Hau mitakuyapi. Hello my relatives. For the record, my name is Carol Two Eagles & I come as a spiritual person and as a grandmother, to stand in opposition to HB 1242.

Anti-abortion bills take the position that the primary purpose of women is to birth babies, and that on one hand a woman is automatically deemed mentally, spiritually, and emotionally competent and knowledgeable enough to raise a child from birth to productive adulthood- but she is simultaneously not mentally, spiritually, emotionally capable or wise or knowledgeable enough to know when it is best that she not continue a pregnancy.

This is as invalid an argument as claiming to be virgin and not virgin at the same time; or to be intelligent and retarded at the same time. It is not true.

This perspective is insulting to the intelligence, the strength, the wisdom of women. Bills such as HB 1242 make women- who are productive intelligent adults, less important than something that is not yet born, which is not productive, and which is not intelligent. They diminish women to the position of mere breeders.

If a woman is intelligent, wise, and knowledgeable enough to run the lives of her children once they are here, to run businesses, pilot jets, do major surgeries, then she is intelligent, wise, and knowledgeable enough to know when she should not continue a pregnancy.

In the Indian Way, since a woman is the only one who can take the mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical risks associated with pregnancy and birthing and she cannot have so much as one instant of vacation from these risks and responsibilities, she is the only one who can have any say in whether or not she remains pregnant. She has the fight to take the spiritual risks either way. Her fight to choose quality of life versus mere quantity of life is hers inherently. It is her business and hers alone, earned by dint of her unique ability to take these risks during pregnancy. A woman lays her life on the line when she becomes pregnant. There are a wide variety of well-known risks to her health throughout pregnancy; and death from childbirth is not uncommon. It is unconscionable to force her to take these risks to her life against her will.

Bills such as HB 1242 will result in a return to back-alley abortions, with all their dangers and nightmarish consequences. Children who are not wanted, for whatever reason, suffer abuse and neglect; and society suffers as well.

Bills such as HB 1242 may be well-intentioned, but the Road to Hell is paved with good intentions. From what I have seen, it is already fully paved. We do not need to put any more bricks into it.

Please vote for quality of life, not mere quantity of life, and for showing respect to women, not viewing them as mere and mindless breeders. Give HB 1242 a unanimous Do Not Pass vote.

Thank you for hearing me in a good way now. I will answer any questions you may have.