Dear Brother,
You know what I do for a living. You know that I work to make sure that the underserved and uninsured get proper and evidence-based healthcare, especially reproductive health services (not just abortion, but yes, abortion). I know you're familiar with the trajectory of my career, in which I abandoned bringing healthcare to the wealthy because they can well afford it anyways, preferring instead to find a way to bring quality service to all and reduce health care disparities. I also know that you know that there is nothing you can say that will ever convince me that women's reproductive health is "just one issue out of many."
You know that I own a shirt saying, "Tell your mama I'm voting for Obama."
And we both know that you have a daughter.
So let me ask you, how exactly do you rationalize voting for McCain? How can you not look at your daughter and see all of the trouble she may have as she grows up if she doesn't have unfettered access to reproductive health services? What will she do as a university student (if she can afford tuition) if her university's health services can't get access to birth control pills (price on the rise) and they can't dispense Plan B (due to regulations?)
Let me ask you -- my younger brother -- about some of these decisions I assume you've thought about (and the typical conservative answer, which you are saying you implicitly agree with if you vote McCain):
- Are you giving her the Gardasil vaccine? -- She might have sex more! If she has sex she deserves the consequences (yes, even cancer)!
- Do you think that you have the right to monitor whether she can get contraception and Plan B? -- She has to ask me permission and then I'll tell her no, she shouldn't be having sex! No access means no sex!
- What are you going to tell her about sex before marriage? HPV? AIDS? -- Only women who are sluts or drug addicts get AIDS.
- If she gets pregnant, should she have access to abortion services? - No. Sluts pay the price.
- Should she have comprehensive sexual education so that she may learn about her body and how to protect herself from unwanted pregnancy and disease? -- Abstinence only!
- Are you going to teach her that having a vagina is something to value and is not the source of shame? That anatomy does not equal destiny and that she can become anything she wants to be? -- Women should always rely on men for economic security and stay home and raise the next generation, that's their role. Women in the workplace have ruined everything.
Brother, I assume you have thought about these things, because you seem so sure of yourself. You seem so positive that voting for McCain will not increase your taxes, and will protect you from Obama's "socialism" and "socialized medicine" -- and for this reason you overlook the conservative attack on women. Obama is the worst candidate you've "ever seen" -- at 32 -- so I guess you've made up your mind. I guess your daughter's uterus is an afterthought, in spite of the fact that it is a very large consideration of McSame's crew. Something to be used as a tool to inflame "the base" and buy votes.
Your daughter is chattel to be bargained with.
I know that you haven't forgotten your wife needed an abortion for medical reasons.
How can you?
So, I guess I'll keep a plane ticket to France handy, as well as a stack of Plan B. But that's okay, I'll never have to use them for myself or your daughter.
After all, you seem so sure.