Thread by @deltrimental

I've been staring at this open comment box for like ten minutes, but I'm so angry that I can't find the words to say how angry I am

https://twitter.com/wdvcasnsw/status/1114424039643082753

You know what, I've been flicking through Twitter for about an hour now. The things that have appeared in my TL so far include:
- our govt refusing to adequately support women escaping violence,
- US attempts to criminalise women who have *miscarriages* under abortion laws

- a sex educator who was fired when she was outed as a former sex worker,
- GPs not advising women on full range of contraceptive options,
- rape culture,
- women over 55 with little or no super increasingly finding themselves homeless

When will people realise that ALL THESE THINGS ARE INEXTRICABLY LINKED

Women NEED to have adequate sex education (not abstinence only) and have unrestricted access to contraception and other options (including sterilisation on demand and abortion), or unplanned pregnancy will lock them out of careers and/or trap them in relationships.

Sexual assault, reproductive coercion, husbands feeling 'entitled' to sex, and of course domestic violence, also trap women in the home - again, access to contraception and abortion can prevent these already bad situations from becoming more permanent.

For those that do have children - by choice, or not - services to support them escaping DV are undermined and underfunded, childcare options are limited and often prohibitively expensive, family-friendly jobs are hard to come by.

They end up prioritising caring over career and becoming completely financially dependent on their partners, or they take whatever jobs they can, alternating between periods of work and being at home with kids, while their super is eaten up in fees.

And when the kids leave home, or the divorce happens, or the partner dies, she is suddenly out there in the world with no work history, no experience, no connections, no borrowing power, no savings, no super.

And then when those articles do the rounds, about older women's destitution and homelessness due to gender pay gaps and not having any savings or super, there are always a million commenters screeching "WELL THAT'S BECAUSE WOMEN CHOOSE TO HAVE CHILDREN"

Did we tho?

I'm just so tired of it all. Tired of the hypocrisy, the double standards. Tired of women being blamed and shamed for every decision we do or don't make. All of the consequences, none of the control.

We force women into sitiations of total financial and emotional dependency, then have the gall to ask "Why didn't she just leave?"

We deny abortions because children deserve a right to be born, then abandon them and their mothers as soon as they are.

We say that 'mother' is the most important role a woman can have, that children fare better with stay at home mums, then force single parents into the workforce (and/or into patronising time-wasting 'mutual obligations' when they could be at home raising their kids).

We leave single mothers in abject poverty, desperately trying to balance income-generation and child-rearing, then criminalise and stigmatise them when they choose high-pay low-hours jobs like sex work or stripping.

I know it's not the solution to all of society's ills, but SO MANY problems that women face, now and in their future (and their children's futures) can be minimised or even eliminated by unrestricted access to contraception and abortion.

And for the pollies who don't care about women, but DO care about money - the millions you spend now on sex ed in schools, subsidised contraception, public hospital abortions, etc, will save you the BILLIONS spent later on DV, prisons, age pensions, homelessness, etc.

/end rant. Apologies for all the typos, got angry fingers. Is it too early for beer?