Terse Grumpy Letter to the ACLU

Hmm. This weekend it rained a lot. I did a lot of reading of new used books, having sold enough old ones to have room to display them, so didn't spend much time outdoors; but I did sneeze more than once this morning. Well, the not-a-lawn was full of roses; punitive pruning only encourages them and they liked this winter's weather; the white ones are blooming like they've never bloomed before--but I'm not usually allergic to roses. Traveller's sensitive little system was off his feed again. And on the way to work I saw the bare brown grass around a fire hydrant, and wondered how many animal friends are going to die in that bewildering variety of ways this week, and felt very, very grumpy.

Usually when I see e-mails asking me to send money online I just click the "delete" button. Once in a while, when financial desperation or an immune system reaction are making me grumpy, I bang out a snarky reply to an e-mail. So here's what the American Civil Liberties Union get for asking me to help fund lawsuits against new restrictions on surgical abortion, which is the most boring, unwinnable, heat-rather-than-light, political distraction ever invented, and if I never read another e-mail about it it'd be too soon.

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Abortion "rights"? What about the right to choose non-procreative sex in the first place. I believe and have always believed that reproductive rights for women mean the right never even to have to THINK about abortion. If you're aware of anyone since Joycelyn Elders teaching young people that safe sex is generally *more* "fun" than the worried-about-pregnancy kind, and the "emotional fulfillment" Catholics blather about is being secure enough in the marriage to *want* a baby, that's something I'd like to support. But I'm not keen on what seems in many instances to be physically punishing women with more pain for something they were merely bullied or brainwashed into doing. That's one evil that never has been or will be necessary for me or for any young woman to whom I've taught anything. Let the men who want the "right" to start the unwanted babies pay for the abortions.
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Reminder: I am a celiac. The female of childbearing age in my immediate family is also a celiac, as were my mother and grandmother. For celiac women abortion is not a "choice" we get talked into as an idiotic way of acting out "sexual freedom" (who in Detroit they think they're kidding?!); it's a recommendation, because before, during, and after any pregnancies that may or may not produce a living baby we're so much sicker than usual, and an undiagnosed celiac is an emotional burden to society at best. The "choice" for which the women in my family have physically fought is having our poor little sickly celiac babies, thank you very much. The abortions have been spontaneous, painful, and sources of profound grief. So, will all Democratic Party correspondents kindly refrain from alienating me with babble about "abortion rights." If I were to become wealthy, and you wanted a chance at any money, y'might start working on Glyphosate Awareness, which would reduce the number of abortions actively marketed to celiac and pseudo-celiac women by doctors who are afraid to try to help us have the babies some of us want.