Posted on 10/04/2006 5:33:24 PM PDT by MotleyGirl70
NEW YORK -- As the abortion debate rages, Ms. magazine is releasing its fall issue next week with a cover story titled ''We Had Abortions'' that lists names of thousands of women who signed a petition making that declaration.
The publication coincides with what the abortion-rights movement considers a watershed moment.
Abortion access in many states is being curtailed, activists are uncertain about the stance of the U.S. Supreme Court, and South Dakotans vote Nov. 7 on whether to ban virtually all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest.
''All this seems very dire,'' said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Ms.-publishing Feminist Majority Foundation. ''We have to get away from what the politicians are saying and get women's lives back in the picture.''
Even before the issue reaches newsstands Oct. 10, anti-abortion activists have been decrying it. Judie Brown, president of the American Life League, wrote in a commentary that when she saw a Ms. announcement of the project, "the evil practically jumped right off the page."
Ms. executive editor Katherine Spillar said more than 5,000 women have signed the petition so far -- heeding its appeal to declare they are unashamed of the choice they made. The magazine itself had room for only 1,016 names, she said Tuesday, but all of them will be viewable online as Ms. encourages other women to continue adding their signatures.
Ms. says it will send the petition to Congress, the White House and state legislators.
The signatories include Ms. founder Gloria Steinem, comedian Carol Leifer, and actresses Kathy Najimy and Amy Brenneman, but most are not famous names.
Tyffine Jones, 27, of Jackson, Miss., said she had no hesitation about signing -- although she lives in a state where restrictions on abortion are tough and all but one abortion clinic has been closed.
Jones said she got an abortion 10 years ago -- enduring harassment from protesters when she entered the clinic -- in order to finish high school. She went on to become the first member of her family to graduate from college, and hopes at some point to attend law school.
"I wanted to do something bigger with myself -- I didn't want to be stopped by anything," she said in a telephone interview.
Another signatory, Debbie Findling of San Francisco, described her difficult decision last year to have an abortion after tests showed that she would bear a son with Down syndrome.
"I felt it was my right to make the decision, but having that right doesn't make the decision any easier," she said. "It was the hardest decision I've ever made."
Findling, 42, is married, with a 5-year-old daughter, and has been trying to get pregnant again while pursuing her career as a philanthropic foundation executive.
She says too many of her allies in the abortion-rights movement tend to minimize, at least publicly, the psychological impact of abortion.
"It's emotionally devastating," she said in a phone interview. "I don't regret my decision -- but I regret having been put in the position to have to make that choice. It's something I'll live with for the rest of my life."
Findling strongly supports the Ms. petition, and believes women who have had abortions need to be more open about their decisions. She has written an essay about her own experience, and plans to include it in an anthology she hopes to publish next year.
Ms. mounted this kind of petition drive when it was first published. Its debut issue in 1972 included a manifesto signed by 53 women -- many of them well-known -- declaring that they had undergone abortions despite state laws outlawing the procedure.
The next year, the Supreme Court issued its Roe v. Wade decision establishing abortion rights nationwide. Some abortion-rights activists are concerned that Roe could be overturned, either by the current court or if President Bush has the opportunity to appoint one more justice.
Smeal said Ms. staffers called the women who signed the petition to verify their information and be sure they were willing to have their names in print.
"The women thanked us for doing this," Smeal said. "They wanted to tell their stories."
I have often hypothesized that the aborted people were the difference in the 2000 election.
"Being such a man hater, how did she ever.....um......do the types of things that cause pregnancy?"
Maybe she got splashed? Ever hear of turkey basters?
I have often hypothesized that people who see the "bright side" of 5,000 dead babies could do anything Mohammad Atta would do.
I have five children. Triplets in the middle and when we learned that my wife was carrying them someone asked me very quietly if we wished for a selective reduction. There were three hearts beating. They were ours then and they are ours now. And we couldn't be happier.
The grocery bills might kill me but the kids won't.
How much bigger can you get than to be a mom? It's the highest order on this earth I think.
Have you ever wondered why years after having your tonsels removed you don't have any emotional problems - and yet with abortion the depression is very often overwhelming?
According to recent reports published by Paul Scott's syndicated column, one million two hundred thousand (1,200,000) abortions took place in the United States last year. Even more shocking, is the information that the government financed between 222,000 and 278,000 of these abortions.
5,000 wrote letter wanting their names published??
How about the other 1,195,000
5,000 is a drop in the bucket. I guess the rest arent so happy that they murdered their kids.
http://www.tbaptist.com/aab/god'sjudgmentuponamerica.htm
What is needed on abortions is a mandatory cooling off period. Say, until the kid is 3 yrs old. Then if they are still serious about not having the kid, they get to personally put feed them into a wood chipper, now that such things are on the Iraqi govt surplus market.
Nothing wrong with killing babies, unborn or not, right?
Dittos with the killing of Jews and other subhumans.
Oh wait, the Nazi's aren't still in power?
I agree with you, but Bb careful of what you type one here...i wrote that once and people got mad at me. Funny thing is that Rush commented on this yesterday and said the same thing you typed and what I typed a month or two ago. The more liberals abort the more of a chance we'll have less liberals being born.
"What is needed on abortions is a mandatory cooling off period. Say, until the kid is 3 yrs old. Then if they are still serious about not having the kid, they get to personally put feed them into a wood chipper..."
Somewhere, Ann Coulter is laughing...
,,, their kids won't ever be able to.
But all the babies who are aborted are "conservative." They all want to live.
The other problem is that rejoicing in the killing of babies makes you the moral equivalent of Gloria Steinem. Congratulations, MAD-AS-HELL.
The only problem is that the Democrats will register them (the aborted ones) to vote anyway. Without photo IDs, no one will be able to challenge them.
Wowee.
And when they ask if you want to have the test done for Down's Syndrome, they TELL you it is not foolproof. It means you probably will have a DS baby, but maybe not. And I have seen stories of women who chose not to end the pregnancy, and the baby was fine.
Why would you take the chance? And why would you kill a DS baby?
"Sorry, I made you, but you are not perfect and VERY inconvenient, so you will die."
I have three kids. I always refused the test, because I didn't care.
And many children of libs grow up to be conservative.
turkey baster
Did Ms. also print the names of those people aborted? All 25 million of them?
Too bad we can't abort her, and have the little joy she killed.
Kathy Najimy had an abortion?
Who rolled her in four?
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