So I read this article, and it made me angry. I anticipated a lot of the article's content from the title -- it's pretty obvious our society puts immense pressure on women to bear children, so I figured at least part of the piece would be about the author's experience having to contend with people's shock and disapproval that she would choose to remain childless.
What I wasn't prepared for was the idea that a woman's physician would refuse to refer her for a sterilization procedure even after several years of the woman asking. As the author points out, men can choose to have a vasectomy more or less whenever they want. How preposterous and condescending is it to tell a woman she can't similarly protect herself from unwanted pregnancy, especially on the grounds that she might change her mind and regret the decision? Hello-o! That's every decision of any importance in any adult's life!
Just so I have this straight, a woman should wait until she's 30 to choose a hysterectomy because that's a life-altering action that can't be undone. But she's free to choose to have children at whatever age she likes, because ... that's not a life-changing, irreversible decision?
Honestly, maybe it would be a great idea to force everyone to wait until they're 30 to make big decisions. But if so, it should be a general principle, not a single arbitrary restriction placed on women alone.
We live in a pretty messed-up world sometimes.
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