Letters to the Editor
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I Support the Petition
I'm saddened, a little, that I can't sign it, though, seeing as how I'm vaginally-deficient. I'm not complaining -- It's perfectly alright for Ms. Magazine to make the petition women-only -- but I wish there was something equally public that men could do (because I'm pretty sure that me wearing "I had an abortion" t-shirt would ... not be very appropriate).
-roy
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Anyone can be a supporter
It may seem a little woman-centric, but the wording does not actually exclude men from participating:
"For choice supporters who haven't terminated pregnancies, there's a box to check saying 'I have not had an abortion but I stand with my sisters,' and the option to participate in a fundraising drive."
If you are a choice supporter (man or woman) you can check the box. If you're a man, you obviously have not had an abortion, but you could certainly still stand with your sisters.
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"I had an abortion" petition
I am firmly pro-choice. However, that does not mean that I do not recognize the complex and disturbing moral issues that revolve around abortion. Treating this operation as just another medical procedure is, I feel, deeply disturbing. Abortion should be a private matter. People on all sides of the issue should have respect for the fact that, inevitably, a life is lost in an abortion. That is a reality that should be treated with a certain amount of gravity. This is not the same as saying that women who have had abortions should be stigmatized. But the decision to have an abortion should be difficult and carefully considered. It should not be treated simplistically.
Sincerely,
Shaun Narine
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To Roy
I like your idea - a similar petition just for men would actually be really cool. One for the pro-choice guys, the ones who have been the other person making the decision (because we all know that often it's not just the woman making this choice alone), the ones who supported friends and loved ones by driving them, waiting in the waiting room, buying the tylenol and heating pads and watching a movie with them that night. And of course, like the Ms. petition, it could also be for those who just stand by us sisters. I think that would be a nice petition.
Or, you could just check the "stand by my sisters" box. Either way I think it's nice that you care enough to want to.
BTW, I had an abortion.
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T-shirt for the men
"I Have No Reproductive Rights"
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I had an abortion and I'm not ashamed,
But I would never sign this petition. The donations I've made to NARAL were even given anonymously. I'm more than willing to discuss my abortion with friends and, when appropriate, in classroom discussions (I'm a university student), but in today's political climate there's no way that I would put my name on a list. Maybe I'm paranoid, or cowardly, or both, but when I read about how the government is currently trotting out health guidelines that describe all pre-menopausal women as "pre-pregnant" and I consider the vitriolic rhetoric against reproductive choice (including birth control) that seems to be more and more mainstream, I get scared. I don't want the anti-choicers to know who I am now, and in ten years if the scary ultra-right wingers manage to take complete control, I don't want them to be keeping an eye on me.
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It's now or never
The stigma around abortion, and women's unwillingness to 'say it loud, say it proud', is a big part of the reason why we're in our current fix, why abortion access is still a near-impossibility for poor and rural women, and why American women are watching their access to this imperative health service dwindle into nothing. A few years ago, I read about a fearless abortion doctor in Vancouver, Canada--the same city where a provider had been stabbed a year earlier. She had recently been honored for her work by a prestigious women's organization. She was feted, wined, dined, speeches were given in her honor and yet at no point during the evening did any of the people gathered to laud her work utter, as she put it, "the A word". What does it say about our commitment to abortion access when powerful, educated, articulate women can't even speak the word? In a perfect world, this would be a private decision that the medical community would facilitate and that society as a whole would respect--we would be granted our dignity and would no more be expected to discuss our reproductive choices than we would any other private health concern. But women's dignity, health and privacy have been under seige for too long. If we don't speak up now, if we let ourselves be cowed by the A-word, we buy into the stigma and we hand the power and control over our health and bodies to the people who respect those things the least.
If abortion providers are willing to go to work everyday wearing bulletproof vests, than the least the rest of us can do is sign a fucking petition.
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Weighing This Out
First of all...GREAT POST, RELYC. Thank you.
I am a staunch pro-choicer. I'm politically active and I support a few choice groups with financial donations and letters etc.
I have posted on these pages many times that I believe, sadly, the pro-choice movement has had to change their tune to mimic the shame based anti-choice rhetoric.
I also agree with the other posters that there is a very "anti" climate; alive people, outside of the womb, have been killed. (Even some pro-choice people believe that the movement has gotten too lefty, loud and shrill, and that we don't allow for the middle ground, which may be an oxymoron but we are hanging by our toenails in that middle ground nonetheless. I disagree vehemently that pro choicers have been too loud or pushy. We're not even close when you compare what the anti-choicers have done.)
With my umpteen posts on Salon for pro-choice, I believe that this is a good and safe forum for me and the other posters to voice our opinions and to at least attempt some discourse.
I will sign the petition.
I will read the Ms. Magazine issue and I will be very interested in the stories of these women who made the choice to abort.
But...I would not wear a T-shirt unless I were at a pro-choice or political rally. I agonized over what bumper sticker to put on my car! I would have loved something nasty about George W. Bush but I held back. I have a gentle, "teaching" bumper sticker instead. (about animals)
I think the T-shirt partially distills the issue down to something that it is not, meaning the context isn't there. People want the narrative or they want the privacy. I applaud its simple message, but that doesn't mean I want to wear it. Just as I would never wave my viewpoint around in mixed company unless the conversation went there and then I have nothing to hide or be ashamed of. I am a person of so many convictions and complexities that that one sentence doesn't capture me and a lot of other bumper sticker-ish slogans wouldn't either.
I think too, the womb is a private place; and what happens there is nobody's business. Still, in all, I will enjoy seeing these T-shirts worn by proud women. I'd stop and shake the hand of someone wearing them, but I wouldn't wear one to the grocery store. And frankly, if as Relyc intimates, we had started being brave earlier and taken back the choice movement from the anti-choicers, this might be a moot point, but we're in the sh*t now.