Letter to the editor from Geri Maria Johnson
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Editor:
Supporters, doubtlessly, you’re bringing your own personal religious bottom lines to bear on this intensely private matter, HB140 “Abortion- 48-hour waiting period,” that, truthfully, is none of your beeswax! Why should we tolerate your push to inflict your positions on us? The only legitimate reason to include any outsider in our deliberations might be if they commit to taking and raising the unborn as their own.
You presume to better know or, more accurately, to simply ignore our physical, psychological, financial and social circumstances in pursuit of your own desired outcome. You pout about government meddling, but your righteous indignation seeks exactly that for women at this crossroads.
You may even be right. However, man up and accept that this decision is not yours to make.
My pain-filled deliberations were all-consuming. I faced that I couldn’t care for a child alone, but refused to thrust it on overworked, underpaid, understaffed and underfunded Social Services or in all-too-often-questionable foster care.
In a multitude of errors, big and small, marriage and motherhood are two I’m so glad I didn’t make, and I harbor not one single regret. It would have been far more traumatic for me to worry my whole life about the fate of an abandoned child.
With HB140, I feel how you would if someone barged into your kitchen and proceeded to dictate when, where and how you would have dinner. What the hell? Back off! Understand that your religion ends at my nose.
Opposers, this fight is less a matter of trusting women than of respecting us. Just as states have begun to demand re-empowerment over federal intrusion, so must we fight on for equal regard under the law, fiercely contesting double standards.
Please send comments to legislators on this or any bill now. Find them at the bottom right of the page at at https://www.wyoleg.gov/ and/or use LSO’s email hotline at https://wyoleg.gov/postcomments/hotlinedisclaimer.aspx.
The Legislative Service Office is extremely helpful. Reach it at (307) 777-7881. Request email updates on committees you choose to follow at https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/WYLSO/subscriber/new.
Speak out. Just do it. You cannot know how much it matters.
Quite frankly, no hypocritical Christian or over-reaching government body should be sniffin’ around our wombs.
Geri Maria Johnson
Cheyenne