The comic argues that reproductive rights are human issue—not a Democrat or Republican one.
Sarah Silverman is one of the top comedy queens of our time. As TrèsSugar found when they talked to her, she’s not just a funny woman. She also cares about women and their right to control their own bodies.
Last weekend we were able to chat with Sarah Silverman about her involvement with the Draw the Line campaign, started by the Center For Reproductive Rights to “guarantee and protect reproductive rights as fundamental human rights and stop the attacks by politicians who want to take those rights away.” And while we often see opinions on women’s issues — especially abortion and contraception — divided along party lines, Sarah told us she believes reproductive rights are a nonpartisan issue:
[Draw the Line is] about women’s reproductive rights and being able to be in control of your own body. I think that’s, to me, a very nonpartisan issue — it’s a women’s issue or anyone who loves women. Abortion is a very small part of women’s health and being able to have it be affordable to people. And I think it’s money very well spent by the government, and that to shut that down would be a real disadvantage to a sex that is the majority of this country. I feel strongly about it. I don’t think that women are farm animals; I think they’re human people who deserve the same rights as men.
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Sarah joins other famous ladies like Amy Poehler, Meryl Streep, and Kyra Sedgwick in her involvement with the Draw the Line movement, encouraging Americans to sign the Bill of Reproductive Rights. The bill includes the following rights:
- The right to make our own decisions about our reproductive health and future, free from intrusion or coercion by any government, group, or individual.
- The right to a full range of safe, affordable, and readily accessible reproductive health care, including pregnancy care, preventive services, contraception, abortion, and fertility treatment — and accurate information about all of the above.
- The right to be free from discrimination in access to reproductive health care or on the basis of our reproductive decisions.
This presidential election season Barack Obama and Mitt Romney need the women’s vote to win in November, and one of the ways they’ll get it is by addressing the issues we care about, like reproductive rights. Do you agree with Sarah that women’s health care is a nonpartisan issue?
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Does this bill of reproductive rights give men the right to opt out of parenthood?
No, of course not. Only those who care about men and boys care to deal with this issue. Sadly, our society is so strongly and thoroughly misandristic, on both the right and the left, that this issue isn’t even considered. The biggest shame goes to those who claim to be pro-choice. By their anti-reproductive rights for males, they show themselves to be anti-male and ANTI-choice.
I support abortion but I feel pretty fucking tired of hearing women asking men to support female reproductive rights without also supporting ours. I can’t help but feel women will get far more success by attaching the financial abortion bit to the bill. A group which has the privilege of opting out of parenthood asking those without that privilege is pretty fucking insulting to be honest. Yes female reproductive rights helps men but it’s still way short of anyform of equality. Child support may not appear to be a big deal to many women but when men are being jailed for it, financially crippled, shamed etc if they can’t earn enough, forced to pay whether they wanted a child or not…I think it’s a huge problem.
Lemme guess, someone will reply saying how terrible n risky it is for a woman to carry a child. Well yeah it is, but is that worth more than a man’s right to choosing himself to be a parent? We have men and even kids who’ve been raped forced to pay child support, which is no walk in the park. If I were forced to pay child support today my life would be extremely crippled as my income is under the poverty line. Does anyone give a fuck about men who can’t afford kids, don’t’ want kids, who get thrown into jail for being unable to pay child support even?
Fine, then there should be an opt out of child support. Until you put in a majority of the effort of raising a child (which you as a man won’t be able to), then just quietly opt out of being in that childs life.
As for men wanting a child but the woman not. Go find a woman who matches your childbearing desires. Simple.
Who says a man cannot do the majority of raising a child? What do you call a single father with full custody?
Did he just spend close to a year sharing his bodily resources, his blood, to grow that child? No, he did not. He can do a lot of work, but he can’t do that.
Forcing a woman to undergo child birth, along with all the associated risks is not only dangerous but unethical. It reverts women back to an age when their bodies could be owned by men and people other than themselves. We cannot allow that. Unlike gay marriage, forcing a woman to carry a fetus to term sets a precedent for an immensely slippery slope. We are (semi) enlightened people in a much better age than before, and we need to keep moving forward not go back to when a man could own and dictate what a woman did with her own body.
Not sure if my op was clear but I never want men to be able to choose for women to keep the child, only option I want for men is the financial abortion option. Women should always have the choice whether to abort or keep the child, that is how they can choose their parenthood, men can choose whether to stay or leave without financial burdens which is their choice. I think we agree but maybe my OP wasn’t clear enough on that issue?
Reproductive rights are not the issue at least to a fair number of people, ( I DON’T WANT TO PAY FOR IT)!!!!
Abortion anytime anyplace on demand , I am fine with it , heck even live Abortions don’t concern me & a fair number of people, after all it’s one less mouth to rely on the welfare state in most cases, I just don’t want to pay for contraceptives for people who can afford buying there own, period.
Couching this issue with a “woman’s rights” or a ‘men’s rights” veneer is, I believe, the source of the confusion.
A person (in this case a man) can have a deep and genuine respect for women, their unique position in the world, and their rights to decisions regarding their body … and still be pro-Life. When I read the treatise endorsed by Sarah and all of the other celebrities, I can’t help but nod my head in agreement with it … except for one major issue … the central issue … the big question … “Is the abortion of a viable pregnancy the same as taking a life?”. Everything else related to the woman’s rights, and women’s health is just a distraction to this difficult, inconvenient, and controversial question.
For me, if you carve the abortion question out of the “Draw the Line” campaign … then I am in with both feet. But pretending that all of the other Women’s Health aspects of the campaign are not secondary to the question of abortion is simply not being honest. If Sarah and friends were TRUELY interested in the non-abortion related women’s health aspects of the “Draw the Line” campaign … then she would drop the abortion issue and move forward with a 30% – 40% increase in the amount of support that the movement receives. The truth however, is that this is a one-issue campaign … everything else is simply marketing.
In the end, I cannot support any campaign that endorses the abortion of a viable pregnancy. To me, it is nothing less than taking a human life.
Of course it is nonpartisan. The issue may be about a woman’s body but do you think men out there shouldn’t be concerned too? I know plenty of men who weren’t ready to be parents and encouraged their girlfriends one way or another. The point it, that this issue is not about Republican or Democrat, male or female, it is about human rights. It’s about having the power to do what you feel is right for your body and not letting anyone govern what you can and can’t do with it.
It’s about putting aside your own religious and personal beliefs to realize…NEWSFLASH…you have NO right to tell other people what to do with their body. At all. Ever.
Jewels and Sarah … I do strongly support your right to do whatever you want to with your body … I will support your freedoms in this regard right up until the point that your actions infringe on the rights of another person … particularly taht person’s right-to-life.
THAT is the central issue … the ONLY issue. There are a quickly growing number of us who believe that a viable pregnancy represents “another person” … and that “person” is entitled to the same protections and freedoms as everyother person. I am simply stating that I would support the rights of that yet-to-be-born person.
Until we can come to some agreement as to the right-to-life of an unborn child we will have to rely on the courts. At the moment, the courts support the pro-choice camp. I strongly suspect that that will change within the decade. Until that happens, you have the right to get an abortion and I have the right to protest the suggestion that I should pay for it.
“I think they’re human people who deserve the same rights as men.”
With all due respect, unless you support a ban on infant male circumcision, the right of men to financially opt out of parenthood, an end to selective service, etc.;you don’t believe that men and women should have the same rights.
Its a pitty she isn’t funny