I made a hat for a friend. It wasn't just any hat; it was a statement hat for her to wear to a protest march on inauguration day.
This felt a little strange for me. On a surface level, the vulgarity bothered me. A year ago I could not have predicted that we would be preparing to inaugurate a man who thrust his casually inappropriate talk about genitals into the headlines on more than one occasion. There's still a voice in my head that says, "Nice Catholic ladies don't say 'pussy.'"
But nice is not my highest goal right now, and the surface-level issue isn't what really matters. On a deeper level, my outrage is still burning hot. I have inhabited a woman's body for 46 years now. I have offered up this body in the service of my vocation to marriage. I have learned some of the mysteries of a life laid down as I have gestated, birthed, and nursed five children. I have used this voice, unmistakably a woman's voice, to shine a light for my students into the murky corners of my discipline. I have used these hands, unmistakably a woman's hands, to type up truth to the best of my ability and send it out into the world. I have offered this body, all the parts of it, as a living sacrifice in obedience to Romans 12.
And I am aghast that a man with so little respect for women's bodies is taking over the Oval Office. I'm not over it. I'm never going to be over it.
When I first started thinking about this post I was going to call it "Strange Bedfellows," because many of the women wearing pussyhats on inauguration day will be passionate supporters of abortion rights. You know I am pro-life. Here's what I wrote in my initial draft: I believe, though, that this is no time for separatism. I believe it is a time for women of good will to say "Here we are, inhabiting our women's bodies, and we will not take this affront lying down."
Today the organizers of the Women's March posted this tweet in response to an article in The Atlantic:
Our statement regarding press today: pic.twitter.com/z1y9cfFFvY
— Women's March (@womensmarch) January 16, 2017
I still believe this is no time for separatism. We have too much work to do. I'd like to say once more that we have important common ground: let's work on bringing down barriers between pregnant women and access to prenatal care. Let's work on paid maternity leave and on affordable childcare. Let's build a culture in which no woman, ever, for any reason at any time, is coerced or manipulated into terminating a pregnancy she wishes to sustain. Let's build a world in which industry does not spew teratogens and neurotoxicants into the air and soil and water with reckless disregard for their impact on gestating babies.
Let's elect a president who doesn't think he deserves access to our bodies because he's "a star."
I am categorically, irrevocably, unabashedly opposed to Donald Trump's presidency, and the making of this hat was a weeklong yowl of outrage. I believe in the unique and unrepeatable nature of each unborn life. I am willing to work side by side with women who disagree with me. This is no time for needless divisions among American women.
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