something to guest post on Mark's blog - US-centric
Right now, there is a whole slew of legislation here in the United States, on both state and federal levels that undermine access not only to abortion, not only to contraception, but to even to basic care like cancer screenings. The common thread in all these awful proposals is sheer contempt for women and our health and our livelihoods. Think I exaggerate?
UPDATE: House voted to strip Planned Parenthood of funding. Fuck you.
UPDATE: South Dakota's legislature wants, effectively, to make the murder of abortion doctors and patients legally permissible.
When John Boehner took over as Speaker of the House, he professed that his first order of business was to create jobs and shrink government. Instead, he made his first order of business about...restricting abortion access. The status quo is that federal funds cannot be used for abortion except in the case of rape, incest, or to protect the mother's life. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act had several provisions that went further than this though. The first sought to reword the exception for rape, from "rape" to "forcible rape", as if rape weren't inherently forcible. Also on the agenda of the US House of Representatives are bills to allow doctors to refuse to provide abortions to pregnant women even if the abortion is necessary to save the mother's life and to strip Planned Parenthood of all funding. No matter what your views are on abortion, the call to defund Planned Parenthood should concern you because low-income communities go there for all sorts of health services, including screening for breast cancer, cervical cancer, STIs, and diabetes. Planned Parenthood offers vital health services to people who can't afford private health insurance, who can't see private practice doctors.
In my own state of Virginia, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli opened his reign term with a legal opinion saying that the Virginia Board of Health could impose hospital-like regulations on providers of first-trimester abortion, ostensibly to make the procedure "safer" for women. Never mind that first-trimester abortion is just as safe - safer, really - than other outpatient procedures, yet is subjected to all sorts of burdensome rules that the other procedures are not. These rules include biased counseling and mandatory waiting periods. The endgame here is to force most of Virginia's clinics to stop providing abortions altogether.
Another bill in the Virginia General Assembly would grant personhood rights to fetuses. Yeah. My own state delegate voted yes on both of those.
There is a common meme in the pro-choice community about pro-lifers, that they'll make three exceptions to abortion: rape, incest, and me. So it's entirely possible that Delegate Tom Rust (R-Herndon) or Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli or Governor Bob McDonnell or Speaker Boehner will find that a woman in their own lives is pregnant and needs to terminate it. The thing is, they will have the resources to circumvent all the nasty restrictions out there.* It's never been a question of whether abortion can happen (it always, always can), but who gets to have one safely. These politicians' own daughters will have the resources to stay safe and healthy, but the rest of us might be driven to go to the likes of Kermit Gosnell, whose bullshit could have been PREVENTED had politicians not undermined women's access to reproductive health services.
Thus the worst thing about these anti-choice policies isn't so much their being anti-choice as it is the classism (and racism and, of course, SEXISM) behind them; they specifically screw over poor women, who are often women of color. These women can't afford the services that would help them control their own fertility. This drives them into unintended pregnancy which they're forced either to terminate in dangerous ways or carry to term. Am I the only one who's noting a cruel irony in being forced to carry a pregnancy to term because you couldn't afford an abortion? How do you afford to sustain a pregnancy, let alone care for a child, if you can't afford an abortion?
What is the point of all this rambling? It's a call to action. Most of us do not, in fact, make our first order of business to stop women getting abortions. Most of us WANT access to contraception, and medically accurate sex education for young people. We do not stand for Republican bullshit about redefining rape and letting pregnant women die and shutting down providers of preventative health care. But we need to make ourselves heard. That's why I'm calling on all of you to contact your Congressmen (and have you noticed how much of the time it is, specifically, men, who propose these horrible policies?) and Senators and state-level legislators, whether it's to thank them for being allies of women or to let them know that you have a big problem with their contempt for women's health. Get involved with your state's Planned Parenthood, or at least follow it on twitter. Follow the twitter campaign of #DearJohn, started by the one and only Sady Doyle. Donate, if you can, or volunteer your time. Sign these petitions. Walk for choice in your nearest metro area. Get the conversation started.
*So, for that matter, will yours truly. Have I ever truly had to worry about my right to choose? Not so much. I - well, my family, who cares for me - am not poor. Empathy and compassion for people who aren't blessed with loving and well off parents lie behind my commitment to reproductive justice. The alternative is an attitude of "I got mine, so the hell with the rest of you."
UPDATE: House voted to strip Planned Parenthood of funding. Fuck you.
UPDATE: South Dakota's legislature wants, effectively, to make the murder of abortion doctors and patients legally permissible.
When John Boehner took over as Speaker of the House, he professed that his first order of business was to create jobs and shrink government. Instead, he made his first order of business about...restricting abortion access. The status quo is that federal funds cannot be used for abortion except in the case of rape, incest, or to protect the mother's life. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act had several provisions that went further than this though. The first sought to reword the exception for rape, from "rape" to "forcible rape", as if rape weren't inherently forcible. Also on the agenda of the US House of Representatives are bills to allow doctors to refuse to provide abortions to pregnant women even if the abortion is necessary to save the mother's life and to strip Planned Parenthood of all funding. No matter what your views are on abortion, the call to defund Planned Parenthood should concern you because low-income communities go there for all sorts of health services, including screening for breast cancer, cervical cancer, STIs, and diabetes. Planned Parenthood offers vital health services to people who can't afford private health insurance, who can't see private practice doctors.
In my own state of Virginia, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli opened his reign term with a legal opinion saying that the Virginia Board of Health could impose hospital-like regulations on providers of first-trimester abortion, ostensibly to make the procedure "safer" for women. Never mind that first-trimester abortion is just as safe - safer, really - than other outpatient procedures, yet is subjected to all sorts of burdensome rules that the other procedures are not. These rules include biased counseling and mandatory waiting periods. The endgame here is to force most of Virginia's clinics to stop providing abortions altogether.
Another bill in the Virginia General Assembly would grant personhood rights to fetuses. Yeah. My own state delegate voted yes on both of those.
There is a common meme in the pro-choice community about pro-lifers, that they'll make three exceptions to abortion: rape, incest, and me. So it's entirely possible that Delegate Tom Rust (R-Herndon) or Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli or Governor Bob McDonnell or Speaker Boehner will find that a woman in their own lives is pregnant and needs to terminate it. The thing is, they will have the resources to circumvent all the nasty restrictions out there.* It's never been a question of whether abortion can happen (it always, always can), but who gets to have one safely. These politicians' own daughters will have the resources to stay safe and healthy, but the rest of us might be driven to go to the likes of Kermit Gosnell, whose bullshit could have been PREVENTED had politicians not undermined women's access to reproductive health services.
Thus the worst thing about these anti-choice policies isn't so much their being anti-choice as it is the classism (and racism and, of course, SEXISM) behind them; they specifically screw over poor women, who are often women of color. These women can't afford the services that would help them control their own fertility. This drives them into unintended pregnancy which they're forced either to terminate in dangerous ways or carry to term. Am I the only one who's noting a cruel irony in being forced to carry a pregnancy to term because you couldn't afford an abortion? How do you afford to sustain a pregnancy, let alone care for a child, if you can't afford an abortion?
What is the point of all this rambling? It's a call to action. Most of us do not, in fact, make our first order of business to stop women getting abortions. Most of us WANT access to contraception, and medically accurate sex education for young people. We do not stand for Republican bullshit about redefining rape and letting pregnant women die and shutting down providers of preventative health care. But we need to make ourselves heard. That's why I'm calling on all of you to contact your Congressmen (and have you noticed how much of the time it is, specifically, men, who propose these horrible policies?) and Senators and state-level legislators, whether it's to thank them for being allies of women or to let them know that you have a big problem with their contempt for women's health. Get involved with your state's Planned Parenthood, or at least follow it on twitter. Follow the twitter campaign of #DearJohn, started by the one and only Sady Doyle. Donate, if you can, or volunteer your time. Sign these petitions. Walk for choice in your nearest metro area. Get the conversation started.
*So, for that matter, will yours truly. Have I ever truly had to worry about my right to choose? Not so much. I - well, my family, who cares for me - am not poor. Empathy and compassion for people who aren't blessed with loving and well off parents lie behind my commitment to reproductive justice. The alternative is an attitude of "I got mine, so the hell with the rest of you."