Evidence as Testament
Janet Kuypers
11/29/22
There is a shelf inside my brain
Where all of the battles against abortion rights
Remain, waiting for me to paper clip them together
When I need evidences of injustices
Or tools for regaining women’s rights.
But with so many little stories taking up space,
Rolodexes are now bulging;
Rotary card files are fraying at their bases
So that all my sources scatter...
I’ll have to relocate that shelf in my brain,
Move it to a full library, complete with a
Dewey decimal system, in an attempt
To bring order to this chaos.
Because, you know, the stories of Lubbock, Texas
Coffee shops giving away Plan B packs for free
To fight contraception access after the overturning of
Roe v. Wade1 goes in a completely different section
From Senator Lindsey Graham pushing for a federal
Abortion restriction bill2 , which is entirely different
From the Equal Rights Amendment, which by 2020
Had the 38 ratifications necessary for it to become the
28th Amendment, that was once blocked by President
Trump — and may now be blocked by President Biden3.
Here in these United States, I’ve tried to keep track
Of abortion rights by state4 , or even keep track
Of countries where abortion is illegal5 too —
For as I said, I need this all sorted once and for all,
Since that shelf in my brain was overflowing
With counterarguments that had no evidence,
That I am supposed to accept on faith.
—
That’s the key, isn’t it, faith, because
Once you throw that elusive word faith into the mix,
Then you can abandon reason altogether.
We don’t have to question a democrat president
Who says he supports women’s rights
But won’t prove it presidentially...
If we are forced to accept any religious argument,
Where choices are made on faith,
That’s when we’re supposed to shut up
and accept their lack of evidence as Testament.
—
Lines are divided when it comes to faith, as
More religious states kept laws in place
For taking away women’s rights as soon as
Roe v. Wade was overturned... keep in mind
That of the 1st 11 states with women-repressing
Laws on the books, 10 of those 11 states also
Support the death penalty, so... so much for
Kindness and compassion, the “christian” way.
After this happened, paper clip these thoughts:
They take away rights from living, breathing,
Viable human beings (i.e. women, like those
Who birthed the religious zealots who choose
Inequality for women everywhere in life),
In order to protect a nonviable clump of cells.
Oh, I’m sorry, you’re going to get angry with
Those words, clump of cells, when religions
Try to use science to support their arguments,
Claiming a “fetal heartbeat6 ” after 6 weeks.
But doctors will tell you that there is no heart,
No 4 chambers, no pumping blood, and that
What you’re hearing are literally only sporadic
Electrical impulses, not blood in a pumping heart.
In fact, an OB/GYN speaking for the American
College of Obstetrics and Gynecology explained
A ‘lub dub’ sound of the opening and closing
Of valves can’t exist with no valves. And the
Electrical pulse people hear at 6 weeks is actually
Entirely manufactured by the ultrasound machine.
Religious people want to use technology to
Prove their case, but any electrical noise an
Embryo may make still currently cannot be
Found in an ultrasound of a woman’s abdomen.
The problem arises when “that incorrect term”
[of a fetal heartbeat] ... “imposes artificial
time frames to regulate abortion.” But still,
After only 6 weeks, some would still incite
Murder, murder of a nonviable human embryo
That weighs no more than a paper clip7 .
No more than a paper clip. No more than a
Piece of metal, maybe molded to hold these
Ideas together about the ludicrosity, absurdity,
Even the literal lunacy of religious people
Trying to create something out of nothing
(wait, this is what they’ve done all along)
In an effort to further hold women back. As I
Said boys, if they can’t win you over with the
Faith argument, they’ll try any argument
They can, hope to claim science on their side
When they alter the facts to meet their needs,
call it valid, and hope that something sticks.
And for those religious people who believe
That life begins at conception, Neil deGrasse
Tyson (an astrophysicist, not a doc) said,
“Most abortions are spontaneous and they
Happen naturally within the human body.
Most women who have such an abortion
Don’t even know it because it happened
In the first month.”8 For the life-at-conception
Arguers, are so many women automatically
Killers, beyond their own control? Because
As I said, I have an overflowing shelf in my
Brain on what I am beginning to think is
Every angle on this abortion topic. You may
Think I’m at fault for using logic and science
(And not changing the science to meet
Altered needs, since all I need us the truth),
But, knowing how many religions there are,
I don’t want to rely on any one faith argument,
Since it will undeniably come in conflict
With someone else’s faith argument. For
It’s a slippery slope, depending on faith with
No evidence, because without reason,
That’s when the true chaos consumes us.
1 https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/18/lubbock-abortion-emergency-contraception/
2 https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/18/graham-lindsey-abortion-politics-00057348
3 https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2022/10/01/biden-administration-
block-era-publication-wrong/10448413002/
4 https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/abortion-laws-by-state and and
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/a-guide-to-abortion-laws-by-state
5 https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/countries-where-abortion-is-illegal
6 https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/heartbeat-bills-called-fetal-heartbeat-
six-weeks-pregnancy-rcna24435
7 https://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/commentary/2022-05-04-few-words-on-abortion.php
8 https://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/19s513/neil_degrasse_tyson_on_god_and_abortion/
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