The razor's edge of luck

Black cats: good luck or bad?

She — let’s call her Joelle — was lucky to get the morning off, back on November 8, 2016, so she could cast her vote for Hillary. Her cousin was not so lucky; she had to take unpaid leave. She did, but it cost her wages just to cast her ballot. 

She — let’s call her Marianne — was lucky that her appointment at the clinic in Salt Lake City, Utah was for the evening of June 23, 2022. She was able to get the abortion she had chosen. Her colleague’s sister was not so lucky; that woman’s appointment was for Saturday, June 25th and, by then, it was too late. The Supreme Court decision in Dobbs had come down on June 24th, upon which Utah made inducing an abortion a second degree felony, and her appointment was cancelled.

She — let’s just call her Doctor — was sitting at the kitchen table, large windows behind her, overlooking the extensive back yard. She bent down to pet the cat just as the bullet shattered the window; aimed at her head, it skimmed her skull and, instead, was embedded in the cabinet. The exact date of this event is unimportant to this story, but it could have happened back in the 1990s sometime, when this sort of “direct action against abortionists” was taking place by “pro lifers”, in both Canada and the USA. In this story, this doctor did not die, and her wanna-be assassin fled through the ravine. The not-murdered doctor was able to keep her appointments at the clinic and do her job; that day, every woman at that clinic got the termination they had chosen.

Luck comes in many different forms. Sometimes it looks like hard work. Sometimes like good timing. Sometimes like bad timing. It can look like a bus that comes early or like a 5-minute delay that ends up getting you a cup of coffee from a fresh pot instead of the early-morning stale one at your favourite café. Often, the luck we experience makes only a small difference in our day and to our life. But, sometimes, the luck that befalls us rests on the magnanimity of our employer or the geography or gender of our birth or the happenstance of a phone call made and an appointment given, on bending down to pet the cat rather than sitting upright to read the newspaper at the kitchen table.

Random dumb-ass luck can help shape the life we lead. But civil society and democratic political frameworks — these are not about luck. These are about persistent, relentless work by progressives to ensure that politicians who make the laws that govern our lives uphold the values of the majority, the larger civil society: a society in which every person, regardless of details like gender and race and sexuality, can thrive, can be the agent of their own life.

My life is mine. My body is mine. It is not yours. It is not hers or his or theirs. It is mine. I have agency. But in the United States, at least 11 states have now criminalized a woman’s right over her own body. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand, to feel, to know what this means: an end to choice; an end to agency; an end to dignity. 

If it can happen in the USA, the so-called ‘land of the brave and home of the free’, it can happen anywhere. Vigilance is vital. Participation in democracy is key: Pay attention. Cast your vote. And keep paying attention. 

• Here’s where abortions in the USA are now banned or strictly limited, and where they may be soon. Implications for women with an ectopic pregnancy are life-threateningly serious; about 1 in 50 pregnancies is ectopic.
• Three doctors who provided abortions as part of their larger practice of legal medical services have been shot in Canada
• What might have happened if Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 election? 

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Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Photo by Clément Falize on Unsplash