The Skeeter Daddle Diaries

When I was the ripe old age of 20, I decided to get a vasectomy. The world sure didn’t need any more Skeeters, I decided, and furthermore, I knew I wouldn’t be much of a dad. Maybe too selfish, maybe knew I’d be broke and out of work, maybe just wasn’t in my life’s job description. Looking back 50 years later, I don’t have any regrets whatsoever even though I suspect I might have been an okay father but hey, the world has plenty of okay fathers and way plenty kids without me adding to the glut. Deciding to be childless was one thing, finding a doc who would perform the vasectomy on a 20 year old was a lot more daunting. The first few I went to quizzed me about my decision, told me they wouldn’t perform it, figured I might change my mind down the road. I assured them I wouldn’t be changing my mind. They assured me they wouldn’t have any part of my plans.

I will say, at least I didn’t have picketers outside the clinics and doctors’ offices, shouting at me, screaming Bible verses, telling me I would go to hell if I prevented a life from coming into this world. But what I took away from all this was that it was my body all right, but there were those who thought maybe it wasn’t. They knew better than me and they had the scalpel hand. They had the law on their side. They had the Power and I had, well, I had pretty much nothing. Way of the world, I guess.

I could have used birth control the rest of my life. Could have abstained. Could have been a priest. There would still be those self-righteous folks who would object to the pill, to the day-after drug, to condoms, to … well, you name it, they would pass a law if they could. And they do. They prevent Planned Parent clinics from operating in a lot of states, they ban the morning after pill, they want government out of everything BUT your sexuality. And today they’re arguing at the Supreme Court that abortions be made illegal, essentially. They’ve decided when life begins and they have the Bible on their side. If you don’t believe in the Bible, if you think life begins at birth, if you don’t happen to believe that abortion is baby killing, well, get ready, things are about to change. And not to your liking.

Nobody, and I mean pretty much nobody, is pro-abortion. Abortion is a hard damn decision and I wouldn’t want to be in the position to have to make it. But …plenty of women, girls really, find themselves deciding if a child is the right choice. The Court is going to help them with that now. For sure some will do okay raising an unwanted kid, some by themselves, some just a kid themselves, some struggling to be a mother and still find a job. But a lot of women are going to discover their body isn’t theirs, their decision isn’t theirs, and their future was determined by five or six people in black robes. Way of the world, maybe, but that doesn’t make it right.

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