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14-Year Old Girl Stands Up for Reproductive Rights


methodwriter85

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There's this awesome article I just read, written by a 14-year old girl who took part in the protests against the Texas State legislature for the restrictive abortion laws that were passed. She held up a sign with her father saying, "Jesus Isn't A Vagina So Keep Him Out of My Vagina" :

 

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This is the article she wrote in response to internet trolls who've called her a slut:

 

I'm The 14-Year-Old Who Wrote The "Jesus Isn't A Dick So Keep Him Out of My Vagina" Sign In Texas And Was Labeled A "Whore" By Strangers Online

My dad came to my defense online, but for the first time I am outing myself publicly. I'm 14. Please stop calling me a whore.

tuesdaycain_0.jpg

Tuesday Cain

 

I'm a 14-year-old girl who has lived in Austin, Texas, my whole life. I like art, music and talking on the phone with my friends. When I grow up, I'd like to become a science teacher.

 

I also believe in the right to choose and the separation of church and state. Or to put it another way -- to put it the way I wrote it when I was protesting at the Capitol last week:

"Jesus isn't a dick so keep him out of my vagina."

 

Yes, that's my sign.

 

I came up with it last week when my friend and I were trying to think of ideas for what would get people's attention to protest the scary restrictions that are happening in my state trying to take away a woman's right to safe and accessible abortions.

 

It worked.

 

When my friend and I took turns holding the sign, one of the pictures of her went viral.

 

Then my dad went online to defend the sign on Twitter and other online forums.

 

That's when people started calling me a "whore."

 

I'm going to be honest about what it feels like to be called that as a 14-year-old girl who has never had sex and who doesn't plan to have sex anytime soon.

 

I feel disappointed.

 

It's hard for me to understand why adults would be calling me this. It's hard for me to understand why anyone would use this term for a 14-year-old girl.

 

It's not anyone's business, but as I said, I am a virgin, and I don't plan to have sex until I am an adult.

 

But none of those facts make me feel any less passionate about fighting for a woman's right to choose and the separation of church and state in my home state of Texas.

 

I also don't think this makes me -- or any other 14-year-old girl who agrees with me -- a whore.

 

It simply makes us people. People who believe that abortion should be safe, legal and accessible for women. People who believe women should be in control of their bodies and should not ever have to put their lives at risk so that we don't go backwards in women's rights in this country.

 

I know someone who has had a few abortions. She now says that abortion is bad and she fights against a woman's right to choose.

 

This makes it all the more important for me to protest, even if I am only 14. In fact, my dad woke me up so that I could watch the Wendy Davis filibuster the night that she tried to prevent this legislation from passing the first time. I remember thinking that I was proud to be from Texas watching her stand up for what is right.

 

That was when I told my parents that I wanted to join in the protests. I have seen anti-abortion protesters at a clinic near our house, and it makes me upset to see women who are facing this hard decision being told that Jesus condemns them.

 

I guess I don't think it seems very Christian to me.

 

Then again, neither does calling a 14-year-old girl a whore.

 

The first day that we were out protesting at the Capitol, my friend and I took turns holding up the sign I wrote, and an older man came up to us yelling right in our faces. "You two should shave your heads! You should become lesbians! No man will ever want you! You're ugly!"

 

The police had to ask him to stop yelling at us. It was scary. But more than scaring me, what it did was make me feel even more determined to stand up and protest even louder.

 

I'm not going to let someone calling me a whore stop me from fighting for what is right for all women. I'm not going to let the bullies win in the fight over women's bodies.

 

I read some of the comments online that people said about me, and I was so proud of my dad for sticking up for me and for the sign I wrote. After a certain point, I really couldn't believe some of the comments people were writing. One person said that my parents should be arrested for child abuse and in another unbelievable comment, someone suggested that my dad must invite all my friends over to "play abortion clinic."

 

I'm done feeling disappointed by these attacks. That is why I'm speaking out -- even if I am only 14 years old.

 

But the way things are playing out everything feels reversed. Adults are not acting like adults.

 

Normally, I prefer to look up to adults as role models. But what is happening in Texas right now it's hard to find adults who I want to look up to.

 

I don't look up to an adult who is taking away a woman's right to choose.

 

I don't look up to an adult who is calling a 14-year-old girl a whore.

 

I don't look up to an adult who is screaming in my face and saying I am ugly.

 

And I certainly don't look up to anyone who says they are Christian but treats women the way I've been treated these past few days as a teenage girl.

 

***

 

What an incredibly well-spoken young lady. This is someone who's parents did their jobs right- I know college kids who couldn't articulate their thoughts as well.

 

One thing that she's learning from this is that "age" doesn't really equal wisdom, and that hypocrisy is always around you. I've met old people that were dumb little fools, and I've met kids her age who have impressed me with their profound wisdom.

 

I wish I could be stunned that people who claim to love children so much that they want to save every unborn child from being killed could turn around and act so hateful towards a child, but I'm really not.

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Closed-minded people often lash out with verbal attacks. It's a true shame. My kids are too young to teach about this sort of issue but I am always trying to instill acceptance for other's choices in them. We saw a woman heavily covered in tattoos last week and of course they stared. Now a lot of people in my family have tattoos, including my hubby and me, but this was pretty extreme. When we got to the car my kids asked why she looked like that and my reply was that she liked it and it was her body. I'd at least taught them not to be judgmental about other's appearance but to ask me in private. Of course they both said it was 'weird', but hey, weird can be good, right?

 

I laud that 14 year old's parents. She's being taught not only to stand up for what she believes is right, whether it affects her or not, but the harsh reality that can often come from doing that. I'm glad she has people standing up with her, including her parents. Too many people say, 'This is bad, but it's not happening to me so who cares?' That apathy is ruining our communities. We should all be reaching out to help our fellow man--or woman in this case. Don't judge, don't try to impose your own version of morality on others, and certainly don't be a hypocrite.

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"I also believe in ... the separation of church and state"

 

Um isn't that like saying "I believe in having a President"? They're both fundamentals of your Constitution. There is no choice ... they're both non-negotiable :P
 

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"I also believe in ... the separation of church and state"

 

Um isn't that like saying "I believe in having a President"? They're both fundamentals of your Constitution. There is no choice ... they're both non-negotiable :P

 

 

The problem comes when people start trying to tie the church in with the state again by using the Bible to back up their arguments for how the Constitution should be upheld.

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The problem comes when people start trying to tie the church in with the state again by using the Bible to back up their arguments for how the Constitution should be upheld.

 

Surely the problem isn't if people start trying to tie the church in with the state again by using the Bible to back up their arguments for how the Constitution should be upheld, but rather it's if any executive or judicial body allows such "arguments" to prevail - isn't that when they should be shot down for breaching your Constitution? :P

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Actually the separation of church and state is not a constitutional right.  It was an idea written in Thomas Jefferson's letter's but not actually written into the constitution other than the fact that the government can't pick out a religion and say "this is the religion for the entire country" like England did with the Church of England.

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I'm hoping something good comes of this legislative fight. Something already has. A number of people have awakened to just how extreme politics have become in this state.

 

The tactics of a few bullies have been exposed and galvanized opposition. This girl's experiences have made national headlines.

 

We'll see what happens next election.

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Actually the separation of church and state is not a constitutional right.  It was an idea written in Thomas Jefferson's letter's but not actually written into the constitution other than the fact that the government can't pick out a religion and say "this is the religion for the entire country" like England did with the Church of England.

 

Thanks for that. In which case it is truly ironic - and this is the correct use of "irony" :P - that the opposite constitutional positions of England and the US have in fact produced the opposite outcomes in terms of religious influence on current daily life in our respective countries.

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Kudo's to the young lady for not caving into pressure and hate!

 

What people have been saying to and about her is nothing more than a mild form of terrorism. The man who shouted in her face about how "ugly" she was and how no man would ever want her was trying to scare her, terrorize her if you will, into changing her position or at least leaving the fight, making it easier for the narrow minded idiots to impose their will on the women of Texas.

 

I have a ton more to say on the topic but I think it better belongs in a blog entry. 

 

Way to go young lady. It's people like you who will lead our country in a few short years!  Lets hope they have your intelligence as well as your heart!

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