Why Meth Users Matter

So, why am I so on about the rights of pregnant drug users? Simple. First, because it's fundamental that if we're going to say that people have rights, we have to include everyone. If I argue that women have the right (as they do) to make their own reproductive decisions, then I mean all women, not just the ones whose choices I approve of. If I only mean "women who make good decisions," then that's not a right: that's me granting permission. That way lies the proverbial slippery slope: if I get to condemn pregnant meth users, than some other asshole gets to condemn pregnant women who have the occasional drink or cigarette, and asshole number three gets to argue that pregnant women who work or have sex are putting their babies at risk and should be forbidden from doing so. Nope, not going down that road.

The second thing is that I believe in reality. Pregnancy is a basic reality: it happens. It happens even to women who are extremely careful about using birth control. It happens even to women who believe in abstinence. It's one of the fundamental things our bodies do, like cellular regeneration and growing hair and putting on weight if we're lucky enough to have plenty to eat. We are, in the end, living animals, and the primary definition of any living animal is that it reproduces itself. Getting away from moralizing about whether or not people "should" or "shouldn't" have kids and dealing with the simple fact that, well, we do is a fundamental step that we haven't, as a society, really taken yet.

Yeah, we can "choose" to try to avoid pregnancy. Yeah, thank god, we can still "choose" to terminate an unwanted pregnancy, at least assuming we have money and live somewhere where we have access to abortion services (or, barring that, that we know someone who knows how to induce a miscarriage). But really, if you think about it, we can't choose to become pregnant, or not to. Pregnancy is something our bodies do without our consciously deciding it: I can decide to walk to the grocery store or to drive, but I can't decide whether or when to ovulate--even if I'm taking drugs that will prevent or hasten it, how my body responds to those drugs isn't something I have control over.

Modern medicine is fucking awesome, and it's fucking awesome to be able to choose to seriously reduce the likelihood that we'll get pregnant unless we're good and ready, but let's not kid ourselves: the best laid plans of lab mice and women gang aft agley. All the more so if you're someone who--for whatever reason--is in a position where your ability to exercise what choices you do have is already seriously compromised.

If you want to moralize about it, fine, but you might as well moralize about the earth going around the sun. E pur si muove.

Bitch_PhD kinda digs Galileo, even though he's a dead white guy. And she feels damn lucky to have been born to a forward-thinking mom who told her about birth control when she was 12 or 13, and to have been able to use the car to go to Planned Parenthood when she was 17, and to have always been able to get birth control which always worked for her. Especially since she knows people who've gotten knocked up while on the pill--sometimes even with twins.