It's about power.

Don't get it mixed: Politics are about power.

The conservatives want to keep it. The liberals want to spread it around, and those in the middle are just trying to make it to tomorrow. They just want to get their kids to school and dinner on the table. Some of them want to go to college. Some of them want to work, and some of them don't. But we all want to be free.

And it just seems to me that some people want to keep all of the power to themselves -- that they want to secure every freedom for themselves, even if it means snatching it away from someone else, someone less fortunate. That is what the Republicans are attempting to do by stigmatizing Planned Parenthood, abortion, contraception and women's health in general. Why else would anyone not think that everyone has a right to his or her own body?

I read an article on the Mother Jones website about a woman who sought out an abortion before Roe v. Wade, and her story was horrible. It was almost unbearable to read because things could easily be that bad again if the Republican party gets its way -- if it really ruins the good work that places like Planned Parenthood accomplish. And with organizations like the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation taking sides in a fight fraught with hostile contenders, it feels quite possible that things will not be good anytime soon.

Not with battles over who should have access to contraception raging right now. Not with laws requiring doctors to force a woman to hear a baby's heartbeat before receiving an abortion. Not with people taking sides on an issue that should be important to everyone, regardless of your sex or class or political party. Everyone has a right to his or her body. That's the only power we really have.

And on that note, some lyrics from one of my favorite musicians Ani DiFranco:

wouldn’t it be nice if we had an amendment
to give civil rights to women
to once and for all just really lay it down
from the point of view of women

i know what you’re thinking
that’s just redundant
chicks got it good now
they can almost be president
but it’s worker against worker
time and time again
cuz the rich use certain issues as a tool
and when i say we need the ERA
it ain’t cuz i’m a fool
it’s cuz without it
nobody can get away with anything cool

and you don’t have to go far
like just over to canada
to feel a heightened sense of live and let live
what is it about americans
like so many pit bulls
trained to attack and to never give

we gotta put down abortion
put it down in the books for good
as central to the civil rights of women
make diversity legal
make it finally understood
through the civil rights of women

and if you don’t like abortion
don’t have an abortion!
and teach your children
how they can avoid them
but don’t treat all women
like they are your children
compassion has many faces, many names
and if men can kill
and be decorated instead of blamed
then a woman called upon to mother
can choose to refrain

contrary to eons of old-time religion
your body is your only true dominion
nature is not here to serve you
(or at any cost to preserve you)
that’s just some preacher man’s
old-time opinion

life is sacred
life is also profane
a woman’s life must be hers to name
let an amendment put this brutal game to rest

trust 
women will still take you to their breast
trust
women will always do their best
trust
our differences make us stronger not less

-"Amendment" by Ani D. (2012)