Janne Myrdal, Edinburg, N.D., column: Stop calling women victims and pregnancy a disease

Talk about it

By Janne Myrdal

EDINBURG, N.D. — Alice Hauan’s letter on behalf of Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, is so full of misinformation and empty talking points that it’s hard to determine what she’s trying to say (“Stop the GOP’s assault on women’s health,” Page D3, March 4).

It sounds more like the death cry of the abortion industry, the industry that’s trying to use the 1960’s-era language of man hatred and blame that worked so well back then.

According to Hauan’s description of life in North Dakota, women are “still fighting for equality” surrounded by dangerous “Republican men” whose “assault on women’s health is becoming more and more extreme.”

Reading her bitter descriptions makes one think we’re living in Iran or another depressed nation, where women actually are being abused and denied medical care. What an affront this bitterness is to the early heroes of true feminism, who fought so hard for the freedoms we enjoy today.

The claim North Dakota is such a terrible place to live that we don’t care about women or children’s health is false. Are our emergency rooms were loaded with these apparent victims of horrid assaults perpetrated by evil conservative men? No.

The belief that women are victims and that we don’t have equal access to health care also is false. And the utter lie that women cannot access very affordable contraceptives clearly is an attempt by Planned Parenthood to be the victim here as well.

As a matter of fact, contraceptives are available for about $9 per month almost anywhere you look – sadly, even at some college vending machines.

The misnomer of “reproductive rights” including a right to contraceptives has become the rallying cry for an industry that makes its living on abortion and repeatedly has been caught lying to underage women to make a buck.

I, for one, am sick of being called a victim due to my gender. I am no victim. And I refuse to accept the lie that pregnancy is a “preventable disease” or that my chosen behavior should be paid for by anyone but myself.

How desperate the liberal left must be now that the false veil of feminism is falling away, exposing not a group of activists who care for women and children but instead a foundering agenda of promoting a lucrative abortion industry that feeds on bitterness, lies and innocent children’s deaths.

Any woman has the freedom to engage in reproductive acts. But when this act actually has reproduced, women lose their rights, as that right now belongs to another life.

What about unborn women? I believe they make up for “more than 50 percent of the population” in question, according to Hauan. When will she speak for them? Where did their “feminist” rights go? Where is the “care for children’s health” here, Ms. Hauan?

The feminist movement, through such heroes as Susan B. Anthony, was essential; and thankfully, we all are now blessed by the fruit of the sacrifices made by many a brave woman.

But today’s liberal feminists have nothing more to fight for other than promiscuous sex and abortion. How sad. Maybe they are victims here after all — the slaves of a bygone time, unable to see the freedom right in front of their eyes; a state that is of their own doing.

Myrdal is state director of North Dakota Concerned Women for America.

Tags: op-ed columns, birth control, opinion, feminism, abortion, health, contraception, updates