Can’t vote because you have to work?Check the laws in your state. Many states DO have laws that require employers to let you vote.
Can’t vote because you don’t have transportation?Lyft is currently offering rides free or at 50% off to anyone who needs to get to the polls. Uber is offering $10 off. Even many bike- and scooter-share companies are offering deals right now, and some cities (including Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, and Tampa) are making public transit free on voting day. And, chances are, you have friends who also need to vote, so see if you can carpool.
Worried you don’t know enough to vote?Vote.org will show you everything on your local ballot. Several organizations also have voting guides which will give you more in-depth information. Make sure you choose an organization you trust. I recommend starting with the website for your state’s ACLU or Planned Parenthood.
Don’t like any of the candidates? My recommendation to you is to pick the least objectionable person you think can win. I would never tell you to vote against your conscience, but I do still think it’s important to make your choice with the understanding that it has consequences. Trump’s victory margin was smaller than total Stein votes in key swing states. As for write-ins, know that your write-in could be equivalent to a vote for the candidate you like least and be sure you’re comfortable with that before doing it.
Reminders
Voting day is Tuesday, November 6, 2018. Hours vary by location, but the day does not.
Do not take pictures of your ballot.
Do not campaign at the polling place.
Make sure you have proper ID, if needed.
If you’re voting electronically, double, even triple-check every vote before submitting, even if you have an option to vote straight ticket. There have been cases where this doesn’t work as expected. If you can’t find your party candidate, make sure to check the next page as there have also been glitches (at least in my state) that push the Democratic candidate after the massive list of independent candidates.
If you’re voting on paper, check every side of every page to avoid missing any votes.
And most importantly, offer to take your friends, family, or co-workers with you to vote if they weren’t already planning to go.
“My body, my choice” only makes sense when someone else’s life isn’t at stake.
Fun fact: If my younger sister was in a car accident and desperately needed a blood transfusion to live, and I was the only person on Earth who could donate blood to save her, and even though donating blood is a relatively easy, safe, and quick procedure no one can force me to give blood. Yes, even to save the life of a fully grown person, it would be ILLEGAL to FORCE me to donate blood if I didn’t want to.
See, we have this concept called “bodily autonomy.” It’s this….cultural notion that a person’s control over their own body is above all important and must not be infringed upon.
Like, we can’t even take LIFE SAVING organs from CORPSES unless the person whose corpse it is gave consent before their death. Even corpses get bodily autonomy.
To tell people that they MUST sacrifice their bodily autonomy for 9 months against their will in an incredibly expensive, invasive, difficult process to save what YOU view as another human life (a debatable claim in the early stages of pregnancy when the VAST majority of abortions are performed) is desperately unethical. You can’t even ask people to sacrifice bodily autonomy to give up organs they aren’t using anymore after they have died.
You’re asking people who can become pregnant to accept less bodily autonomy than we grant to dead bodies.
reblogging for commentary
But, assuming the mother wasn’t raped, the choice to HAVE a baby and risk sacrificing their “bodily autonomy” is a choice that the mother made. YOu don’t have to have sex with someone. Cases of rape aside, it isn’t ethical to say abortion is justified. The unborn baby has rights, too.
First point: Bodily autonomy can be preserved, even if another life is dependent on it. See again the example about the blood donation.
And here’s another point: When you say that “rape is the exception” you betray something FUNDAMENTALLY BROKEN about your own argument.
Because a fetus produced from sexual assault is biologically NO DIFFERENT than a fetus produced from consensual sex. No difference at all.
If one is alive, so is the other. If one is a person, so is the other. If one has a soul, then so does the other. If one is a little blessing that happened for a reason and must be protected, then so is the other.
When you say that “Rape is the exception” what you betray is this: It isn’t about a life. This isn’t about the little soul sitting inside some person’s womb, because if it was you wouldn’t care about HOW it got there, only that it is a little life that needs protecting.
When you say “rape is the exception” what you say is this: You are treating pregnancy as a punishment. You are PUNISHING people who have had CONSENSUAL SEX but don’t want to go through a pregnancy. People who DARED to have consensual sex without the goal of procreation in mind, and this is their “consequence.”
And that is gross.
^ THIS. This is this this THIS THIS THIS. THIS!!!!!
This is probably the strongest and well worded/supported argument for abortion that I have ever read.
This is probably the strongest and well worded/supported argument for THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE abortion that I have ever read.
if u are scared or worried or stressed please just remember that even if you mess up super badly, doggies on the street will still tug on their owners when u walk by because they wanna say hello to u so badly