Also up at the Huffington Post.
35 years after Roe v. Wade solidified American womens’ right to abortion, reproductive rights remain in limbo. And while abortion rights are crucial to women’s health and autonomy, they are hardly the end-all be-all to reproductive justice — even if the constant attacks on those rights (and on the people who provide women with them) have forced the pro-choice movement to remain on the defensive about abortion in particular.
Roe at 35 is in bad shape. But there are plenty of forward-looking, positive steps to be taken. It’s worth raising a glass to Roe today — but even more importantly, it’s time to get out and fight. Here are a few reasons why:
10. Abortion is already inaccessible and out of reach for many women.
Eighty-seven percent of U.S. counties do not have an abortion provider. Parental consent laws, 24-hour waiting periods, and other anti-choice roadblocks make abortion difficult or impossible for many women — young women and low-income women in particular. The Hyde Amendment blocks federal Medicaid money from paying for abortion, meaning that low-income women have their medical care determined by anti-choice bureaucrats instead of doctors. When women have to spend weeks trying to legally bypass parental consent laws, or when they have to take time off work, save up money for the procedure, find someone to take care of their children, figure out transportation, and drive miles and miles to the closest clinic only to be told to “go home and think about it and come back tomorrow,” the procedure gets pushed back — and later-term abortions are more difficult and more expensive. An abortion at 24 weeks (a procedure already impossible to get in most states) can cost as much as $10,000. Groups like the National Abortion Network of Abortion Funds and the Haven Coalition attempt to offset the costs of abortion and the related expenses, but their budgets and abilities are limited, particularly in contrast to the financial and political strength of the anti-choice movement. In the meantime, Roe remains an unfulfilled promise for many American women.
9. If abortion is illegal, then women and doctors will be criminals.
Anti-choicers dislike answering the sticky question of how much time in jail women who have abortions should serve. But as it stands, a lot of anti-abortion legislation is not premised on outlawing abortion, but rather attempts to establish that life begins when an egg is fertilized. Much of that legislation expresses the idea that a zygote and a fetus are people deserving a full range of legal rights. In such a “pro-life” world, women who have abortions are murderers, and doctors contract killers. Women are already going to jail for “murder” because they used drugs while pregnant; it’s hardly a stretch to argue that women could face jail time for terminating pregnancies, especially if anti-choicers really believe — as they claim — that fetuses are people invested with full rights. As it stands, about one in three American women will have an abortion at some time in her life. Those are a whole lot women to turn into criminals.
8. Anti-choicers care about controlling your sex life, not saving babies.
For all their talk about valuing babies and life, anti-choicers have demonstrated time and again that they could actually care less. They’re more interested in punishing women for sex and in maintaining a male-dominated family model. And they’re only “pro-life” up until the moment of birth — then you’re on your own. Anti-choice politicians opposed extending health care to low-income kids; they routinely vote against Head Start and early childhood education programs; they abhor welfare programs that give aid to single parents and low-income families; and they are at the forefront of opposition to state childcare aid. It’s no surprise that 100% of the worst legislators for children are “pro-life,” and many of the most “pro-life” states are the worst for children and for women. While children are hardly their first priority, anti-choicers are extremely concerned about what you do with your private parts. They are the architects of “abstinence-only” sex education that flat-out lies and misleads students in order to promote conservative values of female submission, homophobia and general ignorance. Many of them opposed a vaccine that could save thousands of women from cancer — because the vaccine prevented cervical cancer and had to be given before the onset of sexual activity, meaning that anti-sex nuts had one less tool in their slut-punishing arsenal.
7. They’re going after your birth control, too.
Pro-lifers care about lowering the abortion rate, right? Wrong. They oppose contraception, too — and though they’re quiet about it now, you can bet that it’s next on the list of things that have to go in a “pro-life” nation. In fact, none of the major pro-life organizations support contraception access, despite the fact that accessible and affordable contraception is the most effective way to decrease the abortion rate.
6. Illegal abortion kills women.
There are no two ways about this one — when abortion is illegal, women are killed and maimed. Some 80,000 women die as a result of illegal abortion every year; hundreds of thousands more are injured. Women around the world suffer when pro-life laws rule the land. And “pro-lifers” could care less. Illegal abortion is the cause of 25% of all maternal deaths in Latin America, 12% in Asia, and 13% in sub-Saharan Africa. Women’s lives, apparently, aren’t covered by that whole “pro-life” thing.
5. Legal abortion is good for women, men and families.
Post-Roe, American women have made phenomenal gains in nearly all areas of life, and American families have benefited. Women go to college at the same rates as men. We can define ourselves as something other than mothers, or as mothers and something else. Poverty has been cut in half since Roe gave women the right to control their own reproduction. Men can be nurturing too, and are expected to take part in raising their children. Families can be planned. Men have greater choices in their occupations since they aren’t required to be the sole bread-winner. More people have access to education. Women have more power to escape abusive relationships or bad jobs. Parents of both sexes spend more time with their kids than ever before. Overall, reproductive rights have been tremendously beneficial to all Americans — except for those who want women to be second-class citizens.
4. Poor women and women of color are disproportionately impacted by anti-choice policies.
When anti-choicers chip away at abortion rights, they take down the easy targets first — and since poor women and women of color have relatively little political power, they suffer the brunt of anti-choice ideology. Abortion is made much more expensive by the myriad restrictions placed on it, and low-income women bear the burden of navigating through the costs and impediments of accessing basic health care. Women of color not only face restricted abortion access, but are then blamed for “genocide.” And women in the global south face the deadly consequences of the global gag rule, which not only impacts their reproductive health care but silences them as social and political actors.
3. Choice isn’t just about not giving birth — it’s about your right to have children.
The anti-choice movement isn’t just against abortion and birth control; many anti-choicers also oppose in-vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments. They also draw convenient lines about who is fit for motherhood, bemoaning the lack of white babies up for adoption while supporting organizations and practices that strip women of color of their right to reproduce. Reproductive freedom is about the ability to determine for yourself when and if you have children; the anti-choice movement is about the exact opposite. Anti-choice governments don’t just limit abortion rights — as China’s one-child policy aptly demonstrates, they also limit the right to choose to have children.
2. Anti-choicers are also going after the rights of women around the world.
Not content to stick it to American women, anti-choicers have taken their crusade abroad with policies like the global gag rule. The United States’ policy of denying reproductive health funding to any organization that so much as mentions abortion — by petitioning their own government for reproductive rights, performing abortions with their own non-U.S. money, referring women to abortion providers, or even telling women that abortion is an option — contributes to “shockingly high death and disability rates in developing countries.” Reproductive health care clinics usually provide a variety of services, and when the U.S. cuts off funding because of abortion advocacy, they also cut off funding to pre-natal care, HIV/AIDS services, well-baby care, STD prevention, and sexual health education. The majority of births world-wide already take place outside of hospitals, and a third of women receive no pre-natal care. In places like Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia, experts estimate that up to up to 50 percent of maternal mortalities result from unsafe, illegal abortions. In sub-Saharan Africa, 920 women die for every 100,000 live births. The number for Europe, on the other hand, is 24. Contraception access, safe abortion, sexual health education and generalized health care could save many of these women. It is estimated that giving contraception alone to all the women who want it could prevent 22 million abortions, 23 million unplanned births, and 1.4 million infant deaths. Instead of increasing access to health care, anti-choice groups are at the forefront of denying it. And they have lots of blood on their hands in the name of “life.”
1. Reproductive justice is about you.
It’s about your rights and your family and your body. All of us make reproductive choices — to have kids or not, to use birth control or not, to have sex or not, to continue a pregnancy or not. Reproductive health care impacts all of our lives. In a pro-choice country, children are wanted and cared for, pregnancy is voluntary and families are healthy. Women and men have a full range of rights, and the liberty to act as individuals instead of squeezing themselves into narrow gender roles. Sex is both a pleasure and a responsibility, not a guilt-ridden exercise intended only for reproduction in the context of a male-headed heterosexual marriage. One’s character and morality are squarely centered in their heart and their head, not between their legs. Health care is available for everyone who needs it, without judgment or impediment. And lives are actually valued — even mine and even yours.
That’s what a pro-choice nation looks like. And despite the odds and the opposition, I’m maintaining hope that most Americans do value healthy families, gender equality and human rights — and that if we keep working towards those goals, it won’t take another 35 years to get there.
Similar Posts:
- Why I’m Pro-Choice – Blogging for Choice Part 2 by Jill January 22, 2007
- Greatest Hits: Why I’m Pro-Choice by Jill August 7, 2007
- Blog for Choice 2010 by frau sally benz January 22, 2010
- Give $10 to a Feminist Cause, Win a Prize by Lauren September 15, 2008
- Anti-Choicers Bring the Crazy. And the misogyny. And the racism. – Blogging for Choice Part 3 by Jill January 22, 2007
[...] Filipovic has an excellent post up at Feministe, which is also posted in the Huffington Post, outlining ‘10 Reasons to [...]
[...] i think if martin were alive today, he would be agitating for women’s reproductive rights, because that is what all men of conscience and common sense [...]
The anti-choice movement is racist, classist and profoundly misogynistic. Thanks for the strong words, Jill
Reason #11, if I may be so bold: so that when a woman chooses to bring an unplanned pregnancy to term, as a friend of mine recently did, she owns and takes responsibility for that decision. Because she knew she could have an abortion if she wanted, she is making the choice to be a responsible, loving parent to the child that she is going to bring into the world, rather than a resentful, unwilling mother.
They’re more interested in punishing women for sex and in maintaining a male-dominated family model. And they’re only “pro-life” up until the moment of birth — then you’re on your own.
So right on: Those signs they carry really drive home the point that they are interested in shaming and punishing women. And if they care so much about “the unborn children” where are they with support networks for women who need assistance with a newborn, affordable child care, health care for all, etc?
Great post.
Bravo! Excellent post.
I second this as #11. I am currently pregnant with a completely unplanned pregnancy and I know that if abortion hadn’t been a legal option for me I may have felt differently about my situation. Not a definite but a big possibility, having that choice gives me the reassurance that I really DO want this soon-to-be-baby.
Horray for Roe day! Excellent post!
REBELLIOUS JEZEBELS??!?
Oh, lizard shit! How can anyone listen to these people?
Great post, Jill.
Blog for Choice…
Happy 35th Anniversary of Roe V. Wade!
This year we are supposed to be blogging about why it’s important to vote in support of pro-choice. My answer? Because I’m a big fan of me being considered a full human being under the law as opposed to a possi…
I agree. I remember seeing a study* in which the authors looked at the outcomes of unplanned pregnancies and the mental health of the pregnant woman. Prior to the time when abortion was legal, women who continued the pregnancy actually did worse psychologically than women who managed to have an abortion. After Roe v Wade, both groups (those who had abortions, those who continued the pregnancy) did about equally well–and both were healthier than either earlier group. This suggests to me that neither abortion nor continuing the pregnancy is the right answer (TM), but rather that the right answer to an unplanned pregnancy varies from woman to woman and it is the right to make that choice that frees women both to say no to the pregnancy and to say yes.
*I’ll try to find the reference if anyone is interested and/or skeptical.
“Rebellious Jezebels”:
Makes me want to put it on a T-shirt, or start a band. Maybe both.
Happy Roe day to you, too!
Might be a good name for a rock band or something. Personally, I’m kind of flattered to be called a rebellious Jezebel.
This is so so so so well said!
I second that. I want a “rebellious jezebel” tattoo. that’s a sweet name.
“Women’s lives, apparently, aren’t covered by that whole “pro-life” thing.”
To me, that sums up every problem I have with the anti-choice movement.
OT, maybe, but interestingly enough I’ve heard a professor of Hebrew… take issue, shall we say? with the usual Biblical English translation of Proverbs 31. (There’s some evidence for it being reference to Anat, a Canaanite war-deity: the Tanakh version translates it as ‘a woman of valour who can find’)
Yeah, sign me up for a “Rebellious Jezebels” t-shirt.
[...] Picture stolen shamelessly from Jill. [...]
[...] hesitate to get your own blog. Update 23/01/2008: Jill Filipovic of Feministe lists 10 reasons to support reproductive justice on Roe day. Alternet has a Reproductive Justice section with a massive link farm of Blog for Choice day posts. [...]
[...] hesitate to get your own blog. Update 23/01/2008: Jill Filipovic of Feministe lists 10 reasons to support reproductive justice on Roe day. Alternet has a Reproductive Justice section with a massive link farm of Blog for Choice day posts. [...]
Thanks for including their oppostion to programs like Head Start. I work in the early childhood field and just don’t get how these people can’t pretend to care soooo much about kids, but oppose these vital programs.
Excellent post, Jill. I’ve wanted to comment on your important reproductive justice posts for awhile, but there is something about pregnancy-related misogyny that just makes me ill. I can’t think straight enough to form a thought, much less type a sentence. But you should know that your series has given me much food for thought, especially on the question of sexuality and political struggle.
Reproductive justice is critical for all people, and the fact that it’s inaccessible to so many folks around the world is a damn scandal. The misogyny and ignorance that blocks access is an even bigger atrocity, graphically personified by the smug arrogance of that joker in the photo. Jesus Christ.
Great post!
Clearly, the Feministe store needs Rebellious Jezebel t-shirts. Really, that’s all there is to it.
Clearly, the Feministe store needs Rebellious Jezebel t-shirts. Really, that’s all there is to it.
LOL, with the Feministe logo and Shotgun Sally. Hilarious.
Number 8 is the reason I’m using to talk to my pro-life friends. The sad thing is, some pro-life people are well intentioned but have no idea that the ‘pro-life’ people they’re really supporting are only interested in legislating morality and don’t a damn about any other type of life. Legislating morality isn’t a good thing because the people who are one day passing bills for you could suddenly turn against you and what you believe and become more religiously radical; and now, you’re the one that’s suffering. To me, many of these ‘pro-life’ canidates represent people who want to merge church and state, which is something I can never condone. The anti-choiceness is usually only the tip of the bigotry, and I don’t want to be told what my morals should be by government officials. I don’t want a ‘godly government’ in America because it strips me of the realness of being a Christian if I *have* to be a Christian and follow that particular set of morals (or a version of those morals) by force. And a ‘godly government’ is intolerant. Period. I am pro-life . . . but I want life to be better for everyone and not just for the rich/white/male population. But in this day and age, I’m pro-choice because, as mentioned, abortion is only the tip of the iceburg.
I would totally buy one. I can keep it alongside my “Ask me about my agenda” tee LOL
[...] a look at Jessica’s excellent list of posts. Jill has some good resources here. Be sure to check out Ann’s, Amanda’s (Salon Advertisement [...]
[...] fact that 87% of counties in the United States do not have an abortion provider . That is ridiculous. Just another way a woman’s right to choose is limited in this here [...]
[...] better reading: Jill at Feministe: 10 Reasons to Support Reproductive Justice Salon.com: “Salon asked leading feminists to talk [...]
this is where i fall down with the whole “pro-life” bit… i have a disease that, if i get pregnant, has an 80% chance to kill me. BEFORE i have said baby. so, instead of birth control (which, being a dirty dirty whore i shouldn’t have) or an abortion (because babies are cute and precious) – not only is there no baby, i am dead
seriously. does these people have basic math skills?
dead mother = dead baby = equals LESS OF THEIR SO IMPORTANT LIFE
erm, sorry, rant off now…
Yeah, if they really just cared about the life of the baby, they wouldn’t fight abortions when there’s no chance the baby will live at all, as in most late-term abortions or in the case where the woman will probably die before giving birth. It’s like they want to punish the woman with death or permanent health issues for not bringing a fetus to term, because in their irrational minds it’s either the woman’s fault or it’s a woman’s role to martyr herself.
Absolutely awesome & succinct summary, Jill! Thanks so much from all of us who become so emtionally churned up by the hypocrisy of these people that we can’t form cogent, clear arguments to present to our “pro-life” friends. I’ll share this, keep it on file, & offer thanks to the Goddess of Sisterhood everytime I see it again. It’s a real keeper! You will have a fabulous future – I know it!
I don’t know if it was legal at the time — I was born in 1969, and my mother lived in New York State — but when my mom became pregnant with me at the age of 18, in college, my grandfather offered her the opportunity to get an abortion. And she turned it down.
Pro-lifers often say “Aren’t you glad you weren’t aborted?” Of course I am (although if I had been, I wouldn’t be here to know), but I am even *more* glad that my mother had the opportunity to abort me, and chose to give me life instead. If she had had no choice, then I would always wonder if I was inflicted on her, if she didn’t really want me, if I was an accident that derailed her whole life. But my mother did have a choice, and she chose me. I know that I was wanted and loved from the moment my mother learned of my existence.
On the other hand, my mother was adopted. Her biological mother was a 16-year-old Catholic girl who got knocked up by a 15-year-old Jewish boy in Brooklyn in 1950. And the fact that my mother’s biological mother gave her up for adoption has always tormented my mother, because it meant to her that at a fundamental level my bio-grandmother didn’t want her. (This may be unfair. Just as abortion wasn’t an option in 1950, neither was keeping your baby when you were a 16-year-old middle class girl with religious reasons preventing you from getting married to the baby’s father. But it’s how she feels.) Even though she obviously *was* wanted, very much, by my grandparents who adopted her, she has suffered her whole life because she felt her bio-mother didn’t want her. My mother would probably have felt a *lot* better if my bio-grandmother had had the opportunity to abort, and chose to have her baby and give it up anyway; at least then she’d know her bio-mother actively wanted her to be alive and chose to sacrifice to make it so, even if circumstances couldn’t let her raise the child. (And, again, if my bio-grandmother had had the opportunity to abort, and taken it, my mother would never have existed to suffer feelings of worthlessness and abandonment.)
The option of abortion being available to women means that every child who is born can know he or she was wanted, not an unfair burden to his or her mother. And every child should have the opportunity to know that. We all love our mothers, at least when we’re little; we all want our mothers to love us. We all should have the opportunity to know that the very fact that we are alive means our mothers loved and wanted us.
Pro-choice is pro-child.
Bitter Scribe: REBELLIOUS JEZEBELS??!?
Oh, lizard shit! How can anyone listen to these people?
Ah, it’s probly one a them Gawker f*ckers, out for cheap advertising as usual.
That sign, in addition to being amusing, makes no sense at all. The Proverbs passage right after that citation talk about a woman who is kind, industrious, physically strong, dependable, trustworthy, skilled, generous toward the poor, and a shrewed businesswoman who knows how to spin, weave, and buy land.
It says frack-all about sexual purity, pregnancy, and abortion.
Don’t forget that many “pro-lifers” are only “pro-life” if that “life” is an embryo/foetus or a consenting adult with a debilitating and painful disease who’d rather die. If you’re a convict facing the death penalty, they don’t give a damn. They like to talk the talk, but they sure as shoot don’t walk the walk.
A Landmark Victory For Reproductive Liberty…
by matttbastard
On January 28th, 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada tendered a watershed decision in the case of R. v. Morgentaler, rendering Canada’s restrictive abortion law null and void.
Judy Rebick recalls the moment she received word tha…
[...] Jill writes: 10 Reasons to Support Reproductive Justice on Roe Day. Her post is full of excellent points and [...]