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'We had abortions': 5,000 on Ms. [magazine] petition
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | October 4, 2006 | DAVID CRARY

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."


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: abortion
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To: teenyelliott
"Too bad we can't abort her...

She doesn't need abortion. She needs revolution. The Copernican revolution. The realization that she's not the center of the Universe.

41 posted on 10/04/2006 6:34:43 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life.)
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To: MotleyGirl70
''We Had Abortions'' that lists names of thousands of women who signed a petition making that declaration.

Misery dearly loves company. Thrives on it. Can't go on without it.

42 posted on 10/04/2006 6:36:05 PM PDT by Frwy (Eternity without Jesus is a hell-of-a long time.)
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To: reg45

That's cold.


43 posted on 10/04/2006 6:36:10 PM PDT by keats5 (tolerance of intolerant people is cultural suicide)
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To: Kimmers

Haven't you heard? Sin is the new civil right.


44 posted on 10/04/2006 6:38:35 PM PDT by keats5 (tolerance of intolerant people is cultural suicide)
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To: MotleyGirl70

So sad and so sick. I doubt their testimonies will go over as well as the testimonies of women who admit to having an abortion and are now pro-life (from whom they undoubtedly got the idea.)


45 posted on 10/04/2006 6:38:36 PM PDT by TAdams8591
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To: TUAN_JIM
I don't believe that most of these woman are evil.

They have been conditioned to think that it is no big deal. They have been taught that they don't need to worry about having sex, because there is a quick fix if a "problem" arises.

It is a mindset that women have been indoctrinated into by the media and the left.

Exceptions are women like the one in the story, who already has a child and is trying yet again for a perfect one. She knows what she had, and what she did. She is evil.

46 posted on 10/04/2006 6:38:54 PM PDT by teenyelliott (Soylent green should be made outta liberals...)
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To: MotleyGirl70

I sent my name in.

Look for Victoria Queen. And Cleo Patra. Or Lizzy Fortewaks.


47 posted on 10/04/2006 6:39:13 PM PDT by sergeantdave (Consider that nearly half the people you pass on the street meet Lenin's definition of useful idiot)
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To: MotleyGirl70

On the 'Brightside' there have been 30 MILLION abortions, yet only 5000 women are proud enough to admit having one.


48 posted on 10/04/2006 6:39:45 PM PDT by Mr. Brightside
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To: MotleyGirl70
There is little difference between the Nazis of yesteryear and the pro abortionists of today.They both destroy(ed) innocent human beings - some for the very same reasons a la Planned Parenthood's Margaret Sanger. Frau Steinem is no different than Herman Goering's wife with human skin lampshades from Jews gassed at Dachau.
49 posted on 10/04/2006 6:40:09 PM PDT by Apercu ("Res ipsa loquitur")
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To: Mrs. Don-o

You made me cry and go hug my little ones.

Well done.


50 posted on 10/04/2006 6:42:05 PM PDT by mockingbyrd (Good heavens! What women these Christians have-----Libanus)
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To: MotleyGirl70

ALERT: "more than 5000 murderers confess openly"


51 posted on 10/04/2006 6:42:47 PM PDT by LiteKeeper (Beware the secularization of America; the Islamization of Eurabia)
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To: gotribe

Wonder what Ms.Findling's 5 year old thinks.


52 posted on 10/04/2006 6:43:57 PM PDT by fatima (Go Eagles.)
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To: reg45

You are a complete fool. A complete fool.


53 posted on 10/04/2006 6:45:52 PM PDT by TankerKC (Step Back! Doors Closing.)
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To: MAD-AS-HELL
You are is big a fool as reg45. If Rush said the same thing, then he is the same ind of fool.
54 posted on 10/04/2006 6:47:45 PM PDT by TankerKC (Step Back! Doors Closing.)
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To: MotleyGirl70
When my then 39-year-old wife and I were expecting our third child a couple years ago, we were asked if we wanted to be tested for the markers for Down Syndrome and other defects, since she was considered in the "high-risk" age bracket.

Our decision was that since the results would make no difference, we rejected it as an unnecesary risk.

Today, our 20 month old is the most joyous addition to our family. We now have two teenagers and our baby. Her good health is indeed a blessing, but not a requirement for our love.

55 posted on 10/04/2006 6:47:57 PM PDT by TravisBickle
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To: MotleyGirl70

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.

I'm speechless.


Count me speechless as well. My Lord.


56 posted on 10/04/2006 6:48:58 PM PDT by greccogirl
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To: MotleyGirl70
5000 Murderers & Counting! Hope they are proud of themselves!
57 posted on 10/04/2006 6:54:22 PM PDT by blondee123 (Politicians are like diapers, need to be changed often & for the same reason!)
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To: MotleyGirl70

If only her mother had!


58 posted on 10/04/2006 6:54:56 PM PDT by Juan Medén
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To: Dilbert San Diego
Being such a man hater, how did she ever.....um......do the types of things that cause pregnancy?

Easy- she raped a man. No man would have done that voluntarily.

59 posted on 10/04/2006 6:58:45 PM PDT by DilJective (Proudly serving in the US Army)
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To: blondee123

I have a litmus test for women:if they approve of abortion then I want little to do with them.Dating,living with ,or marrying a woman who would murder her own baby scares the he** out of me;better to be alone.


60 posted on 10/04/2006 7:02:26 PM PDT by hoosierham (Waddaya mean Freedom isn't free ?;will you take a creditcard?)
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