

(Source: kinkyturtle)

iwentnorthdowneasthastings:

So,

my government is making it incredibly difficult to receive birth control yet expects me to not get an abortion when i accidentally become pregnant.

A lot of men will call me a slut if i DO happen to take birth control.

As a woman, i am expected to be a mother and raise children, but will not receive any paid time off from work to take care of them.

If i leave my children at a day care because i need to keep working to feed and take care of them, i am seen as a bad mother.

As a mother, i am less likely to be hired because of the fact that i have children.

The people who control all these factors are men, men who have no idea what it’s like to be a woman.

Man, this sucks.

(Source: ca2lock)

^ My facebook status. HA HA HA WHAT’S THE BET THAT ANYONE WILL GIVE A FLYING FUCK. Seriously, make your bets. I post a picture of the apple pie I ate for dessert and I got 14 likes. But a petition asking the Turkish government to stop imposing a 4-week abortion ban? Sharing the page “Campaign for LGBT marriage and adoption in New Zealand”?  A status about attending the SlutWalk?