Free Cunt by Betty Dodson Inga Muscio

experienced the unspeakable horror of back-alley abortions,
     and I am. I also realize that it might seem as if I’m ungrateful to all the cuntlovin’
     women who fought their hearts raw for legal abortions, which I am not. The fact that
     there now exists a generation of women who can actually consider clinical abortion
     to be an oppressive diversion from our own power is based wholly upon the foundation that our mothers and sisters built for us. I sincerely thank the individuals
     who fought so hard that I may have the luxury of the belief I now hold. Evolutionarily
     speaking, it is quite natural for this fight to progress into a new arena, for the
     fight is not over, it has not ended. The squabble between pro-lifers and pro-choicers
     serves only to keep our eyes off the target, and nothing more.
    Without the women in my life, both living and dead, I would have been roadkill simply
     ages ago. All women benefit from concentrating our energy on the power within our
     own circle of friends, creating informal health collectives where we discuss things
     like our bodies and our selves.
    Abortion clinics, in their present incarnation, will be completely unnecessary when
     we believe in our own power, and the power of our immediate communities. The abortion
     issue can become a personal, intimate thing amongst cuntlovin’ women friends.
    Can you say Amen.
     
    Nobody here is saying abortion is a form of birth control.
    It isn’t.
    Having an abortion totally sucks. Practicing a birth control lifestyle is a fabulous
     all expenses paid, carte blanche vacation in Tahiti compared to terminating a pregnancy.
    Birth control is preventative medicine (referring, of course, to the nurturing, woman-centered
     definitions of “medicine”). It is actively sustaining a lifestyle that grosses and
     nets the fewest possibilities of conceiving a child. Having an abortion, on the other
     hand, is terminating the progress of something that is already quite under way.
    However, since the morning-after pill has been cleared by the American Food and Drug
     Association, abortion and birth control have kinda merged a bit.
    The morning-after pill was not available to me the three times I was pregnant. If
     it had been, I do not know if I would have taken it, because I am deathly fearful
     of pills, and am unclear on the long-term side effects we’re talkin’ here. There is
     definitely an allure in a pill one can take “just to be safe.” Absolute knowledge
     of conception is a non-issue. Take the pill, have your period, and if it’s a little
     heavy and clotty, figure ya mighta been, but then again maybe not.
    Kinda preventative, kinda terminator style.
    Yeah, the morning-after pill runs ’long a misty boundary.
    One thing I’m pretty certain about, though. Featuring this pill as a fabulous star
     in one’s birth control lifestyle would rend untold—quite possibly irreparable—damage
     to the lining of one’s uterus. Since it’s now accessible, I am concerned that women
     could start relying on it too heavily.
    My opinion of the morning-after pill also runs along a misty boundary. It’s damn important
     for a lot of reasons. But to the day I keel over, I’ll be a diehard, furrow-browed
     skeptic whenever male-run industries are involved with us womenfolk’s business.
     
    That said, I know of three birth control lifestyles that are 100 percent safe and
     infallible.
    The first—abstinence—is no fun and extremely unhealthy, so forget that one.
    Masturbation is fun. Lordisa, is masturbation fun. It’s also liberating, empowering
     and a superlative form of safe sex. You cannot get pregnant or become HIV positive
     even if you are in a circle jerk with everyone and her sister. Besides all of these
     outstanding qualities, masturbation is an absolutely peerless cure for the hiccups.
    Masturbation is a high art. I have a cuntlovin’ friend who masturbates without touching
     herself. She ornately concentrates on an erotic