I am sure this post is going to seriously piss a few people off, and this is the beauty of a democratic country and freedom of expression – you are entitled to be pissed off and I am entitled to piss you off. So, we can all be pissed off together, because I am seriously frustrated, that is too tame, I am seriously enraged by the events of this past week’s religious zealotry, and frankly, stupidity, aimed at the Grantleigh matric student’s profoundly impressive art exhibition.

This type of black and white thinking, the absolute inability for religious fanatics to see beyond their ever-present self-righteousness, is something that irks me to my core. Now, before I get labelled a ‘blasphemer’, ‘heretic’, ‘infidel’ or even ‘satanist’, I am not without faith, but I do not believe that some humans were put on this earth to regulate all others based on their religious beliefs. I am not saying that religious factions do not have the right to a point of view, but that point of view should not be allowed to unduly influence the process of law-making.

One arena where religion has absolutely no right to influence laws is the arena of women’s reproductive rights, especially contraception and abortion.

Conservative News: Hundreds Protest Alabama Abortion Ban

While there are still many many places that have incredibly restrictive laws around women’s sexual and reproductive rights, and in some cases, certain of those are becoming more stringent, like Alabama. In the past months, two first world western countries have only just granted rights to women to choose what they do with their own bodies (reproductive and termination rights). New South Wales, Australias largest and most populous state and Northern Ireland have decriminalised abortion.

Let me repeat that: D-E-C-R-I-M-I-N-A-L-I-S-E-D abortion, not relaxed restrictions, or expanded the existing rights, two months ago a woman would be a criminal in the eyes of the law, and would be actively prosecuted, should she be found to have aborted – even if the foetus had been medically diagnosed as a pregnancy that would result in a stillborn or a product of incest or that woman having been raped.

Imagine that, put yourself in that woman’s shoes. She has been raped violently and now she is pregnant, an experience that should be full of joy and hope is filled with horror and disgust, she is carrying the product of her attack, she is violated all over again. She turns to her doctor for help, and once more her rapist, and the laws that should protect her, victimise her as she will be made a criminal should she terminate the pregnancy. So for nine months, she is terrorised by her attack in the form of a pregnancy she never wanted but has been forced to carry out.

Consider the teenage girl whose father has been sexually abusing her since she was eight, but now at fourteen, she is pregnant and by her own father. She has not told anyone about the abuse but now she cannot hide it, her belly is growing and people are beginning to notice. Social workers are brought in, she is removed from the home and taken to a place of safety. She asks if she has to have the baby, and despite the genetics risks to the baby from the incestual conception, she too will be a criminal for terminating. So, at fourteen she must go through with the pregnancy and at fourteen, a child herself, decide what to do with the child that she and her father have created after it is born.

Or think of the mom who has five children already, and a husband who refuses to use contraception, they barely make ends meet as it is and now there will be another mouth to feed. Instead of having the choice to terminate and prevent yet another child born into a cycle of poverty and disadvantage, she has no choice and so she has her sixth child and all she can do is hope for the best.

In some countries, none of these moms’ has a voice, even over their own bodies. And why? Because of the blurring of lines between state and church. Instead of honouring the rights of all citizens, the laws are made to satisfy the beliefs of a few fundamentalists.

And the irony is not lost on me that more often than not the ones who fill the seats of power in religious structures will never have to worry about being the victim of the laws they espouse. Because the majority of leaders in formal religion are men.

Archbishop: New South Wales abortion legalization ‘a defeat for humanity’

Archbishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Another reason why religion has no place interfering in women’s wombs is that topics such as abortion are not black and white – they are complicated and personal. I dare you to show me a woman who has had an abortion who has done so on a whim, without a darn good reason for choosing to terminate. No woman waltzes around terminating pregnancies without a care in the world.

Which is why I have always found the term Pro-Life a weird one because it is so very manipulative, and so often chanted by religious fanatics, as it implies that those who are Pro-Choice are against life and anyone against life must be wrong and monstrous. But ask your self these two questions;

1. Does Pro-Life mean only pro the life of one person? I counter that if you are truly pro-life you should also be empathetic and concerned for the mother’s life, not just the foetus she carries in her body. See not so black and white anymore is it? Not so clean-cut? It is complicated and blurry and hard to absolutely hit the nail on the head of right and wrong in this instance.
2. Does Pro-Choice mean pro-abortion? I don’t believe this is true either. A person who is Pro-Choice might never choose to terminate a pregnancy of their own, even if the circumstances would make this the logical course of action. Why is this? Because of the operative word; C-H-O-I-C-E. Being Pro-Choice doesn’t automatically mean you would have an abortion, or even agree with abortion, all it means is you believe in the right of women to choose what is best for them and their sexual and reproductive health – regardless of anyone else’s beliefs.

So, if you are one of those individuals whose religious views come rushing out of your mouth before you have had a chance to engage your grey matter, please for the love of all things Holy, don’t, rather take a moment to consider the full picture, put yourself in someone else’s shoes and consider that perhaps your views and beliefs are your own and your’s alone.

And when it comes to abortion, this should be a choice made by a woman after consulting her partner, her doctor and her God. You and your religion have no place weighing in on this choice, especially at a legislative level.

Or as Jesus said in John 8:7:

“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”

Leigh Tayler is a writer, a Leo, a feminist, a fan of The Walking Dead, a lover of all things unicorn and nearly succumbs to rage strokes on the daily. Oh, and she also happens to be a mother to one small feral child. She wears her heart on her sleeve and invariably tells it like it is, the good the bad and the ugly. She juggles her writing, her family, her sanity in-between a demanding career in advertising. She has no shame in sharing her harebrained and high-strung anecdotes on her experience of motherhood, no sugar coating, no gloss, just her blunt truth with a healthy side order of sarcasm. Find her on her blog, The Ugly Truth of Being a Mom.

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