#bluewavenewwave

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Your mental health is more important than your social media activism. 

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Reproductive Rights - Not all women want the same things

Not all women want to be married.

Not all women will have a male partner. 

Not all women want children.

To doctors and health care providers, I agree that it is important for women to think about their options before making a decision, and that it is important for doctors to provide all the information that they can, but when a woman makes a decision, that decision needs to be respected.

If a woman says she wants a tubal ligation and/or an endometrial ablation, and there are no significant health risks, she should receive the procedure.

Doctors should not refuse to perform these procedures based on marital status, age, or number of children the woman may or may not already have. If a woman says she does not want children that should be respected and it should not be questioned or refused. 

These procedures should not be refused based on the possibility of a future partner wanting children. Women should not be denied a medical procedure that she is sure she wants just because someone else doubts her decision making. 

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Can I get this off my chest? Back in 2016-2017 I was a sophomore in high school, I was taking a government class in school, and it was the 2016 election. My family has always been very conservative, and I’d always just gone along with it, but I was never actively into politics. Because of the election and my government class, I got really invested into politics. Blindly following my family’s politics, I supported Trump, started obsessively watching conservative YouTube videos, and exclusively watched Fox News. I would get home from school, get on the computer and watch about 4-5 hours everyday of videos from people like Paul Joseph Watson, Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro, Milo Yiannopolis, Mark Dice, Steven Crowder, Students for Life, and Live Action. And then we’d all watch (either baseball or) Fox News during dinner and before going to bed. I was literally obsessed with being conservative. I became extremely pro-life and anti-abortion, even though I was very pro-choice in middle school and freshman year. Never in my life have I ever wanted children, or really even liked kids. But to add substance to my pro-life stance, I pretended I wanted children, and told people I wanted to have kids when I was older, even though I knew I didn’t. I’ve been an atheist (and anti-theist) since I was six, but because I was so determined to be a good conservative, I started reciting the “under god” line during the pledge of allegiance in school for a few days, even though I never had before. I even tried to convince myself that maybe I could follow some form of religion. I believed in aliens, why not god? That didn’t last for more than a few hours, but I was so obsessed with trying to fit in as a conservative, I was willing to try anything. For the end of the year essay in government class, I wrote about the “popularity of the conservative movement” (yikes). My life literally revolved around politics and my entire identity was conservative. I was completely brainwashed and I didn’t know it. The thing is, in middle school and freshman year, I lived for music and celebrity/Hollywood news, and I spent most of my time fangirling over my favorite artists. My life was music. Then in 2016 none of my favorite artists were putting out new music/content, and I just got bored and looked for something else to obsess over. And I chose politics. 

My life in middle school and freshman year revolved around music. It may seem a bit pathetic, but my entire life revolved around One Direction and Taylor Swift. My life had structure based around the routine music and content I’d get from them. Every year I’d get a One Direction album in  November, and every other year (on the even numbered years) in October or November, I’d get a Taylor Swift album, and every year there was at least one tour. And then in 2016 there was no One Direction tour and no Taylor Swift tour. November 2016 was the first year in a long time there was no new One Direction album. 2016 was also the first even numbered year in her career that Taylor hadn’t put out a new album. It was November 2016, my structure was gone, I was bored, and I had no new music to obsess over. But there was an election. And thus my new obsession began.

In middle school and freshman year I never truly identified politically one way or another, but I knew deep down I was liberal. I just would never admit it out loud to anyone because of how conservative my parents were and how much they always said they hated liberals. But in middle school and freshman year, I was liberal, I was a feminist, I was pro-choice, pro-environment, and pro-LGBT. The only politics I ever cared about or got involved in were LGBT issues. I would write LGBT essays for school, or even just for myself. I’ve known I was bi since I was 10, and LGBT issues have always been my #1 political focus, even when I thought I was conservative. 

I didn’t switch to conservatism until November 2016. I even said to myself at the time “I know one day I’ll be liberal again”. In reality, I always was liberal, I was just desperately trying to convince myself and everyone around me that I was conservative. 

It got really bad in 2017. I spent the entire year watching conservative YouTube videos and Fox News. I think I watched so much conservative content because I was trying to make sure the brainwashing stuck. I think deep down I always subconsciously knew that I didn’t agree, but when all you consume all day everyday is conservative views, you’re going to convince yourself you do agree. I convinced myself I was conservative, I convinced myself I didn’t really care about the environment, I convinced myself I was pro-life, I convinced myself that I wasn’t a feminist, I convinced myself that I was panphobic and transphobic. I brainwashed myself completely and I still hate myself for it. I had a daily journal notebook and almost everyday in 2017 I would write something about politics, or Trump, or the videos I would watch. I think I was trying to write it down as much as possible to try to convince myself it’s what I believed. I was brainwashed but I was still trying to subconsciously fight the side of me that knew those weren’t my true beliefs. Maybe it was because I knew my parents had a habit of going through my things and reading my journals and I wanted to convince them I was conservative. 

For my birthday in 2017 in November I got Harry Styles’ debut album, Niall Horan’s “Flicker”, and Taylor Swift’s “reputation”. And I got really back into my fandoms. In 2018 I made a One Direction/Taylor Swift fan account on Twitter, and I was constantly getting content from all my favorite artists. Harry, Taylor, and Niall had tours, and Liam and Louis were putting out singles. 

In 2018 I still considered myself to be conservative, but every time I’d watch a conservative YouTube video I realized, and admitted to myself, I wasn’t agreeing with any of it. Every time I’d try to watch a video or Fox News, I’d be rolling my eyes and disagreeing. So I stopped altogether. I completely ignored politics, I stopped watching political YouTube videos and politicized news. I spent most of my time being involved in my fandoms online or watching baseball. 

In senior year (2018-2019) I became pro-choice again, and a feminist again. Part of me felt like I was lifting a horrible weight off of myself, and another part of me felt like I was admitting defeat. I’ve always been stubborn, and after two years of being brainwashed into believing I was conservative and hated liberals, it was hard to admit that I myself was in fact liberal. So I held onto the panphobia and transphobia. For a brief period of time in 2019 I was a pro-LGB panphobic bisexual terf (and yeah I hate myself for that, too). I had my beliefs but I never got involved in politics. Senior year in English I wrote my essay on LGBT issues and rights, and I don’t think I would’ve done that junior or sophomore year. During the summer of 2019, I watched MTV’s “Are You The One?” season 8 (fluid season) and it all just clicked. It was literally overnight. I stopped being panphobic. I stopped being transphobic. I stopped being a terf. My sudden switch back to liberal views really does prove to me that I always was liberally minded, and once I stopped trying to brainwash myself into thinking I was conservative, I was able to truly admit it to myself. 

I never posted my conservative “beliefs” anywhere online or told them to anyone at school, or left hate comments anywhere or discriminated against anyone. They were just thoughts in my head, and occasionally in my journals. 

I wanted to post this because I’ve spent the last year or so trying to desperately erase all evidence that I ever identified conservatively. I scratched out/covered up all my political journal entries from when I was conservative, tore up and recycled all my old school papers where I’d mentioned I was conservative, and painted over some conservative quotes/names/references on a collage my sister gave me for Christmas (that one I feel bad about, but I couldn’t bare to see those things represent me anymore). I even ripped out journal entries where I reflected on overcoming being conservative, and how I feel so much better believing in and supporting what’s right (or, well, left… get it?). I wrote that the highlight of my decade was becoming liberal again, supporting communities I’d turned my back on, and becoming a better person. I ripped out and threw those pages away because I wanted to forget I ever thought I was conservative. I want to stop pretending it never happened, acknowledge my faults and mistakes, and recognize my growth. Because I’m proud of that growth.

I wanted to create this blog to focus on politics in a healthy way, and share ideas that help people, rather than hurt them. This is not a liberal blog run by someone who has only known liberal politics and grew up in a liberal household. This is a liberal blog run by a liberal who grew up surrounded by conservative politics and has spent time analyzing both sets of views, both sides. This is a liberal blog run by someone who knows just how bad conservative brainwashing can be, someone who experienced it first hand. This is a liberal blog run by a liberal who wants to stand up for what’s right. 

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Reproductive Rights - Medical Sterilization Protection

I propose a protective medical legislation that would protect women from doctors’ personal and religious bias when it comes to sterilization procedures.

Women aged 18 and older should receive tubal ligations and endometrial ablations upon request regardless of age, marital or relationship status, and the amount of children they have or whether they have children or not. Women should be able to have tubal ligations and endometrial ablations without the consent or knowledge of their spouse or partner. A woman’s decision to get sterilized should be respected and taken seriously and it should be entirely her own - the procedure staying between her and her doctor.

For too long in this country - and around the world - women’s rights have been overlooked and disregarded, especially when it comes to health and reproductive health. Countless women have shared their experience of having sterilization procedures refused by multiple doctors over many years. Doctors have refused women sterilization procedures based on their age, marital or relationship status, and for how many children they have or don’t have. Women have been told that they will one day have a husband who will want to have children, and that they have no right to take that possibility away from their future spouse. Women have been told that they will change their mind later and that they will regret having the procedure done. Women have been told that they do not have enough children to make that decision, or if their children were to pass away that they would want to have more children. Doctors have told women that they will not perform the procedure because it is not what they would choose to do. Doctors have told women that they will not perform the procedure because it violates their religious beliefs. 

By telling a woman that she cannot have a medical procedure performed based on a hypothetical future spouses’ desire to have children is irresponsible, unprofessional, and blatantly misogynistic. By refusing to perform sterilization procedures because a future husband may want children tells women that they do not own their own bodies - they can’t make their own decisions about their own body, their own lives, their own future. It tells women that their body does not belong to them, and instead it belongs to a man who they may have never met before, and that they may never meet, given the fact that not all women want to be married, nor will all women choose to become married. 

By telling a woman that she cannot have a sterilization procedure performed because she will change her mind tells women - and society - that we cannot trust women. It tells women that we cannot trust women to make decisions, nor can we trust women to follow through with or believe in those decisions. Again, this is blatant misogyny.

Women’s decisions about their own bodies, lives, and futures should be respected and taken seriously. They should not be questioned, ignored, or disregarded, and certainly not based on person or religious biases.

I am not asking for a solution to misogyny. All I am asking - and all I am proposing - is that women have legislation to protect them from doctors’ personal and religious biases preventing them from receiving sterilization procedures.

For those who are concerned about abortion, and call for abortion bans, and wish for an end to and criminalization of abortion - consider this: (I am pro-choice)

Women who don’t want children don’t want children, and an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy is not likely going to change that.

The same women who request sterilization and are refused are the same women who will seek an abortion if they become pregnant.

Given the fact that abortions are so easily accessible, it would only make sense that sterilization be just as easy to obtain.

It makes more sense to prevent a life from ever coming into existence than to have a life begin to develop and then terminate it. It seems obvious that sterilization would in fact prevent abortions from happening, and that women should have easy access to sterilization and not be refused these procedures.

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Social Media Activism

The average person who is not in politics is only going to put their focus into 2-4 political/social issues.

Spending your time, energy, and effort on about 2-4 political/social issues is more sustainable than “focusing” on every issue in the world.

If someone is straight and black, they are going to prioritize black issues over LGBT issues.

If someone is gay and white, they are going to prioritize LGBT issues over black issues.

It’s better to give 40% of your focus and effort to 2-3 issues than it is to give 2% of your effort to 20 different issues.

It’s not “selective activism” to focus on one or two issues and actually put energy into them, because it’s not activism at all to just retweet threads about what’s going on in the world or putting the issues in the world carrd in your bio. (Both retweeting threads and carrds and putting important issues carrds in your bio is a very good thing to do and can be helpful, but it is not activism.)

You should never feel guilty about prioritizing issues that directly affect you and your communities over issues that don’t. You shouldn’t let people who try to guilt trip you about your efforts let you feel like you’re not doing or caring enough.

Chances are, they are the people who aren’t really doing anything to actually help anyone.

If someone tweets something like “if your timeline isn’t full of carrds and petitions, you’re not following the right people” or “where’s the energy for (x issues) that everybody had for (y issue)” or “your selective activism is showing”, they’re probably the kind of people who is only supporting these issues to brag about their morals and try to make themselves look better than others. Social media “activism” is often used to tear other people down to bring themselves up. This kind of activism is toxic and just for show. (And yet, I guess it’s better than no activism at all, because at least if people are retweeting the issues just to brag that they retweeted the issues, the issues are still getting spread regardless of the reason behind it.)

Yes, it is a good thing to retweet petitions and informational threads, but it gets problematic when it’s weaponized as a badge of moral high ground and used to guilt trip and gaslight other people. 

Feminist accounts are going to focus on women’s issues.

LGBT accounts are going to focus on LGBT issues.

Mental health accounts are going to focus on mental health issues. 

Environmental accounts are going to focus on environmental issues.

This is completely normal and completely fine. 

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bluewavenewwave Masterpost

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/bluewavenewwave

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1) Bodily Autonomy

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/1

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/bodily-autonomy-1

2) Reproductive Rights and Child free 

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/2

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/reproductive-rights-2

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/child-free-2

3) LGBTQ+ Rights 

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/3

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/lgbtq%2B-rights-3

4) Corporal punishment

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/4

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/corporal-punishment-4

5) TNR for Feral Cats 

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/5

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/cats-5

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/tnr-5

6) Police Dogs and Horses

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/6

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/police-horse

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/police-dog

7) Feminism 

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/7

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/feminism-7

8) Hallmark Movies

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/8

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/hallmark-8

9) Attraction 

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/9

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/attraction-9

10) Cultural Appropriation vs Cultural Appreciation

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/10

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/cultural-appropriation-10

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/cultural-appreciation-10

11) Social Media Activism

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/11

https://bluewavenewwave.tumblr.com/tagged/social-media-activism-11

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Reproductive Rights - Gender Equality and the Child free Life

I want to make it clear that as a supporter of the equality of all genders and sexes and of reproductive and pro-choice rights, I support resources and options for child-free people of all sexes and genders, whether that person is assigned female at birth, or assigned male at birth. This means I support abortion, tubal ligation, endometrial ablation, vasectomies, paper abortion, and the abolition of court-enforced child support from either parent. 

Choosing to live a child free life is a valid personal choice with lots of benefits. No one should be forced to be a parent if they do not want children. Sex should not have to mean parenthood. Sterilization for both men and women - vasectomies and tubal ligations and endometrial ablations should be provided without refusal, question, or hesitation due to any personal bias or belief. The child free life should be taken seriously and be validated. Abortion is a fundamental right for women. Gender equality needs to be supported in the concept of child free living. Women should not be forced to be parents when they do not want to have children, and men should not be forced to be parents when they do not want to have children. Sex should not automatically mean parenthood. In the event of an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy, women need to have access to abortion, and so do men. For men, it would not be a physical abortion, but rather a paper abortion. A paper abortion is the proposed ability of the biological father, before the birth of the child, to opt out of any rights, privileges, and responsibilities toward the child, including financial support. This would mean that, before a child is born, a man would be able to absolve himself of both the privileges and demands of fatherhood. Abortions for women and paper abortions for men are a step in the right direction towards gender equality. Parenthood should always be voluntary, and sexual activity should not deem absolutely parenthood. Saying that women should have the ability to choose to live a child free life but that men should not be able to make that same decision is intrinsically unequal. Women should not be told to not be sexually active if they want to avoid parenthood as an excuse for abortion refusal, and the same principal goes for men seeking paper abortion. Women should not be forced into parenthood in the face of an unwanted pregnancy, and neither should men. Gender equality means including abortion rights and access for both men and women, in the forms of physical abortions, and paper abortions. 

“If women’s partial responsibility for pregnancy does not obligate them to support a fetus, then men’s partial responsibility for pregnancy does not obligate them to support a resulting child.” (Elizabeth Brake in the Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2005)

Yes, I understand that a fetus is different from a child that has been born, but supporting paper abortion for men and individuals who were assigned male at birth, will also help bring equality for women and people assigned female at birth and abortion rights. I do not believe that a man/person assigned male at birth has the right to tell a woman/person assigned female at birth that they cannot have an abortion, even if they have fathered the fetus. I believe, in turn, that the person who has conceived and is carrying the fetus should not be able to tell the person who has fathered the child that they cannot chose to have a paper abortion. No one should be forced into having a child, whether they are the person who is carrying the fetus, or the person who has fathered the fetus. Abortion rights and the right to live a child-free life is a right that extends to all people, whether they are male, female, assigned male at birth, or assigned female at birth. 

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Reproductive Rights - Abortion is important for women

Abortion is important for women. Women need to have the option to get an abortion. But even before that, women need to have the option to get sterilized. Women need to be able to get sterilization surgeries such as tubal ligations and endometrial ablations. This way, they won’t have to make a decision on abortion because they won’t be able to get pregnant. And for women who know they don’t want children and know they will never want children, this is vital.

Reproductive rights and women’s rights to choose are being attacked and threatened. We can’t let that happen, but now it’s even more important for women to be able to get sterilization without question and without hesitation. 

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Bodily autonomy - Misogynistic Censorship

Both men and women have nipples. The only difference is that women have breasts. But it’s never the breast that is censored, it is just the nipple. How is a woman’s nipple any different than a man’s nipple?

Breasts are not genitalia. Breasts are not sexual organs. Breasts do not play a role in reproduction.Breasts are not sexual organs. Breasts do not play a part in sexual reproduction. Female breasts are only censored because people are attracted to them. Plenty of people have foot fetishes, but we're not censoring feet.

How would you handle an assigned-female who identifies as male? An assigned-male who identifies as female? A non-binary person? A flat chested woman? A man with man boobs?

If a TV station censors female nipples they are enabling institutionalized misogyny and should be ashamed. Would you rather pay an FCC fine for standing up for what’s right, fighting for equality, or do you want to get rich off of institutionalized misogyny and oppression? Wouldn’t it be a shame if everyone stopped watching your channel because you’re misogynistic.  

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Reproductive Rights Masterpost

Reproductive Rights - Women are being refused medical sterilization procedures 

Women are being refused sterilization procedures - tubal ligations and endometrial ablations - for any and every reason a doctor chooses. 

Women are powerless against their doctors’ biases and have no real power or control over their own bodies.

From being too young, to not being married, to not having children, or not having enough children, women are being refused to take charge of their own futures because of their doctor’s personal opinions. 

Tubal ligations and endometrial ablations are minimally invasive outpatient procedures that rarely have adverse side effects. There is no medical reason a healthy adult woman shouldn’t be able to have a sterilization procedure. 

Doctors are refusing women sterilization procedures because of personal opinions, religious beliefs, and blatant misogyny.

When it comes to sterilization, women are powerless against society, men, and doctors’ misogynistic biases and personal opinions. 

It is so important for women to be able to get tubal ligations and endometrial ablations, but it is so rare for that to happen. It needs to change. 

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Reproductive Rights - Links about women’s experiences

“My Experience With Endometrial Ablation and Tubal Ligation” https://fashionistamomma.com/my-experience-with-endometrial-ablation/

The Outrageous Reasons These Women Couldn’t Get Their Tubes Tied https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9kxam7/tubal-ligation-requirements-doctor-denials

How Doctors Fail Women Who Don’t Want Children https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/sunday-review/women-sterilization-children-doctors.html

Women and Sterilization: Why Are Young Women Still Being Denied Tubal Ligation? https://thelinknewspaper.ca/article/if-youre-reading-this-sterilize-me

Doctors Reluctant to Give Young Women Permanent Birth Control

https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-xpm-2014-05-13-ct-met-sterilization-denied-20140513-story.html

Doctors Shouldn’t Be Able To Refuse Tubal Ligation https://www.headstuff.org/topical/women-tubal-ligations/

Why Is It So Hard For Some Women To Get Their Tubes Tied? https://www.chatelaine.com/health/canada-tubal-ligation/

Women discuss endometriosis: 'No one believed I could be in such pain from a period'  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/29/endometriosis-experiences-women-period

'I wanted control over my body': Woman, 27, shares yearslong fight to have tubes tied https://www.today.com/health/tubal-ligation-woman-27-shares-struggle-convince-doctors-perform-procedure-t157210 

'My body is at risk': Aussie mums denied sterilisation due to young age https://www.9news.com.au/national/a-current-affair-tubes-tied-medical-quandary-women-reproductive-rights/88e0d54a-e3b3-4b74-9d50-f463e19803d7

For Those Struggling With Endometriosis, the Pain Goes Beyond the Physical https://rewire.news/article/2018/03/15/endometriosis-pain-physical-fertility/

I love my child-free life. Why do other people have such a problem with it? https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/i-love-my-child-free-life-why-do-other-people-ncna1044866 

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Reproductive Rights - Abortion is important for women

Abortion is important for women. Women need to have the option to get an abortion. But even before that, women need to have the option to get sterilized. Women need to be able to get sterilization surgeries such as tubal ligations and endometrial ablations. This way, they won’t have to make a decision on abortion because they won’t be able to get pregnant. And for women who know they don’t want children and know they will never want children, this is vital.

Reproductive rights and women’s rights to choose are being attacked and threatened. We can’t let that happen, but now it’s even more important for women to be able to get sterilization without question and without hesitation. 

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Reproductive Rights - Medical Sterilization Protection

I propose a protective medical legislation that would protect women from doctors’ personal and religious bias when it comes to sterilization procedures.

Women aged 18 and older should receive tubal ligations and endometrial ablations upon request regardless of age, marital or relationship status, and the amount of children they have or whether they have children or not. Women should be able to have tubal ligations and endometrial ablations without the consent or knowledge of their spouse or partner. A woman’s decision to get sterilized should be respected and taken seriously and it should be entirely her own - the procedure staying between her and her doctor.

For too long in this country - and around the world - women’s rights have been overlooked and disregarded, especially when it comes to health and reproductive health. Countless women have shared their experience of having sterilization procedures refused by multiple doctors over many years. Doctors have refused women sterilization procedures based on their age, marital or relationship status, and for how many children they have or don’t have. Women have been told that they will one day have a husband who will want to have children, and that they have no right to take that possibility away from their future spouse. Women have been told that they will change their mind later and that they will regret having the procedure done. Women have been told that they do not have enough children to make that decision, or if their children were to pass away that they would want to have more children. Doctors have told women that they will not perform the procedure because it is not what they would choose to do. Doctors have told women that they will not perform the procedure because it violates their religious beliefs. 

By telling a woman that she cannot have a medical procedure performed based on a hypothetical future spouses’ desire to have children is irresponsible, unprofessional, and blatantly misogynistic. By refusing to perform sterilization procedures because a future husband may want children tells women that they do not own their own bodies - they can’t make their own decisions about their own body, their own lives, their own future. It tells women that their body does not belong to them, and instead it belongs to a man who they may have never met before, and that they may never meet, given the fact that not all women want to be married, nor will all women choose to become married. 

By telling a woman that she cannot have a sterilization procedure performed because she will change her mind tells women - and society - that we cannot trust women. It tells women that we cannot trust women to make decisions, nor can we trust women to follow through with or believe in those decisions. Again, this is blatant misogyny.

Women’s decisions about their own bodies, lives, and futures should be respected and taken seriously. They should not be questioned, ignored, or disregarded, and certainly not based on person or religious biases.

I am not asking for a solution to misogyny. All I am asking - and all I am proposing - is that women have legislation to protect them from doctors’ personal and religious biases preventing them from receiving sterilization procedures.

For those who are concerned about abortion, and call for abortion bans, and wish for an end to and criminalization of abortion - consider this: (I am pro-choice)

Women who don’t want children don’t want children, and an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy is not likely going to change that.

The same women who request sterilization and are refused are the same women who will seek an abortion if they become pregnant.

Given the fact that abortions are so easily accessible, it would only make sense that sterilization be just as easy to obtain.

It makes more sense to prevent a life from ever coming into existence than to have a life begin to develop and then terminate it. It seems obvious that sterilization would in fact prevent abortions from happening, and that women should have easy access to sterilization and not be refused these procedures.

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Reproductive Rights - Not all women want the same things

Not all women want to be married.

Not all women will have a male partner. 

Not all women want children.

To doctors and health care providers, I agree that it is important for women to think about their options before making a decision, and that it is important for doctors to provide all the information that they can, but when a woman makes a decision, that decision needs to be respected.

If a woman says she wants a tubal ligation and/or an endometrial ablation, and there are no significant health risks, she should receive the procedure.

Doctors should not refuse to perform these procedures based on marital status, age, or number of children the woman may or may not already have. If a woman says she does not want children that should be respected and it should not be questioned or refused. 

These procedures should not be refused based on the possibility of a future partner wanting children. Women should not be denied a medical procedure that she is sure she wants just because someone else doubts her decision making. 

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Reproductive Rights - Gender Equality and the Child free Life

I want to make it clear that as a supporter of the equality of all genders and sexes and of reproductive and pro-choice rights, I support resources and options for child-free people of all sexes and genders, whether that person is assigned female at birth, or assigned male at birth. This means I support abortion, tubal ligation, endometrial ablation, vasectomies, paper abortion, and the abolition of court-enforced child support from either parent. 

Choosing to live a child free life is a valid personal choice with lots of benefits. No one should be forced to be a parent if they do not want children. Sex should not have to mean parenthood. Sterilization for both men and women - vasectomies and tubal ligations and endometrial ablations should be provided without refusal, question, or hesitation due to any personal bias or belief. The child free life should be taken seriously and be validated. Abortion is a fundamental right for women. Gender equality needs to be supported in the concept of child free living. Women should not be forced to be parents when they do not want to have children, and men should not be forced to be parents when they do not want to have children. Sex should not automatically mean parenthood. In the event of an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy, women need to have access to abortion, and so do men. For men, it would not be a physical abortion, but rather a paper abortion. A paper abortion is the proposed ability of the biological father, before the birth of the child, to opt out of any rights, privileges, and responsibilities toward the child, including financial support. This would mean that, before a child is born, a man would be able to absolve himself of both the privileges and demands of fatherhood. Abortions for women and paper abortions for men are a step in the right direction towards gender equality. Parenthood should always be voluntary, and sexual activity should not deem absolutely parenthood. Saying that women should have the ability to choose to live a child free life but that men should not be able to make that same decision is intrinsically unequal. Women should not be told to not be sexually active if they want to avoid parenthood as an excuse for abortion refusal, and the same principal goes for men seeking paper abortion. Women should not be forced into parenthood in the face of an unwanted pregnancy, and neither should men. Gender equality means including abortion rights and access for both men and women, in the forms of physical abortions, and paper abortions. 

“If women’s partial responsibility for pregnancy does not obligate them to support a fetus, then men’s partial responsibility for pregnancy does not obligate them to support a resulting child.” (Elizabeth Brake in the Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2005)

Yes, I understand that a fetus is different from a child that has been born, but supporting paper abortion for men and individuals who were assigned male at birth, will also help bring equality for women and people assigned female at birth and abortion rights. I do not believe that a man/person assigned male at birth has the right to tell a woman/person assigned female at birth that they cannot have an abortion, even if they have fathered the fetus. I believe, in turn, that the person who has conceived and is carrying the fetus should not be able to tell the person who has fathered the child that they cannot chose to have a paper abortion. No one should be forced into having a child, whether they are the person who is carrying the fetus, or the person who has fathered the fetus. Abortion rights and the right to live a child-free life is a right that extends to all people, whether they are male, female, assigned male at birth, or assigned female at birth. 

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Reproductive Rights - Some links for Sterilization Info

Childfree Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/childfree/

MEGATHREAD: Doctors lists and sterilization info

https://www.reddit.com/r/childfree/comments/uhhk6f/megathread_doctors_lists_and_sterilization_info/

Childfree Friendly Doctors

https://www.reddit.com/r/childfree/wiki/doctors

Sterilization Binder

https://norugratsnoragrets.wixsite.com/binder/

Sterilization Build-a-Binder

https://norugratsnoragrets.wixsite.com/binder/build-a-binder