Take our right to choose, we’ll take your seat
The topic of the movie scene would have been clear to any adult, but as a middle-schooler, this segment of “Dirty Dancing” was beyond me. I knew one of the actors, Penny, was pregnant, a doctor was needed, and something controversial was happening, but that was about it. Even through the blood and grimaces of pain on screen, I remember being very confused.
Well, it’s as they say — innocence is bliss. Yet, sadly, that specific innocence had an expiration date.
As the years went on, I learned much more about the controversy and concern showcased in that famous scene. I connected the dots through details shared by my mother, teachers, friends, and teammates. I was shocked when I was informed abortions, the birth control pill, and the morning-after pill (“Plan B”) had at some points been illegal. It didn’t make sense.
By the time I entered college, I was so intrigued and angry that I wrote my senior thesis on women’s access to Plan B here in the United States as compared to Europe. What I researched made it obvious that “my body, my choice” was often only a slogan and not actual practice.
Recently, the battle over Roe v. Wade has been front and center in a way millennials have never experienced. But this grumbling about taking reproductive rights away from women was certainly all talk. This wasn’t something I would have to fight for just as women did 50 years ago — right?
Wrong. More and more states kept presenting archaic legislation related to abortion. Our ears perked up. We started to pay much more attention. And then a few days ago, Alabama decided that their biggest rivalry would move from college football to women.
As soon as the news was out about the governor signing their abortion bill into law, my adrenaline began pumping so fast, I was questioning how to respond. What sort of “politically correct” statement could I make about Alabama, Roe v. Wade and women’s reproductive rights?
Then the questioning ended, and I knew exactly what I had to say: Screw political correctness.
For decades, we’ve followed and have been manipulated by the status quo, those who are experts in being “politically correct.” And look where that has put us — right back in the same exact fight previous generations of women had to shoulder.
I don’t have the time for this garbage. Not for me or for you or for my daughter or for her classmates or for the 16-year-old in Tuscaloosa or the 25-year-old in Montgomery — for any of us.
I refuse to accept that current 11-yearolds will watch the same iconic 1980s classic movie as I did and be familiar with what Penny was experiencing.
I refuse to accept their college papers will be written about the overturning of Roe v. Wade or how many women die every year from abortions performed out of desperation.
I have a message for the elected officials who believe they have control over women and our ovaries. If you want to take our right to choose, then we will take your seat. I don’t care who you are, how long you’ve been in office, how much money you have, or who your parents were. Your time in “public service” will be over and the only thing you’ll need a hanger for will be your irrelevant “vote for me” T-shirt.
Our bodies, our choice. That’s our final answer.
And enjoy your final term.
Caitlin Clarkson Pereira is a mom, activist and advocate from Fairfield who focuses on equality for women, gun violence prevention and the rights of communities often silenced. She recently ran for state representative in the 132nd District.