The current war on women has got me thinking about a lot of the issues that women face. One that has been a problem for a long time is the idea that a woman’s prime purpose in life is to bear children. Men can do and be anything, but any woman worth her salt is at home, barefoot and pregnant. Really, any woman with a brain disagrees with that.

I’ve actually had first-hand experience with this mentality. I made the mistake of marrying an older guy when I was in my late teens. I thought, like many, that getting married and having a family is what I was supposed to do. When I got pregnant he was thrilled, treating me like a goddess, attending to my every need. I didn’t really want a baby, but I figured it would all work out. Unfortunately, it didn’t.

I had a late-term miscarriage. It was possibly the most horrific and painful experience of my life. Especially because he refused to take me to a hospital. And why was that? He was furious at me for losing the child, and said I’d made it happen. He showed no love, no concern, he even went back to bed while I was… Well, we’ll leave out the painful details. Afterward, when the doctor said I’d be risking my life to ever try for another child, the downward spiral began. From that point on, I was no longer of any use to him as a woman or a wife. His church had taught him that a woman that can’t or won’t bear children isn’t a real woman and is an abomination. Needless to say, I ended up divorcing him.

From what I’ve seen, most of this sick mentality that women are good for nothing but baby-making comes from organized religion, Christianity in particular. Women have been trained for ages to believe that they are nothing more than vessels for new life. It is their job to produce and care for as many offspring as possible. It’s twisted and sick if you ask me. If a woman wants to have children, it should be her choice, and one made after careful consideration of her mental, emotional, financial and marital situation. It should never be expected, and it should never be taken lightly.

Unfortunately, this barbaric tradition of making women act like breeding cattle has spread into the rest of society. Teens think it’s cool to get pregnant. People have unprotected sex with no thought to the consequences. Women with no place having children pop them out and get government support for them. Tens of thousands of unwanted children are born this way. Yet the religious machine keeps working to brainwash more women into giving up control of their bodies to become mindless breeding units.

Strong Woman flying – Available at Zazzle

Every woman needs to stand up for her right to choose what happens with her body. No woman should have to bear a child if she doesn’t want to. Every woman should have access to birth control. Every girl should be properly educated about safe sex, reproduction, and the true meaning of being a parent. I also believe that women should have access to abortions in cases of rape or personal health risk. I will say that I disagree strongly with abortion being used as after-the-fact birth control. There are plenty of ways to prevent pregnancy in the first place.

Unfortunately, for many of the women already brainwashed into the baby-maker mentality, there may be little or no hope of waking them up. However, it is imperative that we make sure the young girls out there grow up knowing they own their bodies and they are the ones to choose what happens with it, not any man, and not any religion. Strong women need to stand up and make sure that this horrible cycle ends. Educate the next generation, save any existing victims you can, and make sure to let every man out there know that your body belongs to you.

Briana Blair

Briana Blair is an author and artisan. She has published more then 30 books and thousands of articles across multiple sites. After practicing Paganism and witchcraft for 25 years, she's now on a journey as an atheist and skeptic. She's eclectic, unpredictable, and always evolving. Facebook - Twitter