Don't Drive a Bus Through my Right To Choose
I live in Manhattan, which implies a lot of things (not enough closet space and a wardrobe comprised primarily of black clothes, for starters), including that we don't drive much. We walk or we take public transportation, or in a pinch, a cab. So instead of the mini-van or the school bus, my son rides to school with me, on a city bus, which conveniently stops just in front of our apartment building. So there we are the other morning, waiting for the 14D bus, and when it pulls up, Caleb points at the side of the bus and says "Mommy, what does that mean?"
It's 7:45 in the morning, mommy has not yet had ANY caffeine, and we're standing in a thicket of equally grumpy commuters. Tell me, is this the scenario that YOU would choose to explain to your first grader what "abortion" means and why some organization thinks the side of an NYC bus is a good place to promote its conservative agenda?
These bus ads are sponsored by something called the Chiarascuro Foundation, which has decided that promoting this statistic will somehow cause women--who have decided for reasons ENTIRELY THEIR OWN to terminate a pregnancy--to re-consider their decision. The organization of course does not have in place any funding to support women while they carry an unwanted pregnancy to term; they don't have in place any funding to provide care for an unwanted baby; they don't have in place any funding to provide medical or psychological care for a woman who is pregnant due to rape and/or incest.
None of that, however, mattered to Caleb, who demanded again, “what does that word mean?” (Why did I think it was a good thing when he learned to read?) I saw heads swivel toward me in that casual New Yorky “we’re not listening but we’re listening” sort of way, and I said, “Here, it’s your turn to put the bus fare card in the meter.” In other words? I totally punted.
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