Interview with Sunsara Taylor 8/24/14:

A Watershed Moment in the Battle for Abortion Rights and for the Liberation of Women

August 24, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Editors’ note: Throughout August, the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride has been confronting the attempt to close all but six abortion clinics in the state of Texas. We spoke with Sunsara Taylor on the situation, the stakes, and the urgency of people to act now.

REVCOM.US: What is the situation in Texas now?

Sunsara Taylor: We are in a countdown to the most dramatic round of clinic closures to hit a single state since Roe v. Wade legalized abortions in the U.S. And the situation in Texas is a concentration of the national emergency facing women’s right to abortion.

A Texas law, HB2, is about to go fully into effect (parts have already been implemented) on September 1. We are waiting for a ruling in the court of a challenge to HB2, but if nothing changes, all but six clinics will close in Texas. It is absolutely essential that people across this country stand up at this moment and raise their voices and act against this – and that we do so in such a way that builds the kind of resistance necessary to reverse the whole trajectory and momentum of the war on women across this country and beyond.

REVCOM.US: Give us a sense of the situation on the ground now.           

Sunsara Taylor: What we’ve seen on the ground, across the state, is huge sections of women living in conditions where essentially abortion care is outside their reach, or extremely difficult to access. Even at taco stands or places where we stop for directions, we find people telling us how supportive they are. First people are taken aback by how openly and unapologetically we are talking about abortion and women's liberation, and then their stories come out. Yesterday, a young woman told me that at 17 her mother stopped her from having an abortion and how even though she loves her five-year-old daughter she is still angry and wishes she'd had an abortion.  She doesn't want other women to go through what she and her daughter are being forced to go through. 

The night before, an older Black guy, a guy whose boss sent him over to stop us from flyering at an event, when he realized what we were about opened up to us. Turns out he had 16 brothers and sisters, his mother nearly died having all these babies, but she couldn't stop – this was before Roe. On top of all that, this guy was sent to prison at age 14 and did 40 years.  40 years.  He was just a baby when he went in.  Right there in this one story is almost everything you need to know about what is wrong with this country – in terms of the total disregard for the humanity of women as well as for Black people.  I mean, how can you hear a story like that and really think about what that means, and deny the need for a revolution?.  And like I told him, not only is revolution necessary and possible, but a big part of making that revolution – in addition to promoting and fighting for this revolution and its leadership, Bob Avakian and the Revolutionary Communist Party, to be widely known and supported – is standing up and fighting back against all these outrages and working to unite with everyone else who sees, or can be won to see, how outrageous they are.

REVCOM.US: What have you accomplished so far?

Sunsara Taylor: The Abortion Rights Freedom Ride – with dozens of volunteers who have been living on the road for almost a month and the whole wide range of folks who've been part of this around the country from many different perspectives – has had a huge impact.  We've reached millions through the media.  We have begun to set new terms – that the right to abortion is not about “killing babies” but whether or not women will be enslaved by forced motherhood. Hundreds of thousands of people have heard or seen our message: Abortion on Demand and Without Apology.  We are clarifying to everyone what this battle is objectively about. And we are setting a standard for what it means to resist.

The Abortion Rights Freedom Ride has brought clarity to many people. We have been on the ground for a month, all over the state. We’ve been deep into the communities. We’ve reached out into the cultural scenes and to students. We’ve put ourselves on the line for that – we have been arrested, brutalized, gone to jail and come back stronger.

And this has drawn forth a deep response. People have shared stories of women who died before Roe v. Wade. In Brownsville – on the Mexican border – we heard stories of rape coming across the border. And about how hard it is to get birth control, with the repressive effect and shame that comes from the Catholic Church. And we’ve seen the terrible impact of no abortion clinic being within hundreds of miles.

REVCOM.US: Talk about the stakes of this coming week of defiance.

Sunsara Taylor: Now, with one week left before all these abortion clinics are set to close, we are organizing a Week of Defiance! We will be at Governor Rick Perry’s mansion in Austin every single day with pictures of women who have died from illegal abortions. We will bring bloody coat hangers (which were used by women to self-induce abortions before Roe v. Wade). We will wear shackles representing female enslavement.

We’re calling on everyone across the state, around the country, to join us on Ground Zero in the battle against the war on women – here in Texas. And to take action wherever they are – to take out faces of women in public, send in your plans and your pictures to StopPatriarchy.org.

We’ll see more courageous actions, more voices of prominence like those who signed the  ad in the Austin Statesmen – many well-loved people who signed the statement. We will have participation of people from different walks of life, speaking out.

This is a watershed moment. What we do will have dramatic impact on how this battle unfolds. So, join with us. Step up. And act in ways commensurate with the stakes – enslavement of women or liberation of women.

REVCOM.US: Of course people will be able to follow this and get involved, and dig into what’s behind all this and what to do about it, at revcom.us. And there are additional organizing materials at stoppatriarchy.org. Right?

Sunsara Taylor: Yes!

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