Why We Must Put Our Bodies on the Line to Fight Against the Right-Wing War on Women's Rights

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/story/153545/why_we_must_put_our_bodies_on_the_line_to_fight_against_the_right-wing_war_on_women%27s_rights/

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A sticker at NYC's SlutWalk.
Photo Credit: Sarah Seltzer

In case you haven’t noticed, pro-choicers are getting pissed off.

In the halls of power, we’re not making progress. As Sarah Jaffe discussed earlier this month, in the wake of the Plan B disaster there’s an escalating sense that all the hard work abortion-rights supporters do making donations, phone calls and signing petitions hasn’t convinced most Democratic lawmakers not to use women as a bargaining chip.

Despite some modest gains, overall there’s a steady chipping away of abortion rights and access to contraception, no matter who’s in office or what he or she pledges to do.

In the cities and towns of America, the effects of that chipping are showing. Austerity budget cuts, the absolutely brutal legislative war on women and the further stigmatization of abortion mean that clinics are shutting their doors, costs and travel times for procedures are rising and the back-alley abortion (now more commonly done with a pill obtained over the Internet than with a coat hanger) is very much back with us. But of course since the passage of the now "accepted compromise" of Hyde Amendment banning funding for low-income women to have abortions, the truth is it never really left.

[William769]

1. Recommended.

[CTyankee]

2. Sadly, we have been losing this battle for years now.

Elsewhere on this board I have explained where I think the prochoice movement needs to go. See http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=79417

[lapislzi]

3. When I tell people that I am pro-abortion (as opposed to "pro choice"),

they look at me as if I have 3 heads.

Sometimes abortion is the best outcome for everyone involved. Why is that so hard for people to wrap their heads around.

And then, when I tell people that I had an abortion without giving it a second thought, and that I have no regrets, and it was the best decision I could have made, they're mystified.

Why? Abortion doesn't need to be a gut-wrenching decision. Maybe for some, but not for everyone.

[xchrom]

4. i am an 'abortion on demand' proponent.

it's her body and it's her medical procedure.

either a woman owns her body or she doesn't.

[CTyankee]

5. I make the "women are moral agents" argument and it does help silence some of the more

reasonable types who just haven't thought this thing through. Here are some lines of reasoning I have used.

"If you are a conservative, how can you believe that the government should be able to tell a woman when and whether to have a child?"

"If the state can force a woman to bear a child, then it can also force a woman to have an abortion."

"The so-called prolife movement would also like to ban people from using contraceptives. Without contraception we would have MORE abortions, not less. How is THAT prolife?"

"Planned Parenthood prevents more abortions than any other organization in the country."

[Solly Mack]

6. K&R