Comments

1
Bravo.

"After a certain point, you just can’t get away with saying that one in three women are bad people and expect to be re-elected to political office."

We're not at that point, but you knew that. The Anti forces have been organized and vehement for 40 years. They control the dialogue in nearly every church in America. They control 2/3 of State Legislatures, and they're killing access with a 1000 niggling laws. It's going to take decades to right the ship.
2
Yes. And some good news today from SW Ohio, no thanks to our lousy governor and jerrymandered legislature. http://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/local-a…
3
Amelia;

Congrats on SYA!

Back in the pre-Rowe days a cousin of mine had an abortion in Mexico. Her sister helped her. When she got home - 1000 miles from Mexico - she was bleeding. She couldn't go to a doctor because she could be charged with a crime. Her boyfriend didn't help her or want to see her. She and her sister kept this from everyone but me.

I believe part of the reason she confided in me is because I got involved in Chicago Gay Liberation in 1969. Our simple tactic was to be visible in ways that were both personal, open to family and friends, and political, protests and public events. It was frequently scary. We learned how to avoid a mafia hit and nearly had 3,000 people arrested by the Vice Squad at a dance we put on. This was when there was no dancing or touching at any gay bar in Chicago. The contrast between the was the struggle to achieve easy access to abortion and the LGBT rights struggle is clear. My cousin felt comfortable telling me about her abortion in part because she recognized that we had both struggled with sexual shaming. Being visible made a connection similar to the one your grandparents made with their 90 year old friend.

Keep up the good work. Change may come more quickly than you realize.
4
Thank you so much Amelia. SYA feels like a turning point. One that's been a long time coming. Putting faces and voices to the phrase "one in three women" is brilliant because, as you say, it makes it a whole lot harder to hang on to the belief that women who have had abortions are an evil monolith when it turns out one of them was your grandma, or your co worker, or your friend. Often that's what it takes for people, particularly conservatives, to get to a place of empathy. The issue has to touch their lives before they can get it.
So well done you, Amelia! Well done you. And thank you.
5
Also, in before comments get closed. :)
6
You're right, Lissa.
The mods here love to abort the disagreeable comments.
7
Not the mods' fault some people can't play well with others.
And there is, of course, a difference between disagree and disagreeable.
It has been my experience that if one can manage the first without being the second one's comments will stay up. I invite you to give that a try.
9

Thank you also SO MUCH for this brilliant campaign. I support you one million percent and have proudly donated to Planned Parenthood for years. I can't wait for the time when people scratch their heads over the notion that having an abortion was something we were EVER made to feel shame over. If ending a pregnancy makes sense for me, for my family (especially if I already have kids), for my partner (if partnered), for my parents (because poor and these days even "middle class" women's kids so often, unfairly become the burden of the grandparents), for my health, and/or for my future, then there is ZERO shame in it.

May I also say I think one of the things we need to hammer home is not a thing I hear a lot: The notion - the fact - that's it's simply not good or moral or right to force a woman (or girl) to give birth against her wishes. Period. How is it that this even needs explaining ? It's not good for the woman, the kid, nor society. If she doesn't want that baby - if she isn't ready financially or otherwise, literally FORCING her to bring it to term is unconscionable. And just a piss poor idea overall, because a kid forcibly brought into the world - a kid who is THAT unwanted ... it's just a recipe for disaster.

Anyway, thank you. And btw I love your look - like a young Patti Smith. Or Exene Cervenka.
10

And for anyone who spews that tired trope about "giving it up for adoption" should the woman be forced to give birth ... do a little research on the number of kids languishing in adoption circles worldwide.

"But there are so many couples looking for healthy (white) babies!" This is actually said right to the face of the girl or woman who happens to be white, and healthy.

So ... um, women are literally "breeders"? Potential incubators for all the infertile couples out there? That's our purpose? And because my baby would potentially fill a hole in some infertile couple's life, that justifies my being forced to give birth against my will?

Please wait...

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