tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57972422354192037622024-03-12T23:38:55.723-04:00Blog for ChoiceBoston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice wants the world to know that we care that Roe v. Wade is 40. Boston cares about Choice!Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-4489106801756509752013-01-22T21:41:00.000-05:002013-01-22T21:41:21.301-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: More than my uterus<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Nanako Tamaru, Guest Blogger (</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">Boston University Law Students for Reproductive Justice)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by the Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I am a 30 year old woman, unmarried and child free. Over the past 12 years, I have lived an
amazing life of independence and adventure.
I have moved across the country; I have travelled abroad. I have lived with reckless abandon and I have
lived with passion. Don’t get me wrong –
while I may have been a free wandering soul, I am also incredibly ambitious and
focused; it has just taken me a while to find the right path. Someday, I hope to be both a wife and a
mother; granted a fiercely independent, feminist, and well-educated wife and
mother. I am just a woman that likes to
move at my own pace.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">As a law student, I understand that <i>Roe v. Wade</i> is a fairly narrow ruling; the Supreme Court upheld the
right to privacy as justification for the legality of abortion. At face value, the ruling only addresses
abortion – the court does not make decisions about contraception or gender
equality more generally. But, symbolically,
the ruling speaks volumes about women’s rights in the United States – in fact,
the <i>Roe v. Wade </i>decision tells the
story of my life and the lives of countless other women and the freedoms and
privileges that we enjoy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Roe</span></i><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">
respects my body as my temple. <i>Roe </i>supports
the notion that I am capable of making decisions and acting autonomously. <i>Roe</i> understands that while my mother had
2 children at my age, I am simply not yet ready for that type of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I am incredibly thankful for these rights and privileges;
not just those strict legal rights, like the right to privacy, I feel a deep
gratitude for the social and cultural transformation that has taken shape
across the bodies of our mothers, our grandmothers, our heroes. <i>Roe v. Wade </i>is an important reflection
of this greater fight and also highlights how much work remains.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Despite being forty years on, abortion and reproductive
rights are still at the forefront of our domestic social and political discourse. At times, it’s hard to believe that we have
come so far to gain so little. Yet, it
is times like these that I remind myself – I am a single, 30 year old woman and
I still have my entire life in front of me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-3694800453209080292013-01-22T19:58:00.000-05:002013-01-22T19:58:42.567-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: On ChoiceTaylor Stanton, Guest Blogger (University of Ilinois College of Medicine at Rockford '15, Medical Student for Choice)<br />
This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice.<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Somehow,
my medical school curriculum has timed out perfectly that right now we are
studying female reproduction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
far it has been mostly my own independent study, preparing for upcoming
lectures, so I can first read it all in my objective terms of zona pellucidas
and acrosomes, blastocysts and syncytiotrophoblasts, implantation and the corpus
luteum, before the inevitable retelling of the story of the “Mother” and the “Baby.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an understandable interpretation-
most of my professors are mothers or fathers, I too want to be a mother
someday, and what is more humbling and tremendous to a parent than the gift of
life?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in my reading of the
process, in my study of this insanely complicated chromosomal dance, it is
impossible for me to believe that the acts of fusion and implantation are the
sudden catalysts that would so automatically catapult one from “Woman” to “Mother.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have had an informal independent
study of motherhood during my life: watching my school refuse to teach us
sexual education and then stigmatizing the many teen mothers who had relied on
high school myths for contraception, fighting the rising panic during my own
scares, even when I was careful, celebrating babies as friends joyfully
welcomed them into the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now,
I know that not every single pregnancy can be planned down to the last detail,
and unplanned is not always synonymous with unwanted- but sometimes it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes the glorious danger of just
being in this world translates into uninformed decisions, mistakes, and things
out of our control happening to us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But that should not then force us to transition so indelicately into the
role of Mother.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keeping Choice
within the world of Women does not guarantee perfect Mothers every time, but it
does give us the agency to make the decision to attempt to be one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On this anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I
recognize that there is still a million miles of a march ahead in reaching the
right we as Women deserve, and it terrifies me that we have let the
conversation surrounding Choice to become so convoluted and detached that it
seems impossible at times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the
choice of America to uphold this decision 40 years ago, that was a choice to
look at Women as whole, stunning beings and move toward the respect Women certainly
deserve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was vote of confidence
that makes it possible for me, as a Woman 40 years later, to keep fighting the
fight for Choice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-43335459384904114602013-01-22T19:32:00.000-05:002013-01-22T19:32:52.851-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Its more complicated than that<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">Jennifer Rosenbaum, Guest Blogger (Boston University School of Medicine '15, Co-President, Medical Students for Choice)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first political position I can remember having is
pro-choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have this vivid
memory of coming out into the backyard one day when I was in elementary school to
see my mother putting a bumper sticker on our newly-cleaned car that read “A
World of Wanted Children Would Make a World of Difference.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t understand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She explained to me that there was a
procedure that allowed doctors to stop a baby from being born, if the mother
wanted it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people didn’t like
this procedure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And you do, ” I
said, content in my childhood vision of all issues as binary. “It’s more complicated
than that,” she replied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s more complicated than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If there’s one phrase that sums up the horror of the
politicking, opinion-mongering, slurs, reducto ad absurdum images, and vitriol
of the abortion battle that’s it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Somewhere in all this mess is often lost that each woman who considers
terminating her pregnancy is her own unique story – none of them
straightforward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She may want that
child desperately, but know she’s unable to care for it at this moment in
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She may be adamantly
anti-choice, a strong political pro-lifer, but know that being pregnant or
having a child right now will dramatically alter her life for the worse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She may be adamantly pro-choice, but
still feel that she has some responsibility to her partner, her parents, her
potential motherhood to carry to term.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s more complicated than that. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the women who made these choices
could tell us about the confusion, the guilt, the sadness, the relief, the
anger, the frustration, or the comfort of their processes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wouldn’t it be better if we could agree
that no one plans to get an abortion, and we could focus instead on making them
as comfortable and non-scary as possible?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Shouldn’t we, as future medical professionals, learn to create a safe
space for airing all these tho<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5797242235419203762" name="_GoBack"></a>ughts and issues – no
matter the end decision?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the
very least, as we commemorate the struggles behind us and the ones still to
come, let’s acknowledge that this is, finally, about choices women make mostly
alone and mostly after much painful and difficult thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a choice that is very, very much
more complicated than that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-91097005906080052562013-01-22T18:03:00.000-05:002013-01-22T18:03:22.285-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Choice in the New Year<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Dr. Megan Evans, Guest Blogger (OB/GYN Resident, Boston) </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ). </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">It’s funny when you hear something so outrageous on the
radio or read it online. Just for a
moment, you feel like you accidently stumbled upon a faux-article from The
Onion or you completely misread the piece on your smart phone before your
morning coffee.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">And then you realize-
<i>no, somebody actually said those words</i>.
And maybe you feel a little sick to your stomach, angry, or sad. That’s how many of us felt this past year
when it came to stories about women’s reproductive rights and health. Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse,
another statement was said more outrageous than the next. These statements were almost always said by
men, completely devoid of fact, and always brought women I’ve met and cared for
to the forefront of my mind.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">When Todd Akin (R-MO) said “from what I understand from
doctors…if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that
whole thing down,” I felt angry. When I
was a medical student, I cared for a woman who was raped by a <i>coyote</i> while trying to cross the border
into the United States and had become pregnant.
She found her way to our clinic and desired to terminate this
pregnancy. She was so traumatized; she
immediately started uncontrollably shaking at the sight of any male, even the
anesthesiologist there to care for her. She
was raped, and like 32,000 other women each year who have been raped, she
became pregnant. Mr. Akin, in one
sentence, you discounted this woman’s experience and all women like her. In one statement, you suggested she must have
not had a legitimate rape or she must have enjoyed the assault if she became
pregnant. </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">When Joe Walsh (R-IL) said there should be no abortion
exception for life of the mother because with “modern technology and science,
you can’t find one instance” in which a woman would actually die, I was
shocked. While Walsh made this
outrageous claim, we had a patient on our labor floor with extremely high
pressures and a pre-viable pregnancy. As
we tried to balance continuing her pregnancy with keeping her safe, her blood
pressures became so elevated; we were concerned she could have a stroke. After much counseling, the patient decided to
terminate the pregnancy. This was a
difficult decision for the patient, but her health and her life were in
danger. Mr. Walsh, I have found your one
instance and have many more. Pregnancy
is safe, but can be extremely dangerous for some patients and they should
always have access to safe, legal abortion if their health or life is ever in
danger. </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately for both Mr. Walsh and Mr. Akin, voters and
women everywhere would not tolerate these false and outrageous claims and both
candidates lost their elections to strong, pro-choice women. </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As we celebrate the 40<sup>th</sup> anniversary of Roe v.
Wade, I think of how far we have come-over the counter Plan B, contraception
without co-pays, and increased access to family planning services. We still, however, have a long way to
go. Abortion and contraception access is
always under attack-whether it is attempting to defund Planned Parenthood,
budget cuts to women’s health services, or new, limiting legislation. </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">As Roe turns 40, let’s remember all we have and all we have
to fight for. Just as we defeated Joe
Walsh and Todd Akin, let’s make a New Year’s Resolution to keep our voices
loud, fight for what we believe in, and stand up for all women’s reproductive
health and choices everywhere. Roe is
counting on it. </span></div>
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-70582572994705764132013-01-22T17:46:00.000-05:002013-01-22T17:46:29.062-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: A Little Brother<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Anonymous Guest Blogger (Member, BSSRJ)</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<b><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">When pro-choice advocates say “it’s not a baby, it’s just a bunch of cells,” I wonder whether they know what the joy of a wanted pregnancy feels like, and whether they’ve witnessed the pain of losing a child. I wonder if they can understand why for me, being pro-choice is entirely compatible with thinking of pregnancy as the start of life. I wonder whether it’s possible for pro-choice advocates to understand how the right to abortion is just as important for people who want to get pregnant as for those who do not.</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I was supposed to have a little brother.</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">When I was a toddler, my parents were thrilled to conceive again. After years of fertility problems, they hardly believed their luck -- first a healthy girl, and now with my mom nearing 40, a little boy on the way. They named him after a beloved grandfather and shared the news with family and friends.</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I can imagine my father’s face when he first heard about the results of the genetic test, because over 20 years later he still lowers his voice and looks pained when he tells me. “The doctor said he had never seen a baby with such severely malformed chromosomes survive past birth. He said even if our son was born alive he would die soon after, probably in pain.”</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Although my mother’s health was not in danger, my parents decided to terminate the pregnancy late in the second trimester. They hoped this would be more humane for my brother, and would allow them more time to heal and maybe try again. Though I never saw him in person, my mother showed me photos of my brother’s misshapen body and face when I asked about him years later. She keeps them with his death certificate and her hospital bracelet in a small album in her study. He was buried with other miscarried and aborted babies at the hospital.</span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Without Roe v Wade, my parents would have been forced to continue a doomed pregnancy, and to watch their child suffer and die in labor or shortly thereafter. The loss of this precious time may have even prevented them, as older parents, from being able to conceive my sister the next year.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I was supposed to have a little brother, but I have a wonderful little sister instead. And I have parents who still mourn their lost child, but who were free to do what they thought was best for their family because our laws protected their freedom of choice.</span></span></b></div>
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-65095056633695842202013-01-22T17:01:00.000-05:002013-01-22T17:01:14.055-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Scared<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Betty Yang, Guest Blogger (Boston University School of Medicine '15, Medical Students for Choice)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The term “pro-life” sounds like it should have a nice sentiment.
It conjures up the pursuit of health and wellness, the prevention of disease, ambitions
not unlike the themes of the Hippocratic Oath. As a future physician, though,
the words “pro-life” evoke a very different, less wholesome feeling.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I feel scared. Scared for the women in the world who don’t
have access to safe abortions and resort to alternative means. Scared for the
girl who is shamed into a life she is not prepared for. And most personally,
scared for what might happen to me or my family when I stand up for my beliefs
and become an abortion provider. The history of violence against abortion
providers and their communities is long and world-wide. There have been
countless death threats, physical assaults, kidnappings, and even cold-blooded
murders, all in the name of having a “right to life”. Do these abortion clinic
security guards, receptionists, and physicians not also have a right to life?
Are their futures worth any less than that of an embryo that has never “seen” the
light of day?</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Wanting all living things to live is a beautiful thought.
And, according to my definition of life—which takes into consideration the life
of a woman unprepared to care for, or to birth and subsequently give up a
child, and the life of a doctor who stands up for a woman’s right to choose,
and a definition which excludes bodies of life that cannot independently live
without a supplemental blood, immune, and digestive system—I am of the same
opinion. But to believe bombing, or suffocating, or shooting others based on
their beliefs, all under the guise of an “Army of God” is where the title
“pro-life” falls apart. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanks to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Roe v. Wade</i>,
I am lawfully able to provide women a reproductive choice, but until the
anti-abortion, “pro-life” culture of violence abates, I will not be able to do
so without fearing for my life and the lives of those I l<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5797242235419203762" name="_GoBack"></a>ove.</div>
<!--EndFragment-->
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-31861139073249222262013-01-22T16:35:00.000-05:002013-01-22T16:35:08.296-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Do It For Jane<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-size: small;">Daine Stevens, Guest Blogger (UIC-College of Medicine '14, Medical Students for Choice)</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-size: small;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">
</span>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">The 40<sup>th</sup> anniversary
of Roe vs. Wade is likely to bring as many protests as it brings
celebrations. While American culture tends to be liberalizing in its
attitudes toward civil rights, those of us in the pro-choice movement
find ourselves forced to once again defend positions we thought we’d
long ago settled. While the concept of reversing gains and
re-instituting a ban on inter-racial marriages, for example, seems
utterly absurd, we have seen serious attempts to make contraception more
difficult to obtain, to ban abortion outright, or to make abortions de
facto illegal, expensive, and professionally risky. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Yet
despite the personal, legal, and professional challenges, we can never
forget that vacating the rhetorical battleground only strengthens those
who seek to ban a woman’s right to choose. Those who seek to end Roe too
often resort to violence, threats of violence, and outright lies to
advance their position. These threats can cow those who support a
woman’s right to choose into silence and secrecy, clearing room for
prominent conservatives to openly opine about which rapes should be
considered “legitimate” and which ones we shouldn’t be horrified by.
While we can take temporary comfort in the defeat of Mississippi’s
“personhood amendment” and of such anti-choice blowhards as Todd Akin
and Richard Mourdock, we should also be scared that the margins in
Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio weren’t even larger; there’s still much
work to be done. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">
</span>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I
fully admit that as a future physician I am a biased source. It is
patently contrary to medical ethics to force a patient to accept greater
physical risk to themselves against their will, and pregnancy is at
least 14 times more dangerous than an abortion. Even in cases where
another life is at stake—like an innocent child who needs a kidney
transplant—the legal structure for forcing a person to submit to medical
risk—to forcibly take an organ—simply does not exist. In those
so-called compromise positions where exceptions graciously exist in
cases of rape and incest, anti-choice advocates presuppose a right to
force women to disclose personal details of their sex lives to a body
which will then judge them by moral, rather than medical criteria.
Nowhere else in medicine, whether in heart disease, COPD, or even
sexually transmitted infections, do we ever ask whether a patient is
worthy to make their own choices or if they somehow deserve the
consequences of their behavior before we grant them medical autonomy.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">
</span>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Abortion
can only stay safe, legal, and available as long as we are willing to
stand up and defend choice from those who seek to curtail it. Civil
rights have moved forward because individuals have met and interacted
with those who were affected, and because more people openly defended
their rights; pro-choice individuals must come out to their friends and
families and stand proud. This year we are celebrating the demise of the
back-alley and coat-hanger abortion. Forty years on, our mission is to
ensure that we never allow it to go back.</span></div>
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-15131946334751768022013-01-22T16:18:00.000-05:002013-01-22T16:19:56.732-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Pro-Child. Pro-Family. Pro-Choice!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #f4cccc; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; line-height: 17px;">Kate Aizpuru, Guest Blogger (Harvard Law School, '14, Law Students for Reproductive Justice)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 17px;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ)</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span>
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: #f4cccc; color: #222222;">Reproductive freedom is essential to achieving gender equality; only when people have full autonomy over their sexual and reproductive choices, and only when they possess the right to freely decide when and whether to have a family, can they truly be said to have access to full participation in society. Roe v. Wade was necessary but it is not enough. Our work continues and we must be vigilant. Let's stand up and build a community that is active, inclusive and unflagging in our commitment to reproductive justice for all!</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dS3YiPAxUwU/UP7aTZOUbcI/AAAAAAAAAC0/rigGXuS2cMw/s1600/Pro-child.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dS3YiPAxUwU/UP7aTZOUbcI/AAAAAAAAAC0/rigGXuS2cMw/s400/Pro-child.jpg" width="295" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-43909619756477700142013-01-22T16:05:00.001-05:002013-01-22T16:05:16.381-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Rabble-Rousing<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Alice Buttrick, Guest Blogger (Harvard Law School '15, Law Students for Reproductive Justice)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</div>
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<br /></div>
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As many advocates well know, success can be paradoxically
frustrating. In Massachusetts, and especially in Cambridge, we are very
fortunate to have found real success around many of the issues championed by
the reproductive justice movement. This state has universal health care and
excellent access to family planning and contraceptive services. In my
community, these things are sometimes regarded almost as a bygone victory, something like
a woman’s right to vote – <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of course</i>,
we are very grateful, but the barbarians are hardly battering at those gates
anymore. </div>
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<br /></div>
On the 40<sup>th</sup> Anniversary
of <u>Roe v. Wade</u>, however, I will personally be making an effort to do a
little rabble-rousing. The United States before <u>Roe</u> was a much more dangerous
place for women. It was certainly not equally dangerous for all women – wealthy
ones could usually make arrangements, and I know that universities like Yale,
my alma mater, were helping its students discretely obtain abortions, as needed.
The risks that women without those privileges routinely had to take are
unacceptable, and the very real injuries and deaths that resulted on a daily
basis are unthinkable. The fact that any woman would wager, and frequently
lose, her life for an unsafe abortion should make it clear why making abortions
illegal, or impossible to get, never makes them go away.<br />
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<br /></div>
Because the victories of the
pro-choice movement in Massachusetts are hardly representative of this country,
much less of this world. In Massachusetts, <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/sfaa/massachusetts.html">only 10% of women</a>
live in counties without an abortion provider; in the United States at large, that
number is <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/sfaa/massachusetts.html">more
than tripled</a>, and some states are battling to keep just one facility alive;
and globally, approximately <a href="http://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/unsafe_abortion/magnitude/en/index.html">47,000
women die annually</a> from complications after unsafe abortions. This hardly
means that women don’t still need care. Instead, women are increasingly turning
to dangerous, untested, and unsupervised methods as restrictions on safe and
legal abortions attempt to force us back into the pre-<u>Roe</u> world. Now, as
before, rich women are not really at risk, and women in elite institutions will
continue to find support. Happily, states like Massachusetts have seen fit to
expand the privilege of safe care, ensuring that the personal and medical
decision to have an abortion will not be made more difficult or more dangerous
by a lack of access. We need to keep fighting to ensure that every woman in the
world is lucky enough to feel as secure as we do in her dignity, her family,
and her choice.
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-54327432837907240272013-01-22T15:01:00.000-05:002013-01-22T15:01:49.854-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Reproductive Rights and Realities on the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. WadeRachel Roth, Ph.D., Guest Blogger (Arlington, MA) <br />
This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ)<br />
<br />
This post can also be found at: <a href="http://www.momsrising.org/blog/reproductive-rights-and-realities-on-the-40th-anniversary-of-roe-v-wade/#ixzz2IeykSDEi" style="color: #003399;">http://www.momsrising.org/blog/reproductive-rights-and-realities-on-the-40th-anniversary-of-roe-v-wade/#ixzz2IeykSDEi</a>.<br />
<br />
When we observe the 40<sup>th</sup> anniversary of <i>Roe v. Wade</i> on January 22, we are celebrating a major milestone in women’s health, equality, and status as citizens. At its core, <i>Roe</i> stands for women’s right to make important decisions about our own lives.<br />
<br />
This momentous Supreme Court decision <a href="http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/06/22/sonia-sotomayor-roe-pregnant-women">protects both</a>
women’s right to have an abortion and women’s right to continue a
pregnancy. And yet, the reality of women’s lived experience often falls
short of the rights pronounced 40 years ago.<br />
<br />
<i>Roe </i>built on a series of decisions throughout the 20<sup>th</sup>
century dealing with marriage, procreation, and childrearing, including
a 1972 case about the right to use contraception which said that if the
right to privacy means anything, it is the right “to be free from
unwarranted governmental intrusion into matters so fundamentally
affecting a person as the decision whether to bear or beget a child.”<br />
In political circles, the meaning of <i>Roe v. Wade</i> is usually talked about as “the right to choose” or reduced to the shorthand of “choice.” This <a href="http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/01/11/planned-parenthood-gives-up-%E2%80%9Cprochoice%E2%80%9D-label%E2%80%94what-does-it-mean-movement">simplistic rhetoric</a>
not only diminishes the profound and fundamental nature of decisions
about parenthood, it begs the question whether it make sense to talk
about “choices” unless women have alternatives to choose from. For
example:<br />
<ul>
<li>to get pregnant or prevent pregnancy</li>
<li>to continue or terminate a pregnancy</li>
<li>to raise a child or make arrangements for someone else to do so</li>
</ul>
Forty years after<i> Roe</i>, the reality for too many women is that these possibilities are severely constrained<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Constraints on abortion</span><br />
One of the biggest constraints is money. For the millions of women of
women who use Medicaid for their health care, for example, the <a href="http://fundabortionnow.org/learn/hyde">Hyde Amendment</a>
bans federal funding of abortion. Although the Hyde Amendment initially
targeted women who use Medicaid, its reach has extended over the years
to virtually every woman whose health insurance is part of the federal
budget.<br />
Women who serve in the military or Peace Corps or work for the
federal government – out of luck. Women who rely on the Indian Health
Service – out of luck. Women who are sentenced to federal prison or
immigration detention – out of luck. Women who qualify for Medicare
because of disabilities – out of luck.<br />
<br />
All these groups of women, no matter how few resources they may have,
must figure out how to pay for an abortion on their own, even when
their very poverty is what qualifies them for government health
assistance in the first place.<br />
(The official definition of poverty is living on less than
$12,000/year for an individual and less than $18,000 for a family of
three.)<br />
<br />
Because of the racial distribution of poverty, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jessica-arons/a-right-denied-the-hyde-a_b_809788.html">women of color</a>
are disproportionately likely to be low-income and rely on government
sources of health insurance. Women who are young typically have few
resources of their own, and women who live in rural areas, on
reservations or in small towns, face the added difficulty of getting to
an abortion provider whose office may be many miles away.<br />
<br />
It would be bad enough if money were the only significant barrier
women had to deal with. But thanks to decisions in which the Court <a href="http://www.pewforum.org/Abortion/A-History-of-Key-Abortion-Rulings-of-the-US-Supreme-Court.aspx">backtracked</a> from <i>Roe</i>, states have enacted a <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/statecenter/spibs/spib_OAL.pdf">slew of restrictions</a>
that turn the path to abortion care into an obstacle course littered
with hurdles like biased “counseling” and mandatory waiting periods
designed to dissuade women from going through with their decision.<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Constraints on parenthood</span><br />
Despite how difficult politicians have made it to get an abortion,
they haven’t made it particularly easy to raise children. Consider some
of the challenges:<br />
<ul>
<li>ongoing discrimination against <a href="http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/01/16/dear-schools-please-stop-discriminating-based-on-pregnancy-thanks-title-ix">pregnant students</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>ongoing discrimination against <a href="http://www.momsrising.org/blog/legal-setback-not-the-end-of-the-line-for-pregnant-workers-seeking-fairness-on-the-job/">pregnant women on the job</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>no federal policy guaranteeing <a href="http://www.momsrising.org/blog/wow-moms-really-want-paid-family-leave/">paid parental leave</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>the worst conditions for <a href="http://www.legalmomentum.org/our-work/women-and-poverty/resources--publications/worst-off-single-parent.pdf">single mothers</a></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>high rates of <a href="http://www.arhp.org/publications-and-resources/contraception-journal/march-2011">maternal mortality</a></li>
</ul>
Race and economics matter here, too. The maternal mortality rate for
African American women is three times higher than it is for white women,
for example. Discrimination and policy failures take an especially
heavy toll on women of color, young women, rural women, and all women
working low-wage jobs.<br />
<br />
Among the groups for whom motherhood poses the biggest challenge are
women in jail, prison, and immigration detention. Misguided drug policy
and harsh sentencing rules have fueled a dramatic rise in the
imprisonment of women since 1973. Increasingly, women risk arrest and
imprisonment <a href="http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2013/01/14/new-study-reveals-impact-post-roe-v-wade-anti-abortion-measures-on-women">because they are pregnant</a>.<br />
<br />
A majority of incarcerated women have children with whom they struggle to <a href="http://www.momsrising.org/blog/challenging-womens-imprisonment-in-the-united-states-the-worlds-top-jailer/">maintain relationships</a>,
both in terms of preserving their emotional bond and in terms of
preserving their legal rights as parents. If they are pregnant, they
face medical neglect and the prospect of <a href="http://www.momsrising.org/blog/california-activists-prove-the-third-time-is-the-charm-governor-signs-new-law-against-shackling-pregnant-women/">being shackled</a> when they are in labor and giving birth.<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Moving forward: supporting women’s decisions</span><br />
Women go to school, work, have sex, form families. <a href="http://www.1in3campaign.org/">One in three</a> women has an abortion at some point in her life. <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/media/inthenews/2013/01/08/index.html">Six in ten</a> women having an abortion have at least one child.<br />
Because of<i> Roe</i>, abortion is one of the safest medical procedures. This is one of the most important benefits of legalization.<br />
<br />
After 40 years, the availability of safe medical care is the minimum we should expect. To fulfill the promise of <i>Roe</i>,
we still need public policies that truly promote women’s right to
decide whether and when to become mothers, including policies that
ensure access to abortion and policies that support raising children.Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-17341244640798982772013-01-22T14:30:00.000-05:002013-01-22T14:30:58.293-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Piece of PlasticMorgan, Guest Blogger (Boston University School of Medicine '15, Medical Students for Choice)<br />
This post is part of Blog for Choice, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).<br />
<br />
This morning, I paid $500 for a piece of plastic about the
size of my thumb, and I am happy about it. Before I was allowed to buy it, I
had to walk past a woman chanting slogans at me: “abortion is murder” and
“don’t kill your baby.” Her car was parked behind her, and taped to the side of
it were signs reading “Abortion Stops a Beating Heart,” “Take my hand, not my
life,” and “It’s a Boy.” I had to enter the clinic through a metal detector,
removing my belt, allowing the security guard to search my bag, being checked
again with a handheld wand, and was finally allowed entry, through a two door
secure entry hallway with electronic locks, to a waiting room with a wall 10
feet high blocking the windows. But now, at last, after making the decision
months ago, I have an IUD, a tiny piece of plastic that will keep me from
becoming pregnant for the next 5 years.<br />
<br />
40 years ago, Roe v. Wade was decided in favor of the right
of women to obtain safe, legal abortions, and yet…<br />
<br />
When a man wants to practice responsible contraception he can obtain free
condoms from college dorms, health clinics, hospitals, and other sources, he
can buy them without talking to anyone, he can buy as many as he wants with no
prescription, and no age limit is imposed<br />
<br />
When a woman wants to practice responsible contraception, she
is faced with paying for a prescription medication or device. She must see a clinician,
and she will be asked personal questions about her health, her lifestyle, her
sexual habits, her partners. She will be asked her age, and judged for it. If
she fails to do this and so does her partner (or their contraceptive device
fails <i>them</i>) then she must go to a
doctor or a pharmacist, explain that she needs emergency contraception, and
pray that it works. But they’ll only give it to her if she is 18.<br />
<br />
I am happy that Roe v. Wade passed. I am happy that women
coming to clinics like the one I visited today have the option to obtain a
safe, legal abortion. But I am pro-choice, not pro-abortion. Abortion is not
something to celebrate, because it is something that can be prevented, something
that women do not want. It is something they are forced to as a last option by
a system that fails them, makes contraceptive choices expensive and
humiliating, and then judges them for it. I’m happy that abortion is an option,
but mostly I’m happy with my $500 piece of plastic, because of the choices I
won’t have to make. Roe v. Wade is
one step in the right direction, but 40 years later, we still have a long way
to go.Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-11613556660379608052013-01-22T13:56:00.002-05:002013-01-22T13:56:30.683-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Tufts OB/GYN Department Celebrations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The Tufts OB/GYN Department's celebratory uterus-shaped cake in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Sent to us by one of their residents. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q1NGgjHTYTw/UP6rahSCvJI/AAAAAAAAACk/TyjcZOyTEA8/s1600/Image.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q1NGgjHTYTw/UP6rahSCvJI/AAAAAAAAACk/TyjcZOyTEA8/s640/Image.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-50600071504445301012013-01-22T13:24:00.000-05:002013-01-22T13:24:29.929-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: To all the ladies...<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Thomas Dohle, Guest Blogger (Boston University School of Medicine, '16, Medical Students for Choice)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">To all the ladies out there on this 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">I want you to know that not all men look down on you for considering or having an abortion, for using Plan B when plan A failed, for taking a handful of condoms from the bowl on the bar, or for visiting a family planning doctor at Planned Parenthood. Not all men think that you are a slut or a whore or a tramp if you have multiple sexual partners. Not all men participate in the double standard.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Some of us applaud you for being brave and grasping that autonomy that modern medicine allows. Some of us cheer you on for your decision to admit that you are not mature enough or financially stable enough or just plain not ready to be a mother. Some of us believe that sexual expression is a healthy part of humanity, regardless of your gender. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><span style="display: inline;"><br />Some of us are infuriated at the attempts by the religious right and the GOP to limit your liberties. Some of us are shaking our fists at the ignorant protestors standing outside abortion clinics. Some of us are angered by the misinformation being spread. Some of us mobilized to keep more of those people from being voted into elective office.<br /><br />Some of us believe in science and medicine. Some of us shape our politics and virtues around human compassion and the belief that every human life is equal. Some of us don't grasp one or two lines of antiquated literature and use it to try to control you.<br /><br />Some of us realize that gender equality is not possible without reproductive autonomy. Some of us are aware that women can become enslaved by unwanted pregnancy, forced or arranged marriage, rape, and incest. Some of us are willing to proudly walk into that clinic with you, arm in arm, and stare down the faces of hatred that oppose you.<br /><br />Some of us are ready to stand next to our friends, sisters, and mothers.<br /><br />Not all men look down on you. And I'm proud to say that I'm one of them.</span></span>Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-60552443516658958012013-01-22T12:13:00.000-05:002013-01-22T12:13:47.455-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Roe is necessary, but not sufficient<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Gillian Stoddard Leatherberry, Guest Blogger (Boston University School of Law '15, Law Students for Reproductive Justice) <b></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">This post is part of Blog for Choice, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>You’ve probably heard
about Savita.</b> She recently died of septic shock in Ireland after physicians
refused to perform life-saving surgery that may have saved Savita, but would
have aborted her fetus. Many women world-wide, like Savita, aren’t lucky enough
to have access to legal abortion. <i>Roe
means that Savita might have been saved if she had been in the United States
when she was in need of life-saving surgery. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>To me, </b><i>Roe means to me that some women have access
to meaningful abortion rights, but this choice is not accessible to everyone ,
and it doesn’t come without judgment.</i> Contemporary feminists and young
women are known for not appreciating our freedom to use contraception and
choose abortion. I appreciate it, but I am not satisfied with it alone. One in
three women have an abortion in her lifetime. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">Why does shame and judgment still
surround this medical procedure?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Before coming to law school, I volunteered as a clinic
escort. The following examples are real scenarios that evidence the success and
also the limits of Roe:</span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><br />
<ul style="font-family: inherit;">
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="-moz-font-feature-settings: normal; -moz-font-language-override: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span>Walking into the family planning clinic, one clinic
patron was approached by anti-choice protesters who asked her why she is giving
up her baby and did she know she was killing an innocent life? The patron later
told me that that she was outraged by the protesters because her teenage
daughter was in the car – her teenage daughter whom the clinic patron had told
she had cysts, not that she was at the clinic for an abortion procedure. <i>Roe
means that this woman can have an abortion, but doesn’t mean that her daughter won’t
face the same shame if she ever needs an abortion </i></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">Many women drive long distances or from out of
state to come into abortion clinics. This is probably because most counties in
the United States have no access to a family planning clinic. <i>Roe means that women are able to access an
abortion symbolically, but not before women must take off work, find a car, and
find money to drive to the clinic and have an abortion procedure</i>.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;">A young woman who was protesting outside the
clinic one day yelled at me, “Don’t you know that having a baby is free?” <i>Roe means that clinic patients can have
abortions, but Roe cannot explain to this young woman why having a child and
that child’s monetary, emotional and other costs are by no definition “free.”</i></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">While Roe legalizes abortion, full access to the procedure
and its acceptance aren’t things that the Supreme Court decision created. On
this 40<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the Supreme Court decision, abortion rights
supporters should be reminded that Roe is necessary to abortion rights, but not
sufficient in creating choice for all women.</span></div>
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Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-92138373101827430392013-01-22T11:04:00.002-05:002013-01-22T11:04:54.039-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Generations of Choices<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Anonymous Guest Blogger (</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Harvard Law School, Law Students for Reproductive Justice) </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I have been a Reproductive Justice activist since high school. In fact for someone who has never been pregnant, it’s sometimes funny to me how much my life revolves around others’ pregnancies and abortions. One of the odd things that comes with this work is being part of or learning about others’ private medical decisions – both on the abortion hotline I volunteered for, and because of people’s tendencies to share their own abortion, contraception, or pregnancy secrets with me. This includes my own family.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">When I was 16 I helped organize a bus from New Jersey down to the March for Women’s Lives in DC. While my friends and I were coloring in our homemade signs, my grandmother called me up to the front of the bus where she was sitting. She sat me on her lap, and began to tell me about the moment she found herself pregnant with my mother. At 20, she was newly married with few economic resources, and had a new baby, who was born premature after a pregnancy with several serious complications. She was terrified and felt unprepared to handle another pregnancy. The year was 1958, so with abortion illegal, she and my grandfather conspired with her parents to find a doctor who would give her an abortion in the hospital under the guise of a D and C (by the time they were able to schedule the procedure and wait for the date, my grandmother found her second pregnancy much easier than the first. So they did not go through with it, and my mother was born).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Eight years later, I called my mom on my way home from escorting at the Planned Parenthood down the street. I laughed to her, “This protestor kept asking me how I’d feel if my mother aborted me and to be thankful my mother that you didn’t have an abortion so I can be alive. Isn’t that ridiculous? If you aborted me, I wouldn’t really have an opinion, would I?” She responded, casually as she always does when she is revealing something important, “Well, you’re alive because I did have an abortion.” She was 15 and in an interracial relationship her parents did not approve of. Barely managing to avoid dropping out of high school, my mom knew that having a child was not an option for her. The year was 1974 – Roe had just become the law of the land and the Hyde Amendment was not in effect. So, her aunt and uncle brought her to the clinic, and she had a state subsidized abortion. She graduated high school, went to college and met my dad.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I was born in 1987, and my family started teaching me the importance of reproductive autonomy as earlier as I can remember. We talked about my privilege as a middle class white girl with understanding parents and access to health services, the importance of controlling one’s body to control one’s destiny, and their pride in my great-great-aunt, who had been a midwife in the Lower East Side before Roe and performed illegal abortions. But it wasn’t until I was in the Reproductive Justice movement that they began to sit me down and tell me just why it was so important to them.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-15351497797710990962013-01-22T11:04:00.001-05:002013-01-22T11:04:24.009-05:00Blog for Choice: Trust Women, Respect Choice (Photograph)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">Evelyn Atkinson, Guest Blogger (Alum, Harvard Law '12, Law Students for Reproductive Justice) </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0-JzrTqpyPw/UPyxETwkxDI/AAAAAAAAAB0/ggWWiId90IQ/s1600/Evelyn+BFC2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0-JzrTqpyPw/UPyxETwkxDI/AAAAAAAAAB0/ggWWiId90IQ/s640/Evelyn+BFC2.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-34832640058922948312013-01-22T10:02:00.000-05:002013-01-22T10:02:03.209-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Roe at 40 Cartoon<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">Megan J. Smith, Guest Blogger. (Repeal Hyde Art Project)</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by the Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This post can also be found at Megan's personal blog, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><a href="http://meganjuliasmith.wordpress.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">meganjuliasmith.wordpress.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></span></div>
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Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-46751142689778793932013-01-22T08:51:00.000-05:002013-01-22T08:51:25.585-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Reclaiming “Until Abortion Ends” in the New Year<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">Anonymous Guest Blogger (Member, BSSRJ) </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span><br />
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In 2011, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I am Whole Life</i> organization embarked on a new anti-choice
campaign. “Until Abortion Ends” featured “protesters” (often young) in videos,
photographs, Facebook posts—whatever, pledging to give up something they
“loved” until legal and safe abortions came to an end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pro-choice critics like myself found
this campaign not only ridiculous because its “righteous” youngsters were
protesting a serious issue by giving up a piece of junk food, but also offensive
for it’s anti-women, anti-choice, and anti-reproductive rights bull.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, we could alternatively view
this campaign as a missed opportunity for feminists, pro-choicers, and good
people all around to bring recognition and action to some real issues still
facing women and many men today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So for 2013, I’ve decided we should bring back the “Until [Insert cause]
Ends” campaign to focus on what we really care about. Some sample picket sign
ideas follow:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until rape ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until incest ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until poverty ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until forced marriage ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until domestic violence ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until child sexual abuse ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until modern day slavery ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until male child preference ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until unplanned pregnancy ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until abstinence-only education ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until others’ control of women’s bodies ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until politicians regulating reproduction ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until unequal access to birth control methods ends.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Instead of protesting abortion, maybe the above suggestions
would be more worthy causes. A woman decides to have an abortion for a myriad
of complex reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until all of
these reasons end, we will always need access to safe, legal, affordable, and non-judgmental
abortions. And until abortion ends, women will still have the choice and chance
to make their own decisions about their bodies and lives. </div>
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Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-23900368674511452672013-01-22T08:01:00.000-05:002013-01-22T08:01:06.301-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Tota Mulier In Utero<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">Quin Rich, Guest Blogger (2016, Hampshire College)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This post is part of the Blog for Choice 2013 launched by the Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Tota mulier in utero</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">…woman is a womb.”</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Such is how Simone de Beauvoir described one prevailing view of women in her introduction to </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Second Sex</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Surely, more than 60 years removed from de Beauvoir’s treatise and 40 years past </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Roe v. Wade</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, this view must be thoroughly repudiated.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">But to listen to the way some pundits and politicians speak about women is to be confronted with the exact same argument.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Talk of “legitimate rape” and strategically positioned aspirin as contraceptive measures, as well as a flat-out denial that pregnancy prevention is a fundamental part of health care, seems to refute the existence of the last half-century of reproductive justice efforts.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Indeed, forces at the state level, all across the country, are coalescing with the specific intention of eviscerating such efforts crowning achievement, the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Roe </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">decision.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Were </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Roe</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> merely a matter of rendering explicit the guarantee to safe and legal abortion in the United States, then such attacks would seem academic; but </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Roe</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> is one of the few positive affirmations of that right, a line in the sand between the worst excesses of the back alley and the relative safety and autonomy </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Roe</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">provides.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">For many, however, it is a right in principle only, and one which is rapidly disappearing at that; the Hyde amendment prevents access to abortion care to poor women and women of color by denying them federal Medicaid funds to help pay for their procedures; states are banning private insurance coverage for abortion; and mandatory waiting periods necessitate multiple trips to the clinic over several days, putting abortion care out of the reach of many women who cannot afford to take so much time off work or away from their other children.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">When women are forced to take matters into their own hands, the logical outcome of such bodily totalitarianism by misogynistic ideologues, they are pursued with threats of jail time and criminal prosecution; this applies to women who happen to miscarry in the wrong state, as well.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The anti-choice rhetoric of women as unwilling victims of amoral, greedy doctors is a façade.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The true purpose of legislative restrictions on abortion access is to punish women for deigning to control their own lives.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Crisis pregnancy centers are the logical extension of this kind of thinking; if harassing women outside of Planned Parenthood won’t work, they’ll set up a competing “clinic” next door.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Of course this clinic won’t be staffed by doctors, and will not bother to concern itself with the health and well-being of its patients; its only prerogative is to guilt, shame, coerce, cajole, and blatantly lie to stop abortion by any means necessary.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Granted, once these children are born, the anti-choice contingent loses all interest in them.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">“Forget subsidized childcare, you should have thought of that before you got pregnant!” they cry.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">And neither do they have any sympathy for rape and incest survivors, women in abusive relations, or women facing life-threatening pregnancies.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">For to them, it is not as if these women </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">really</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> matter; after all, “</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">tota mulier in utero</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">”.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-26801307706802974372013-01-22T00:14:00.001-05:002013-01-22T00:14:12.826-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: 40 Years<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Susan Yanow, Guest Blogger (C</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">onsultant to UCSF/ANSIRH, Ibis, Reproductive Health Access Project and Women on Waves/Women on Web, Board of NARAL ProChoice Massachusetts, Board of ACLU of Massachusetts, BSSRJ Advisor)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Roe v. Wade decision in 1973 gave women cause to celebrate. An end to unsafe clandestine abortion was a core component of a women‘s movement which included a vision of women-centered health care, embedded in a social justice framework that empowered us to take more control over our bodies, our sexual and reproductive health, and our lives.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Parts of our vision have come to pass. Women have broken through many glass ceilings, and there are more female physicians, health activists, and health advocates. New technologies such as medication abortion and manual vacuum aspiration make abortion available earlier in pregnancy. Advocates and health professionals have worked to move early abortion into primary care, and more family medicine doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives are committed to providing the full range of primary health care services, including abortion, to their patients. Maternal death from abortion in the U.S. is a statistic from the past. Over 1 million U.S. women each year obtain safe, legal abortions from highly skilled clinicians.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">However, 40 years after Roe, the promise of legal abortion, and therefore of control over one‘s body and health, remains unrealized for too many women. The elimination of abortion coverage from the Affordable Care Act, Federal Medicaid, many private insurers, from Indian Health Services and for those employed by the Federal government or in the military leaves many women facing an insurmountable financial barrier to accessing abortion. State restrictions, including waiting periods, parental consent requirements for minors, bans on later abortions, and expensive and unnecessary requirements for facilities that provide abortions create additional obstacles, especially for rural, young and low-income women. Women, particularly those who need second trimester abortions, must often travel great distances to find abortion care.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Anti-abortion activists have successfully framed abortion as a moral, not a health care, decision, stigmatizing both women who seek abortions and those who provide the abortion care that women need. A shortage of clinicians willing to provide abortions has been exacerbated by the failure of medical professional groups to support abortion providers, a campaign of violence and harassment by anti-abortion activists, and a lack of training opportunities and support systems for those who are committed to women‘s health care. The Supreme Court has eliminated many of the original protections of Roe, and the anti-abortion movement has become very sophisticated. They have co-opted our messages and proclaim that </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">they</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> are the movement that cares about women and healthy families.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In the face of these challenges, we must refuse to go back to the days when women had little control over their reproductive lives and their bodies. There are some lights in the dark tunnel of attacks on our rights.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The Reproductive Justice framework holds potential for uniting us around a vision of moving abortion back into the context of women‘s rights and the need for all women, regardless of income, geography, or race, to raise the children they want and not to have children they don‘t want. We are recognizing how eliminating the rights of women with a wanted or an unwanted pregnancy impact all of us, and the need to defend women charged with endangering a pregnancy as vehemently as we defend the right to end a pregnancy. Increasing numbers of young clinicians are stepping up and seeking abortion training, and young women are visibly mobilizing to protect rights they once were able to take for granted. For all of us, the 40th anniversary of Roe is a time to reflect on what we‘ve gained and to become energized by the ongoing work to expand abortion rights and abortion access by new leaders and new visions. Most of all, this anniversary is an opportunity to re-commit ourselves to fighting for justice, including access to abortion as a core part of the comprehensive reproductive health care needed by women across our country and around the world.</span></div>
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-8336257832022211192013-01-22T00:10:00.001-05:002013-01-22T20:17:16.327-05:00Blog for Choice 2013: Roe vs. Wade Anniversary CakeLisa Kip, Guest Blogger (Tufts University School of Medicine '15, Medical Students for Choice)<br />
This post is part of Blog for Choice 2013, launched by Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ).<br />
<br />
This post can also be found at <a href="http://lisakip.blogspot.com/">http://lisakip.blogspot.com/2013/01/blog-for-choice-2013-roe-vs-wade.html</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FBJByRLvvTU/UPzGvGNSM-I/AAAAAAAAAQg/rnyc5EjdZxs/s1600/IMG_1309.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FBJByRLvvTU/UPzGvGNSM-I/AAAAAAAAAQg/rnyc5EjdZxs/s1600/IMG_1309.jpg" width="200" /></a>Last
week I bought a cake, had the baker write "Roe vs. Wade" on it, lit
some candles, and sang an anniversary song with friends from multiple
graduate programs across the city who love reproductive justice as much
as I do.<br />
<br />
Roe v. Wade means that women can make their own
decisions about their sex, their reproduction, their health, their
families, their lives. Definitely deserves a cake. But to most of my
peers, it doesn't even deserve an opened email. Here in Massachusetts we
have a surplus of abortion providers and insurance-covered abortions
for women on state-run health insurance. Women feel safe. But that
safety has lowered our defenses. It seems to me that the people of
Massachusetts have stopped fighting for reproductive justice, probably
because they feel like the fight is over. That we won.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2gTB2i1Q6jA/UPzC4MazcQI/AAAAAAAAAQA/6a6lHNv57nQ/s1600/Roe+Cake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="319" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2gTB2i1Q6jA/UPzC4MazcQI/AAAAAAAAAQA/6a6lHNv57nQ/s1600/Roe+Cake.jpg" width="320" /></a>In
my medical school ethics class, more than 90% of my classmates, when
anonymously polled, identified as "pro-choice." As president of our
Medical Students for Choice (MSFC) chapter, I can tell you that we don't
even have 25% of my medical school class on our email list. And
probably less than 10% of my class attend MSFC events. I often wonder -
where is this mysterious pro-choice majority?<br />
<br />
Well, pro-choice
ladies and gentlemen of my class, Massachusetts, and the world - show
yourselves! The fight is not over. Not here, not anywhere. Here in the
liberally blue and fabulous Massachusetts that we all love, there are
plenty of laws restricting women's access to abortions (click <a href="http://www.prochoiceamerica.org/government-and-you/state-governments/state-profiles/massachusetts.html">HERE</a> or <a href="http://www.lawlib.state.ma.us/subject/about/abortion.html">HERE</a>
for more information), and dozens more being proposed in our state
house and senate each year. Not to mention any of the crazy and
mind-bogglingly backwards things going on in our country's red states.
Not to mention other countries where abortion is often out of the
question, completely illegal, never, no way, don't even think about it.
Where women die because they have no other choice.<br />
<br />
Peers, fellow
millenials, women, men, everyone - my only request is that you care.
Care that we have a lot of rights, but we still have a long way to go as
a global community. Don't sit around waiting for someone to poll you
anonymously or for a funny meme to catch your eye or for something
really bad to happen before you put on your reproductive justice hat. Wear
that hat all the time. Don't be part of the silent pro-choice majority.
Share your stories. Blog. React. Write letters to representatives.
Discuss the current issues in your state. Volunteer. <br />
<br />
And today,
celebrate that it is the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Light candles,
sing a song and eat some Roe vs. Wade cake! Celebrate that we have come
a long way. Celebrate our victories. Just don't forget that we still
have a lot left to fight for.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R1UPSvy0N_U/UPzFNV1F-0I/AAAAAAAAAQQ/C4VhxEF25SM/s1600/bfcd-2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R1UPSvy0N_U/UPzFNV1F-0I/AAAAAAAAAQQ/C4VhxEF25SM/s1600/bfcd-2013.jpg" /></a>This blog post is part of a number of different Blog for Choice initiatives.<br />
<ul>
<li>Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice Blog for Choice<br /><a href="http://bostonreprojustice.blogspot.com/">bostonreprojustice.blogspot.com</a></li>
<li>NARAL Pro-Choice America Blog for Choice Day 2013<br /><a href="http://blogforchoice.com/">blogforchoice.com</a></li>
<li>Law Students (and friends) for Reproductive Justice National<br /><a href="http://reporepro.lsrj.org/">reporepro.lsrj.org</a></li>
</ul>
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5797242235419203762.post-26838452163933721652013-01-21T20:09:00.001-05:002013-03-19T16:15:36.661-04:00Blog for Choice 2013 - WHO WE ARE & THANKS<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Happy 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade from BSSRJ!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We will start posting at midnight on Jan 22, 2013, and will post one or two submissions each hour. Make sure to check back, or sign up for emails on the right of this blog post -------------------------></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">What is BSSRJ?</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice (BSSRJ) is a coalition of pro-choice professional student groups that has a mission of promoting a multidisciplinary approach to reproductive justice. </span><div>
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">BSSRJ is made up of groups that seek full reproductive justice for every perosn. We seek to build networks and alliances beyond our professional affiliations to deepen our understanding and our effectiveness. </span></span></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></div>
<div style="display: inline !important;">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Our activities include:</span></span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><ul>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Facilitating,
promoting, and fostering collaborations and information sharing between the
member organizations of the coalition</span> and increasing knowledge of and access to local community RJ
activists and organizations.
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Supporting
Boston and Massachusetts graduate programs without organized reproductive
justice clubs that are trying to develop or create their own reproductive
justice organization</span>
</li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Encouraging
graduate students interested in reproductive justice to pursue activism,
community service, and training in reproductive justice organizations and issues within or outside of the scope
of their educational
interests</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: inherit;">Creating opportunities for the individual member organizations and other unaffiliated professional students to share and gather project/event ideas and to update each other on their reproductive justice related activities</span></li>
</ul>
</span></span></span></div>
<br />
<ul>
</ul>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Recently, BSSRJ has has become a pilot for the national organization, Professional Students Coalition for Reproductive Justice.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"> BSSRJ includes many law, medical, nursing, and public health programs in Boston and Massachusetts. We are interested in inviting pharmacy, social work, religion, and other interested graduate students to join us. </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">If your professional program want to join the BSSRJ network, email </span><a href="mailto:bostonreprojustice@gmail.com"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">bostonreprojustice@gmail.com</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">, or join our </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/100679240000242/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Facebook group</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">.</span></b><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">BSSRJ would like to give a big shout-out to our cross-posters and collaborators on this project. Thanks for your support.</span></b><br />
<ul><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aiEe6YzIETc/UPzRVphP6WI/AAAAAAAAACE/hzYw_igd6ws/s1600/bfcd-2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aiEe6YzIETc/UPzRVphP6WI/AAAAAAAAACE/hzYw_igd6ws/s1600/bfcd-2013.jpg" style="cursor: move;" /></a>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">NARAL Pro-Choice America and NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts - Blog for Choice - </span><a href="http://blogforchoice.com/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">blogforchoice.com</span></a></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Law Students for Reproductive Justice National - Repo Repro Blog - </span><a href="http://reporepro.lsrj.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">reporepro.lsrj.org</span></a></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Medical Students for Choice National - </span><a href="http://www.ms4c.org/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">www.ms4c.org</span></a></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Amplify Your Voice Blog - </span><a href="http://amplifyyourvoice.org/blog" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">amplifyyourvoice.org/blog</span></a></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Harvard Law School Women's Law Association Blog - </span><a href="http://www3.law.harvard.edu/orgs/wla/blog/" target="_blank"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">www3.law.harvard.edu/orgs/wla/<wbr></wbr>blog/</span></a></li>
<li><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Boston University Law Students for Reproductive Justice Blog - </span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://buslreproductivejustice.wordpress.com/">buslreproductivejustice.wordpress.com/</a></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
</li>
</ul>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We would also like to thank our readers for caring about how much we care about the 40th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade! </span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks everyone,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Lisa, Abbey, and Alice</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Blog for Choice 2013 Team</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justice</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Boston Students for Sexual and Reproductive Justicehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10839788686855637067noreply@blogger.com0