 |
Holding activism lightly in the face of violencePosted on 29/6/2009 at 2:17 PM - Post Comment
Holding activism lightly in the face of violence.
Australian women face one of the greatest struggles for basic human rights they’ve ever faced.We have the vote, we have some semblance (lipservice) to equal pay, we can mostly put our children in childcare, rape makes it into the newspaper (insert mass disclaimers, but it IS there!), we can mostly access a safe abortion service but we may not be able to hire a midwife to support us in a homebirth after next year. We are focussing our energies on the rally on September 7 in Canberra. Large numbers of women are working hard writing letters, designing banners, buying tshirts, seeing MPs, posting on the internet, talking to friends, family and random strangers. This is a sinister law which seeks to do violence to women, babies, families and our communities.
What if we lose? Every hope we’ve had for maternity care has been dashed so far by successive governments and I see little reason to hope, as yet, that the fines attached to midwife-attended homebirth will be overturned and yet we must keep struggling because without struggling there is absolutely no hope. No one’s going to drive through in their white Prius and save us or the midwives, and it’s probably not that likely that anyone’s going to change the legislation either. People just don’t get it. Australians are prone to apathy at the best of times although perhaps it’s more a sense of disenfranchisement and disconnection which lies behind our ready acceptance, in the main, of laws like this. Everyone who refuses to support the campaign has some reason or other they’re using to justify it: I’ve finished birthing, I’m a bloke so I’ll never give birth, I like birthing in hospital (um yeah ok, whatever but I don’t so how about you put yourself in my shoes?), you’re exaggerating the dangers of hospitals you weirdy, it’s not worth it for so few women and they’re just noisy whingers anyway. Or any of the other myriad of misogyny-soaked excuses I’ve heard so far. It is tragic stuff that we don’t see beyond the end of our noses or our genitals to see the wider picture of basic rights being smashed and how that demeans all of us not just homebirthers.
Recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. . . Preamble
Women’s right to bodily integrity and autonomy is an oft discussed aspect of this blog. It mystifies many readers, causes some to break out in hives apparently and post all manner of nonsense about how women are somehow too stupid to make decisions in their own best interests. I guess that’s only a reasonable conclusion from how we just drive that damn car into walls with the kids in the back unless someone in Authority is breathing down our necks telling us not to. All those women I see lying down in the road waiting for trucks to not hit them and their kids are doing it because there’s no law to stop them doing it! Quick! Break out the emergency Vagina Protection Laws for all the silly ninnies who need someone to stop them slicing themselves with the tin opener instead of the cat food! I don’t need anyone making those decisions for me, thanks. Oddly enough I know even without a law to tell me that stabbing yourself in the eye with a biro hurts and that standing on lego is one of the most painful things an adult ever experiences. And I manage it all without the benefit of legislation that would criminalise my children for playing which is pretty much what children do. Women, likewise, have the physiological potential to just birth, and making criminals of us because of where and how we choose to pursue that potential is so offensive it’s almost beyond belief. Luckily for Big Daddy and his patriarchy, feminists have well developed senses of humour so we seldom go postal. One could perhaps argue however enough was enough and the straw which broke the camel’s back was the law that criminalised the very act which patriarchy seeks to force us to perform because we’re not performing it to Big Daddy’s rules. Talk about wanting your cake and eating it too. As a friend said, “What 99% of births wasn’t enough for you?”
So given that we have a long history of being guilty of being women, we have to face the reality that we may lose this struggle. You can look to countries overseas to see where similar laws have been passed and you have to conclude that it is thus possible. I’m sorry for you folks who are still celebrating the apparent win of some rights being extended to some midwives, so long as they work in the hospital system and are good girls, but your inability to face reality ain’t going to stop my births being criminalised. What will it mean to us if we lose? What will it mean for homebirth?
Well obviously many of us are (not) having discussions about how to get around these stupid laws. No no, of course not. We’ll all be good little girls and let the federal government force us back into the hands of those who’ve raped many of us in the hospital system, hurt our babies and trashed our lives, yes of course we will, yes siree. And we’re certainly not seeking legal advice about what we can do to help women in an underground movement to retain our human rights.
If we lose, babies will still be born at home. However we manage it, we will manage it. Some laws are unable to be policed, mostly because they’re not really crimes at all because a crime is meant to cause some kind of damage to persons or property. Some laws are such an affront to human dignity and commonsense that it becomes the duty of citizens to simply ignore them. Women have ever thus been creative because we have to be to survive in a world that hates us and whatever the AMA, RANZCOG or any of their fellow travellers and collaborators wish for us will not make it so. They may seek to wreak violence upon us but we will refuse to be bowed and will keep on supporting each other, supporting the midwives who support us and living with great pride in our achievements as we continue to help women birth at home.
Your human rights matter to me. I will continue in this struggle for the rest of my life. Join me as we pledge ourselves to keeping visible the women who choose homebirth and as we lovingly continue to maintain a safe space for each of us. I'm proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with each and every one of you. You are my sisters. Whatever the legislation says, we will still be here, no one can legislate us away.
http://www.joyousbirth.info/homebirth-is-not-a-crime.html
|
|
