Stop Patriarchy Week of Actions
February 10, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
“Stoppatriarchy.org is doing a week of action on both coasts to stand up for abortion rights and to defeat the war on women. And today we spent several hours in the freezing cold at the Supreme Court and we’ll be going back there again shortly, to raise the banner of ‘Abortion on Demand and Without Apology.’ Because 40 years after Roe v. Wade, abortion is more dangerous to provide, more difficult to access, and more stigmatized than it has been at any point in the last 40 years. And anybody who thinks that this right is safe, or thinks that it is safe because there is a Democrat in the White House—this is not true. Abortion needs to be fought for and it needs to be de-stigmatized. One in three women will have an abortion. We need to tell our stories. There is nothing wrong with this—because fetuses are not babies and therefore abortion is not murder. And women are human beings, we are not incubators....
“Obviously we were countering the lies of the so-called pro-life movement. But most fundamentally we were trying to send a message to the people of this country, the overwhelming majority of whom do not want to see women forced to have children against their will, but most of whom are inactive and under the illusion that the right to abortion is safe. We were there to send a message that we will only defend the right to abortion, we will only ensure a future for women and girls that is anything other than enslavement and enforced motherhood, if we stand up and fight right now and turn this tide....
“In the Bay Area and places like New York, where I’m from, people can have a distorted sense of how accessible the right to abortion is. It’s difficult for a lot of women in the urban areas to get an abortion but it’s a lot easier than a lot of other places, so we can get a distorted sense. The reality is, in the rural parts of the U.S., once you leave the urban areas, 97 percent of counties do not have an abortion provider. Many, many places you have to travel hundreds of miles to get an abortion. Not only that, in many places you have to travel hundreds of miles and get a place to stay over night. You have to save up the money not only for an abortion, but for travel, most frequently for childcare; 60 percent of women who get abortions already have children. You need childcare; you need housing overnight because you have to see the doctor one day, wait 24 hours before you can get your procedure, and then go back home. This puts abortion care outside the financial possibility of very many women.”
From an interview on January 22, with Sunsara Taylor on Dennis Bernstein’s KPFA Pacifica radio show, Flashpoints.
Listen to the entire interview here.
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