Talking Points on Abortion Rights1/17/02
1. Over my year shere at UT, I’ve come out on these steps on many occasions. I’ve come out as a lesbian, as a socialist, as someone who opposes the war in Afghanistan and supports the rights of University staff. Today I’m coming out again--as someone liberated by the right to safe, legal, and accessible abortion. I gain courage from the fact that nearly half of all American women stand here with me in spirit. Nearly half of all American women will seek an abortion at some point in their lives. In 1963 my mother might have been among them, but she didn’t have this choice. She sacrificed medical school , her economic security, and her independence to have me. Although I am glad to be here, if she had had the choice and used it, I would not have known the difference.
2. In 1984, I was a sophomore in college. I discovered I was pregnant by my long-term boyfriend, who, after writing me a check for $190 and dropping me off at the clinic, left me for good. I was working way through school at Penn State. I was terrified at the prospect of bearing a child. While I was ashamed at having beeb careless enough to become pregnant in the first place , I experienced the abortion as a huge relief , not at all marked by trauma or shame. In many meaningful ways, it saved my life. Childbearing and raising should be undertaken under conditions of freedom and material and emotional security. Today I have an eleven-year-old daughter . I am glad I waited until I was ready emotionally and materially to raise her without making the wilting sacrifices required of my mother.
3. I have no shame about having had an abortion. And I think our movement should have no shame either. We have, unfortunately, been shamed into hiding by the anti-choice movement and its misrepresentations of fetuses, of women who seek abortions, and of doctors who perform them. Instead of demanding the right to safe, legal, and accessible abortion, we have been cowering behind slogans like “reduce the need, defend the right.” Where has this retreat gotten us? 4. Abortion rights have been under attack since they were won in 1973. Nearly 90% of counties in the United States have no abortion providers. Multiple legal restrictions –such as waiting periods and parental and spousal consent requirements--make abortion inaccessible to young, working, and poor women. In fifteen states there is a gag rule preventing organizations receiving state funds from mentioning abortion. Only 18 states fund abortion for poor women. Overall, states have enacted 262 anti-choice measures over the past six years. The struggle locally at Brackenridge Hospital to keep abortion services available there points up the erosion of access nationwide.
5. It is important to point out that this erosion has taken place under democratss and republicans alike. The Hyde Amendment, which prohibits federal assistance for poor women’s abortions, passes every year regardless of which party dominates Congress. During Clinton’s presidency, when Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate, none of the promised abortion rights improvements—including the Freedom of Choice Act and a fight against the Hyde amendment—took place. Instead, in a deal with Republicans, Clinton agreed to a global gag rule. Sentate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, proposed a ban on all post-viability abortions. Still NOW and NARRAL uncritically back democrats, silencing critics and alternative candidates such as Ralph Nader, who would actually defend our right to safe, legal, and accessible abortion.
6. I see an urgent need for a sustained and unashamed movement like one that won right to choose in 1973 under Nixon, it bears emphasizing, whose position on abortion resemled that of George W. Bush. The persistence of the movement pushed the political balance in favor of choice. Bush would like to tilt the balance on the Supreme Court against abortion, but a massive public outcry could be a deciding factor again in preventing him from getting away with it. In 1989, hundreds of thousands of pro-choice supporters marched on Washington. It is no accident that while Chief Justice Rehnquist was writing what he thought was a majority decision in the Webster case overturning Roe, Reagan appointee Sandra Day O’Connor swung the other way. The electoral strategy has failed and an annual day of celebration like this one is not enough to defend women’s lives.
7. In this context we need a movement that recognizes that abortion is a class issue as well as an issue of women’s freedom. Control of women and the nuclear family are tied to economic system that prioritizes corporate greed over human need and does not provide basic necessities for families such as heath care, education, food and shelter, and transportation. It is a bitter irony that young women who get pregnant are told not to have an abortion; but they are also vilified if they seek social support in form of welfare. The very same people who want to restrict abortion want to keep young women in ignorance regarding contraception and safe sex. And our movement is in retreat; abortion is a dirty word. I clearly remember the 1995 New York Times editorial in which Naomi Wolff condemned late-term abortions, seeking common ground with the anti-choice right. We can’t cave in to the misrepresentations out there . There is no such thing as ‘partial birth’ abortion. This is a term opponents invented to shame women who seek medically necessary and extremely rare late-term abortions into risking their lives. We should have no shame in our support of this option in such cases.
8. In general, the right to choose when and under what conditions to bear children is not a necessary evil—it is a necessary good. Nearly half of all American women will avail themselves of this good during their lifetime; it is a safe procedure and a responsible choice. The scientific and medical community maintains that the earliest age of viability remains at 24-26 weeks, while more than 98 percent of abortions take place before the end of the twentieth week of pregnancy. The embryo, fetus not a child; abortion is not murder. The anti-choice movement turns women into incubators rather than persons .
9. JFA exhibit coming back—try to shame us with their grotesque misrepresentations of abortion. Activist meeting tonight 7 p.m. Quacks 43rd and Duval
10. I am not ashamed to know firsthand what the right to choose means to American women. I am not ashamed to declare my support for free abortion on demand and without apology in public here today. I would be proud to march in the street to win back this vital prerequisite of women’s freedom. Let’s come out of hiding and talk back to those who would stigmatize and punish us. Let’s rebuild the movement for the right to choose for all women before we have lost it altogether. I want my daughter, should she find herself pregnant, to have the same choices that I have benefited from. For her, for all our daughters, and for ourselves, let’s build a n abortion rights movement that is not shackled by shame.