Why Didn't I Move to Washington?

Just in time for the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, NARAL Pro-Choice America has released their report Who Decides? that details the state of reproductive rights nationwide. They assign each state a letter grade based on the legal, political, and social factors (such as health coverage for birth control, access to women's health services, and abortion laws). Not that I find it particularly surprising, but here's the performance of a few states I take a personal interest in:

• Michigan . . . . . . . F
• Massachusetts . . B-
• Oregon . . . . . . . . A
• Washington . . . . A+

Yep. There's a reason why I felt like I was living in hostile territory when I was in West Michigan (and my heart goes out to all of you who are still fighting the good fight). Not that I'll rule out moving back there someday, but sometimes it's nice to imagine what it would be like to live in one of those states that got an A. Like when I'm starting a family, or, I don't know, maybe just being a woman.

And while we're on the subject of maps and rankings, Mapping Our Rights: Nagivating Discrimination against Women, Men, and Families is another interactive report on human rights in the United States. It was put together by Ipas, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, and SisterSong and includes a greater diversity of important factors, such as the right to gay marriage and the legal status of midwifery. The results are thus more complicated, but tell a roughly comparable story. Ranked from 1 (most favorable) to 50 (most hostile) we have:

• Michigan . . . . . . . 43
• Massachusetts . . 11
• Oregon . . . . . . . . 10
• Washington . . . . . 2

I don't know what they're drinking up there in Washington state, but whatever it is, I wish they'd share it with the rest of the nation. I'd say they were just living too close to Canada, but then again so are the Michiganders and that doesn't seem to have helped.

I think these three happy uteri live in Washington . . .

. . . and thanks to Radical Doula for the head's up on the NARAL report.