Reason First: Strike Against Alyssa Milano's Strike

In the Lysistrata yarn by Greek playwright Aristophanes, women withhold sexual congress until the men in the Peloponnesian War lay down their arms. In the centuries since this play saw action on the stage, the dramatic has become the actual... to an extent.

This time the war is over rights. Actress Alyssa Milano is calling for women to withdraw from coital favors with their significant other (assuming only heterosexual couples being the target here). The move is to go up against the Georgia law that limits abortion in the state. As serious as the case of abortion is, it is imperative that Miss Milano take into account the gravity of the situation. An abortion isn’t some random act perpetrated against a woman by a licensed doctor.

It is a solemn act that requires great physical, and more important, great psychological acuity. Being “pro life” ought to mean in support of the life of the woman. A clump of cells is just that. It is not a baby until it is fully born, and independent of the woman’s body, but not her mind.

Milano’s thought may be genuine, but to place a restriction on sex in reality, and not a dramatic work is quite damning. If she wants to fight Georgia’s law, she should petition the government, write to the governor, and voice her position on the matter on whatever platform that will her allow her to do so. To withdraw sexual intercourse is an act reserved for the page, stage, and screen. Milano should form a coalition of women, and men who hold that women are not farm animals ripe for reproduction, and little else.

She should demonstrate that she is serious about the life choices that go into engaging in an abortion. The rights of the woman are actual, and should always be placed above the non-rights of a potential.

Abortion is not a matter of the unknown, and unknowable to bring wrath upon those who participate in it. No supernatural entity could govern whether a woman is to give birth, or negate that action. For all those who shriek that the unknowable has the final authority blank out science, logic, and reason. Their cries to have women turned into skin factories are abysmal, and a menace.

Birth is not a miracle, and abortion is not murder. You can’t say that a human being bringing to bear another human is a miracle. If a woman were to give birth to a hyena, that would be a miracle. And you can’t kill anything that never had life in the beginning. While it may appear noble for Milano, and other women to engage in the extraction of sex from their partners, it actually will do more harm than good. There will just be sex-starved men who will run to pornography, escorts, other women who will not participate in the strike, or to any random slut that opens up her door to such a man. All that Milano, and other women need to do is spread the word, and speak out, not ban sexual contact. It is irrational, and devoid of any real intelligence for women to strike in this way. Milano should organize a way to get other states involved, and to show that the ones who do not put limitations on abortion are virtuous. Her crusade to continue abortion, and individual rights ought to lead her to a place where she will be satisfied with the results. At the end of Lysistrata, the fighting factions put aside their weapons and reconcile. Let’s hope that this strike will never see an actual war, and that it ends with equal parts simplicity and grace.