r/RadicalFeminism • u/LateDifficulty8328 • 6h ago
The suffering of women and children is so normalized that people will speak out against the cruelty of animal testing but see nothing wrong with restricting access to reproductive health care.
I was just thinking about my high school days in the early 2010's. We had to write a paper on a controversial topic (abortion, animal testing, and a third thing) and I remember talking with my friends and we all agreed abortion should only be legal in the case of rape/incest and that animal testing should be banned for cosmetic products. By the end of high school my views had changed but I grew up in a conservative part of Canada and was religious at the time.
Thinking about it now I just think how absurd and anti-woman those beliefs were. I didn't even realize because I was so sheltered and ignorant. Because of course animal testing is okay unless it is for cosmetics which is primarily consumed by women and girls. We don't want to torture animals (valid). But forced pregnancy and childbirth is literally torture and thousands of woman and girls are forced to go through it every year. It should not matter if you had consensual sex with your spouse or if it was rape. Pregnancy is very difficult for most people. Childbirth is well known to be traumatic but even then people underestimate it. Women and girls are at increased risk of IPV including FEMICIDE during pregnancy. Recovery is difficult Giving up your baby for adoption is a cruel choice for many people. Taking care of a baby is expensive, exhausting, and time consuming. And forcing unwanted children into the world? I think one of the cruellest things to happen to a child is to be unwanted by your parents. Denying someone access to a safe abortion is cruel for everyone involved who cannot just walk away from the situation.
We have the technology for safe abortions. Why are we stopping people from using it?