Press Release from StopPatriarchy.org
Actor Mark Ruffalo Sends Support to Abortion Rights Freedom Ride Rallying Aug. 17 at Only Clinic in Mississippi
August 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 16, 2013
Press Contact: Joan Hirsch, 917.520.6963
StopPatriarchy.tumblr.com / StopPatriarchy.Org / StopPatriarchy.Media@gmail.com
PHOTO OP
Interviews are available with Sunsara Taylor and David Gunn, Jr.
Actor Mark Ruffalo Sends Support to Abortion Rights Freedom Ride
Rallying Aug. 17 at Only Clinic in Mississippi
What: Rally to Support Jackson Women’s Health Organization & for Abortion on Demand & Without Apology
When: Saturday, August 17, Gathering at 11:30, Rally at 12pm
Where: Jackson Women's Health Organization, 2903 N. State St., Jackson, Mississippi
Who: WakeUpMississippi.Org & Abortion Rights Freedom Ride
On the eve of the national rally Aug. 17 at the Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only remaining abortion clinic in Mississippi, the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride received a statement from actor Mark Ruffalo in which he reveals that his mother had had a traumatic illegal abortion when she was very young. He concludes: "I invite you to find your voice and let it be known that you stand for abortion rights and the dignity of a woman to be the master of her own life and body." (See Ruffalo’s full statement below.)
“Abortion rights are in a state of emergency nationwide,” Sunsara Taylor, initiator and leader of the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride, explained. “We've come to the Jackson Women's Health Organization today because it is immoral to abandon the women of Mississippi and delusional to think that restrictions here won't spread everywhere. We refuse to let women be forced to have children against their will. That is a form of enslavement. StopPatriarchy.org is calling on people everywhere to stand up for Abortion on Demand and Without Apology.”
Abortion Rights Freedom Riders and local supporters in cities across the country are shaping a new and determined counter-offensive, national in character, against the legal and ideological assaults on women’s reproductive rights through speak-outs, rallies, political actions exposing anti-abortion forces and honoring abortion providers. On Saturday they will join with Wake Up Mississippi to rally in defense of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization and for Abortion on Demand and Without Apology.
The Jackson Women's Health Organization stays open only by a court order. It has ongoing anti-abortion protests in front of the clinic, and volunteer escorts must assist women to enter safely. One clinic escort said, " The undue burden that women must endure to travel hours to our only clinic is heartbreaking. Yet they are so grateful to have this "last resort" to turn to when making one of the most crucial decisions in their lives. If it takes fighting to my last breath, THIS CLINIC STAYS OPEN!”
David Gunn, Jr., the son of David Gunn, Sr., the first abortion doctor to be assassinated by an anti-abortion gunman, has been a key organizer of the Jackson rally and an outspoken supporter of the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride.
With anti-abortion forces claiming legislative victories nationwide, this state and the struggle to keep this clinic open concentrate the emergency situation for abortion rights around the country. Eve Ensler and Gloria Steinem, leading voices for women’s rights, have given their support to the Freedom Ride, and a growing list of signators to the Abortion on Demand & Without Apology Statement is available at http://www.stoppatriarchy.org/.
Interviews are available with Sunsara Taylor, writer for Revolution newspaper (revcom.us) and an initiator of the movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women (StopPatriarchy.org), and David Gunn, Jr., son of David Gunn, Sr., the first abortion doctor to be assassinated by an anti-abortion gunman, and blogger for abortion.ws.
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Statement from Mark Ruffalo: Abortion Rights Rally, Jackson MS, Sat. August 17, 2013
Hello,
I am a man. I could say this has nothing to do with me. Except I have two daughters and I have a mother who was forced to illegally have an abortion in her state where abortion was illegal when she was a very young woman. It cost $600 cash. It was a traumatizing thing for her. It was shameful and sleazy and demeaning. When I heard the story I was aghast by the lowliness of a society that would make a woman do that. I could not understand its lack of humanity; today is no different.
What happened to my mother was a relic of an America that was not free nor equal nor very kind. My mother’s illegal abortion marked a time in America that we have worked long and hard to leave behind. It was a time when women were seen as second rate citizens who were not smart enough, nor responsible enough, nor capable enough to make decisions about their lives. It was a time that deserved to be left behind, and leave it behind we did, or so it seemed. We made abortion and a woman’s ability to be her own master a Right. That Right was codified into law. That law was the law of the land for decades. My own mother fought to make herself more than a possession; she lived her life as a mother who chose when she would have children, and a wife who could earn a living if she so chose. I want my daughters to enjoy that same choice. I don’t want to turn back the hands of time to when women shuttled across state lines in the thick of night to resolve an unwanted pregnancy, in a cheap hotel room just south of the state line. Where a transaction of $600 cash becomes the worth of a young woman’s life. So that is why I am lending my voice to you and your movement today. Because I actually trust the women I know. I trust them with their choices, I trust them with their bodies and I trust them with their children. I trust that they are decent enough and wise enough and worthy enough to carry the right of Abortion and not be forced to criminally exercise that Right at the risk of death or jail time.
There was no mistake us making Abortion legal and available on demand. That was what we call progress. Just like it was no mistake that we abolished institutional racism in this country around the same time. The easy thing to do is lay low, but then are we who we say we are? Do we actually stand for anything, if what we do stand for is under attack and we say nothing? There is nothing to be ashamed of here except to allow a radical and recessive group of people to bully and intimidate our mothers and sisters and daughters for exercising their right of choice. Or use terrorism and fanaticism to block their legal rights or take the lives of their caregivers. Or design legislation that would chip away at those rights disguised as reinforcing a woman’s health. I invite you to find your voice and let it be known that you stand for abortion rights and the dignity of a woman to be the master of her own life and body. I invite you to search your soul and ask yourself if you actually stand for what you say you stand for. Thank you for being here today and thank you for standing up for the women in my life.
Sincerely and humbly,
Mark Ruffalo
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