I arrived in DC yesterday midday with an impressive group of mostly young women. Some of them I have known for a while, both through the movement for revolution and through the more recent efforts initiating a new movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy: the Enslavement and Degradation of Women.
One was a young woman who I had just met the day before up at a clinic in the South Bronx where there was a march commemorating Roe v. Wade that made its way to a fake clinic (a “Crisis Pregnancy Center”) where there was a speak-out against the lies and guilt and lack of medical help that is distributed at those centers.
Atheists and secularists generally pride themselves on respect for science, opposition to harmful religious myths, and a fierce defense of the separation of church and state. Yet there is a critical need for atheists and secularists of conscience to collectively challenge the current moral, cultural, and political siege upon women’s right to self-determination. Flowing from each of these principles, we call on atheists and secularists to make public their support for women's right to abortion and birth control. Due to the insidious climate of anti-abortion propaganda and legislation these basic rights are being viciously imperiled.
We are fast approaching the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion. Shamefully, each year, this anniversary is not marked by a massive celebration that women no longer die by the thousands in the back-alleys; not a celebration that women no longer are forced to foreclose their lives and dreams because of unwanted pregnancies; not a celebration of the doctors who risk their lives every day to provide abortions.
Instead, this anniversary is marked by an outpouring that hates all of those extremely liberating things. This outpouring calls itself the “March for Life,” but a look at their stated principles reveals an agenda of female enslavement. The following is taken from the statement on their website, "Applying the Life Principles”:
On January 1st, by 1:00 in the morning, an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida was engulfed in flames. By all accounts thus far, this was a case of arson.
But chances are you have heard nothing about this.
The fact that there has not been a single politician commenting on this violent assault on an institution that is essential to women's freedom and that this act of terror has not been picked up on in the national/mainstream media should only serve as a further wake-up call to those who care about women's rights.
For the first time in San Francisco history, banners advocating reproductive rights and justice began flying on Market Street, one of the city's main thoroughfares.
The display was organized bty the Silver Ribbon Campaign to Trust Women, a coalition of 42 national and local organizations that aims to build the momentum and solidarity of the pro-choice majority. During 2011, Congress and state legislatures proposed or enacted an unprecedented number of attacks on women's reproductive health care services, including birth control as well as abortion, while slashing basic health services.
January 22 and 23, on the 39th anniversary of the Roe V. Wade Supreme Court Decision which legalized abortion, come to DC to:
Stand up for Abortion and Birth Control
39 years after women won the right to abortion, this fundamental right is hanging by a thread.
Nearly 90% of U.S. counties have no abortion provider.
2011 saw the greatest number of restrictions passed at the state level – parental notification laws, mandatory waiting periods, gestational bans, etc. – restricting this access even further.
Doctors who provide abortions are hunted, terrorized and killed.
And the stigma and shame cast on women who get abortions is greater than ever.
Disappointed, angry, dismayed -- these are only some of the emotions I am feeling this afternoon after hearing President Obama's poor excuse for restricting access to Plan B One Step.
I am also scared. Scared about the health of my daughters.
As the mother of two daughters, just like President Obama, I try to use "common sense" as much as possible. But, also like President Obama, I am not a doctor; I am not a scientist. I use my own judgment when it comes to things I am confident I can handle -- a case of the sniffles, a little cold.
In an exciting and important victory for women’s rights advocates, Mississippi voters defeated the Personhood Amendment. While the state went Republican and voted for many candidates who supported Initiative 26, a state constitutional personhood amendment that would have given full rights to fertilized eggs, women’s rights supporters successfully defeated this dangerous initiative 58% to 42% with 96 percent of precincts reporting.
The Feminist Majority Foundation Campus Choices organizers were on the ground in Mississippi working with hundreds of Mississippians on college campuses, the statewide coalition against Initiative 26, Mississippians for Healthy Families, and the only remaining clinic providing abortion services, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Feminist Majority Foundation had a national campus organizing team, on-the-ground student organizers and scores of volunteers who organized thousands of students on the major campuses. Its signs and stickers, which read “Vote NO on 26, Save Women’s Lives” were also featured in major news outlets, including the New York Times and the Mississippi Clarion Ledger.
...efforts to grant eggs, embryos and fetuses entirely independent constitutional status would [deny] pregnant women their rights to life, liberty and medical-decision making.
Even in Mississippi—a Bible belt state with only one abortion clinic—58 percent of voters rejected Ballot Initiative 26, the so-called Personhood Amendment that would have granted zygotes the same rights as the women who carry them.
Sponsored by the Colorado-based evangelical Christian group Personhood USA, and modeled after a provision that failed in Colorado twice, Initiative 26 would have outlawed abortion in Mississippi, even in cases of rape, incest, domestic violence and life-threatening pregnancy. In addition, this change in the state’s constitution would have criminalized in-vitro fertilization and birth control methods including the IUD.
Taking its dangerous “life begins at conception” assault from state legislature to state legislature, one of the most dangerous political forces in the U.S. is stepping up its crusade for the “rights” of the unborn.
Backed by an organization called Personhood USA,the latest offensive by anti-choice Christian fascists involves a renewed movement to amend state constitutions to establish human rights and personhood status for fertilized eggs. On November 8th, Mississippi voters will decide the fate of Initiative 26, a personhood amendment that could precipitate the dismantling of Roe vs. Wade.
Ever immune to morality, reason, church-state separation precedents and an understanding of the basic laws of biology, the most flat earth reactionary segment of the pro-death anti-choice movement wants to circumvent constitutional protections for abortion by conferring personhood on fertilized eggs.This would eviscerate the premise that women have a sovereign and singular right to control their bodies by designating rights before implantation and a clinically viable pregnancy has been determined.
This article originally appeared as correspondence on the Revolution website
A two-sided battle for public opinion about abortion—and over whether Dr. Leroy Carhart will be able to continue providing later term abortions which save the lives of women—became visible on the street this week near Carhart's clinic in Germantown, Maryland.
On one end of the street, up to 200 Catholic anti-abortion protesters gathered, as they do almost every weekend, to sing and pray for an end to abortion and raise funds for so-called "counselors" to chase women entering Dr. Carhart's clinic, trying to lure them into a fake "pregnancy option" clinic across the street and lie to them about abortion.
A determining focal point in the battle for abortion rights and the lives of women begins July 31 in Germantown, MD. One of the most courageous and prominent abortion providers in the country is being targeted by one of the most hateful, fascistic, anti-woman groups in the country. Anyone who cares about the future for women needs to be there or find a way to support those who will be.
Dr. LeRoy Carhart is a hero. He provides abortions. As simple as that may sound—and as simple as that ought to be—this means that every day for more than two decades he has risked his life for the lives of women. He's been threatened. He's been stalked. His family has been harassed—even receiving calls "informing" them of his murder. Once, his farm was burned to the ground.
This coordinated assault on the state and federal levels serves as a legal counterpart to the deadly terror directed at abortion providers, such as the murder of Dr. George Tiller in a Wichita, Kansas church in May 2009.
A wave of extremely dangerous, utterly heartless, and profoundly anti-woman legislation swept through state legislatures this spring and early summer. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 512 laws limiting abortion were proposed in 49 states in the first three months of 2011. The New York Times reported that, by late May, 64 anti-abortion laws had been passed, 30 in April alone, in what the Times called “a campaign [that is] the largest in history.”
With the ascendancy of the Republican Party and its “Tea Party” component in many state legislatures, and with the Democrats either assisting outright or offering objections that in no essential way challenge the onslaught, these laws are a poisonous brew concocted from a combination of modern technology and the patriarchal, oppressive ideology that is a cornerstone of Christian Fascism.
Momentum is building for a beautiful gathering of abortion rights supporters in Germantown, MD (near Washington, DC) July 31-August 7!
Watch and spread this video of Dr. LeRoy Carhart calling on supporters to come out for a Summer Celebration of Choice: We are all especially excited about the Kick-Off Walk, and encourage all activists to join. The walk is also a fundraiser to support the Abortion Access Fund, which enables women who often travel very long distances to obtain crucially needed and lifesaving abortions.
The National Organization for Women had its annual conference June 23-25 in Tampa, Florida. There, the members passed a resolution of support for both the Summer Celebration of Choice and the Summer of Trust. Thank you to the inspiring leaders and the dedicated members of NOW, and we hope to see you all in Germantown this summer!
Against the backdrop of a wave of anti-abortion legislative assaults, Operation Rescue has announced plans for a "Summer of Mercy 2.0" targeting the brave and outspoken Dr. LeRoy Carhart in Germantown, MD July 30-August 7. This organization is the same group that hounded Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, KS, for years (until he was assassinated by one of their associates in May '09). Their original "Summer of Mercy" in 1991 shut down access to the Dr. Tiller's clinic for six weeks and resulted in 3,400 arrests, a very alarming history to invoke.
World Can't Wait will join with others to mount a serious and determined showing of public support for Dr. Carhart and the Germantown, MD, clinic whose practice he has joined. We held a successful initial discussion on last week's conference call.
Next Walk for Choice: May 21
See below for details
By Lina Thorne
This is a moment for sober reflection. How did we get to this point and what do we do now?
HR3, the most extreme anti-abortion federal bill yet, just passed the House of Representatives and moves on to the Senate now. If it becomes law, health insurance that includes abortion coverage would no longer be tax deductible, and the IRS could be required to audit rape victims. 512 state-level bills restricting access have been introduced in the first three months of 2011. Many of these bills directly challenge Roe. For instance, there is the so-called "heartbeat bill" in Ohio, which would ban all abortions once a fetal heartbeat can be detected - supported by many of the fascists hoping to run for the presidency in 2012, from Michele Bachmann to Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee. A fetus supposedly testified for this bill in the Ohio legislature, taking the surreality to another level. Then there is the Louisiana "feticide" bill which decrees 15 years hard labor to punish women and doctors for abortions.
There can be no “common ground” with those making war on women. It's time to get ourselves together and stop them.
Abortion is not murder. Fetuses are not children. Women are not incubators.
A dangerous new wave of attacks against women’s basic right to control their reproduction - from abortion to birth control - began with Republican election victories last fall. Using anti-scientific claims that abortion harms women, they are going to take us back to the 1960s when thousands of women died every year from illegal abortions. The anti-abortion crowd is slashing funds for pregnancy prevention and health care for low-income women. As much as they talk about unborn fetuses, their "morality" does not extend to providing for children who need public schools, health care, and someday, college educations; nor children born in countries currently being bombed by the United States military. This culture war is not about fetuses - it's about nothing less than the social role of women and our most basic rights.
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