In what we wish was more shocking news, Virginia Senator Steve Martin is under fire for responding to a letter from pro-choicers with disturbing hostility—an attitude we are all too familiar with when it comes to many of our Republican politicians.
In what seems to us like a very reasonable argument for women’s rights, the Virginia Pro-Choice Coalition wrote: “All women deserve access to their full range of reproductive health options—including preventing unintentional pregnancies, raising healthy children, and choosing safe, legal abortion.”
The senator shared the letter on Facebook, his initial response reading: "Once a child does exist in your womb, I'm not going to assume a right to kill it just because the child's host (some refer to them as mothers) doesn't want it."
Martin’s words are a blatant reminder of the lack of respect women receive regarding their reproductive decisions: The senator refuses to call them mothers or treat them as more than baby-breeding wombs. Instead, he calls them "sick," completely neglecting the very real complexities and emotional difficulties faced during decisions to terminate pregnancies.
Following the outraged reactions to his post and tons of negative publicity, Martin changed his diction just a tad. Here’s the revised (and still infuriating) version of his rant:
Apparently, consistent attempts to de-fund Planned Parenthood and revoke the Affordable Care Act currently insuring millions of women doesn't count as standing between a person and her contraceptives.
(On the bright side, our post about Cat Island yesterday got more than twice as many likes.)
Images via HuffPost and Facebook
Marissa is an NYC-based writer who loves feminism, doughnuts, and being outside. She's not a huge fan of writing personal bios, but she does love writing pretty much anything else. Read more of her work at marissadubecky.com.
