abortionclinicdays

Supreme Court Travesty

The abortion clinic world has been has been turned upside down by the latest upholding of the "Partial Birth Abortion Ban." Doctors and clinic administrators are struggling to understand the gray areas of the law so that they will not be prosecuted for doing regular abortions. Remember, in some states it is an exceedingly hostile environment and it wouldn't take that much to create a case against someone. The accusation would not stick, but the defense costs would bankrupt most clinics.

There are lots of commentators who are saying that this doesn't mean a thing, and it won't affect any real women, and it's all extreme politics. Basically, they are saying that this is not a significant precedent. The thing to remember is that IT WAS NEVER ABOUT ANYTHING REAL. From the made up name of "partial birth abortion" which does not describe anything doctors know about, to the widespread, deliberate misrepresentations that it only applies to third trimester abortions, or "late term abortions," another misnomer. It has been a fund-raising/PR strategy of the Far Right from the beginning, and it has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, and our wildest nightmares. Although this is not reported on CNN or in your local papers, the anti's have vowed to ban abortion, procedure by procedure. This is the first, and D&E is next. Justice Kennedy invites that, in fact, with his gleefully graphic description of a D&E "dismemberment" of the fetus inside the womb. The idea is that if enough people are horrified by a procedure it can be banned.

If you have the time I really encourage you to read the decision itself and watch for all the anti-abortion rhetoric and blatant disrespect of women, who are seen as creatures who need protecting from their own choices. And this is the really significant precedent that unravels 30 years of jurisprudence: no health exception for women. Instead, they refer any conflicts between medical opinions, you will love this, to the state and federal legislatures. No comfort there unless maybe you live in NY, but it is an unnecessary invitation to the states to pass all kinds of laws restricting abortion. Michigan had three new anti-abortion bills on Thursday.

So, I am not trying to cry wolf here. This decision blows an ill wind.
--Bon

how to stop the shootings

i received this from a colleague who is also an abortion provider.  her words speak for many of us who have lived with terrorism for a long long time.

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	Tue, Apr 17, 2007
As I read the paper and watch my TV, trying to take in the tragedy that has befallen the students, parents and faculty of Virginia Tech,  I am feeling sick and in shock.  I also feel a huge fear for my children.  I know and am reminded that I cannot protect them anywhere.   Maybe I am a conspiracy theorist, but I cannot help but look at the history of this kind of violence and link it directly back to the anti abortion movement.   They were the very first people to speak so hatefully and announce with pride their thoughts of justifiable homicide.  They were the first to post doctors' pictures on the Internet advocating killing, admitting who they were, yet there was NO PUBLIC CONDEMNATION.  Even so called religious people often beat around the bush refusing to say it was wrong or in fact said nothing at all. So the anti-abortion faction commited arson,  firebombed us, shot us and then one of them got brave enough to go out in broad daylight and shoot at 2 clinics (3?) in Boston.  And evade the authorities for how long?  One of them blew up a clinic killing a police officer and almost killing but maiming the nurse and what happened?  Nothing!   The White House under  President Reagan and the first Pres. Bush entertained Joe Scheidler as a guest, and and others I no longer remember who were certainly  themselves early terrorists or advocates of terrorism.  And still no public outcry. Finally, after the same bomber planted a bomb in Atlanta during the Summer Olympics, this got some attention.   When the school shootings started, Columbine and the rest, where did people think these kids learned their hate and their skills and the belief that is was ok to kill  people.  What did anyone with an ounce of sense think would happen to a generation of young people who saw others turn their heads from violence because it was aimed at a select few.  And it was controversial after all.    Of course, after  911, Domestic Terrorism was suddenly in the news.  But in print or on the news no one mentioned that abortion providers have been living with terrorism for a long time.  They pretended it was new. When the members of congress first started getting envelopes with possible anthrax in them, abortion providers already had booklets that the ATF had printed for handling anthrax threats in our clinics.   Many of us had gone through that kind of terrorism years earlier. Yesterday's actions may have been by someone who is mentally ill but where did the example, the idea come from?  We are all responsible for putting an end to hate.  Just last week some people still thought it was a fuss about nothing when hate talk against women athletes was allowed to continue.  Even when the shock jock was eventually fired, there were still a lot of people who thought it was funny.  Unless people of leadership and faith announce the connection and call for an end we as a nation are going to see ever more violence.   When a crazy man can stand outside my friend's clinic today and still say these hateful things and call himself a minister, a man of God, why doesn't the public rush to run his ass out of town.  If we want to see these shootings end it has to start there, with people like this minister, because they are the ones who started it all.   I am sorry if I am ranting especially because many of you have also  lived with this or something equally frightening or painful but I just needed to write it for me.  My rage and pain do not feel lessened but somehow I feel stronger. Thank you for listening to me.

Three women who make a difference

I hope that Lou and I don't give the impression that we are a rare breed in trying to give women the attention they deserve and to give the pregnancy decision the respect it deserves. A couple of weeks ago there was a conference of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers and the Abortion Conversation Project, two organizations that have worked hard toward similar goals. In the course of the meeting three women were honored, and I thought it would be a good thing to introduce them to you all.

The first is Francis Kissling, who just retired from the Catholics for Free Choice, a group that she founded 25 years ago. She was also the director of an abortion clinic when abortion first became legal in NYC back in 1970 and went on to organize abortion providers. She has always been outspoken, to the Catholic hierarchy about their positions on abortion, contraception, and AIDS, among other things, but also to her colleagues about difficult topics. She has written lately about our relationship to the fetus--sort of can we afford to talk about the value of a potential life and still be pro choice? (She answers by asking, "Can we walk and chew gum at the same time?") She was awarded the David Gunn Memorial Award for Lifetime Achievement. David Gunn, of course, was the doctor murdered in Pensacola FL in 1993 outside his clinic. In accepting the award, she said, "Some people think it will be great if we get to a time when abortion won't be so fiercely debated. I never want to see a time when abortion doesn't engage us because it brings up so much."

The second honoree is Elizabeth Barnes, a young woman who seems to be hitting her stride as supervisor for many clinics on the Eastern Seaboard. She struck me as sparkly and a bit shy at the same time, but very poised and wise. She has gently led her many staff people to engage in changing attitudes in the community as well as raising the bar for quality abortion care, including counseling. She was honored by the Abortion Conversation Project's Vision Award and if this is a glimpse of the future, I can retire someday knowing that the kind of work I try to do will thrive.

Finally, Amy Hagstrom Miller was named NCAP Person of the Year. Amy is smart, ambitious, funny and challenges people to be and do more. During the weekend she kept pushing people to look for the "juice" in our work. Her own passion is palpable and she really understands that our work, and the kind of experience we can offer women, is truly transformational. She also said, "What we're doing here is big and you can be part of something big." She brings our movement some big picture thinking, informed by heart and intellect.

It was a pleasure to witness these three women and honor their contribution to our work. When we sit with a woman all of this wisdom is swirling around us, and though the woman doesn't know it, she, too, is part of something big.
--Bon