Save CHOICE-- Save Roe v. Wade
For today at least the law of abortion stands undisturbed. For today the women of this Nation shall retain the liberty to control their destinies. But the signs are evident and very ominous and a chill wind blows.... And I fear for the darkness as four Justices anxiously await the single vote necessary to extinguish the light.
-- former Justice Harry Blackmun

Personal

The issue of Choice, of reproductive freedom, of abortion rights, of personal freedom, is at the core of my own personal foundation. Choice was actually my first social issue upon my political awakening-- not gay rights, but choice. In fact, being pro-choice allowed me to learn more about a world that allowed personal freedoms; being pro-choice allowed me to grow into acceptance of my own life; being pro-choice was my beginning.

In the fall of 1989 I had recently come to the conclusion that I was pro-choice, after much personal deliberation. I heard on the radio some commercials for a March on Jefferson City on November 12th and decided to make the call and join the march. I'd never done anything like that before. And before I would go, I knew I would have to have a chat with my mother. She and I were in the backyard and I told her I needed to tell her something. She looked pensive and nervous and I think she was preparing herself for my coming out (which I wouldn't do or be ready for until about 5 months later). We sat down on the large tree log sitting on our back porch and I said to her, "I'm pro-choice" and that I was telling her this because I wanted to travel to the March on the state capital. I was fully prepared to have a debate, but she was actually quite open to the talk and we discussed the issue and came to an agreement on the issue. It wasn't hard at all. So on November 12th, 1989, I joined a bus full of strangers for the two-hour drive to Jeff City and joined hundreds to thousands of fellow Missourians in a my first bit of activism. There was a large event on the captiol steps with speeches and shouting and anger and hope and it was done mostly by strong, very cool women. There was a march around the capitol building itself. And there was love and strength in numbers and it was my first gathering. We were shouting against then-Governor John Ashcroft and then-Attorney General William Webster who were both taking their anti-choice extremism to the national level via the major Supreme Court case that year that would portend the future of abortion rights and the obstacles that we would all face. I even still have the button I wore that day:



An activist, a pro-choice voice, was born that day. And on a more personal level, my identity was beginning to be formed. I remember that day seeing at the March the Missouri chapter of ACT-UP. I went over to them very nervously, afraid of being gay and afraid of being out and afraid, afraid, afraid, and I somehow got the strength to say hi to them and ask them about their group-- I didn't know what ACT-UP was, but I could tell they were a gay group of sorts. They were very nice and talked with me briefly and introduced themselves. I introduced myself too-- for the very first time in a gay setting using my real name. I hadn't been in too many gay settings prior to that, but in the rare times I'd located a gay setting in Kansas City before I had always used a fake name for fear of being outed or out. So I was liberated in a way that day too, for I-- Reese-- had said my real name to a group of gay people. But I digress here...

Choice was my beginning and I soon became more involved in activities on campus and grew in my education and understanding of the issue. In the fall of 1991 my professor briefly mentioned a potential internship with the local affiliate of Planned Parenthood and I wanted to learn more.



I met with Erika Fox, an amazing and wonderful woman who ran the Public Affairs Department about the possibility of doing the internship with her next semester-- my final semester of undergraduate college. She took me in and took me under her wing and I soon took to the cause and the office and the work like a fish takes to water. My semester internship there taught me so much about life and began my political career. It was there that I learned about choice and women's rights and even more fundamental, basic concepts as state legislatures, elections, the right-wing, and other such stuff that eventually became my everyday life and career in general. Additionally, during that semester was the 1992 March on Washington for Choice and I helped to organize a bus full of Missourians, including several of my friends, to take the day-long bus-trip from Kansas City to Washington, DC whereupon we got out of the bus for a full four hours to do the march and then returned to the bus for the day-long bus-trip back to Kansas City in order to make the trip within a weekend. That was quite a trip!



Following my internship there she hired me part-time as an assistant and for the next two years I gained so much knowledge and understanding and I can't thank Erika enough for that. I also became involved in the local affiliate of NARAL and worked on several phone-bank campaigns for them during those years.



The issue of choice was my life and my beginning in the work that I do now and the person that I am now.

I fear for the issue of choice now though. It is not an exaggeration to say that the right to choice is barely hanging on by a thread. Bush is not for choice; the majority of Congress is not for choice; the majority of Americans are for choice, but the majority of elected officials are not. We can make the elected officials change, but we have to work hard at it, harder than ever before. The right-wing owns the Republicans party now. The right-wing has been working since 1973, 30 years, to destroy Roe v. Wade and they are awfully close to doing just that. And the issue isn't just about that one Supreme Court decision-- the issue is about personal freedom and privacy and if you care about those in any capacity than you must care about what happens to choice. Because if choice goes, it's only the first in a long line of slippery slopes that run into Americans losing their ability to make their own decisions and live their own lives. It's about everything from banning birth control to never allowing same sex marriage to forcing straight marriage to never allowing a divorce to you name it. It's all the same issue wrapped up in what happens with the fact of choice. So do something today, during this month of the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, and show that you care about its future. Take action and show your choice today.

(As soon as I get some HTML help in putting up a "comments" link, I'd love to hear your comments to make this a true community section. In the meantime, feel free to send me your feedback)

Countrymouse has offered this song as an ode to this Issue of the Month.

Political

FIGHT BACK
Take Action Now-- NARAL's 100 Ways to Fight for Choice

There are so many great websites out there for making your voice heard for choice.
Visit the NARAL Action Center
Join the Choice Action Network
Sign the Planned Parenthood Petition
Send a letter to Congress
Read the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Right's Action Page
Be one of a Million4Roe
Take the time to visit some of them, sign onto the petitions and the links and make a difference. And most importantly, contact your elected officials (U.S. House; U.S. Senate; State Legislature) and let them know you are pro-choice. And most importantly, pay attention to the elections and vote pro-choice.

Other things you can participate in on the web:
In one click, tell your Senators to reject Bush's extremist, right-wing, anti-choice judicial appointments. It'll take two seconds. You can do it!

"As an actor, I portray a character who fearlessly encounters the unknown every day, but as a woman, what does scare me is the thought of returning to what we do know: the days of back alley abortions. Join my Million4Roe team and stand strong for women's rights and women's lives." -Gillian Anderson

10 Things you can do to promote choice, California-style.

Wow, check it out: one of those internet cartoons with singing and dancing by Bush and others and their threat to choice. Funny and yet scary. Check it out.

Join a virtual sit-in at the Supreme Court and leave your own personal statement there.

Articles

Looks like one of my favorite groups, NARAL, has changed its name (now NARAL Pro-Choice America) and is gearing up for the major fight ahead. Good for them! We will guarantee freedom of choice using the most powerful resource in a free society: the determination of the American people never to allow our freedom to be taken away. This mobilization will secure the right to choose the same way we won it - one American, one neighborhood, one community, one state and eventually one nation at a time.

Foes of Abortion Push for Major Bills in Congress

When Politics Trumps Science: ...information that used to be based on science is being systematically removed from the public when it conflicts with the administration's political agenda.... Bush staffers are vetting hundreds of nominees to these scientific panels by screening their political loyalties, rather than their scientific expertise.

The New York Times takes on Bush's war against women in a rather long and well-detailed editorial:On the surface, the Bush administration's war against women's rights is a series of largely unnoted changes. It is intended to look that way. In reality, it is a steady march into the past, to a time before Roe v. Wade, when abortion was illegal and pregnancy was more a matter of fate than choice.... [T]he actual impact of the presidential assault: women's constitutional liberty has been threatened, essential reproductive health care has been denied or delayed, and some women will needlessly die.

After Three Decades of Legal Abortion, New Research Documents Declines in Rates, Numbers and Access to Abortion Services: The United States has one of the highest rates of abortion among industrialized countries outside of eastern Europe, in large part because we have high levels of unintended pregnancy. In addition to safeguarding access to abortion services, if we hope to continue to decrease the number and rate of abortions in this country, we must first address the factors responsible.
Continued assaults on access to contraceptive information and services, particularly for young women and men, will only lead to more unplanned pregnancies and abortions.

Beleaguered Roe vs. Wade Turns 30: Battle Lines Hardened Over Years: Choice has never been in more danger than it is today. If they can't overturn Roe vs. Wade, they will gut it.

Beleaguered Roe vs. Wade Turns 30: High Court Changes Could Overturn Ruling: This is the most hostile political environment since Roe vs. Wade for women's rights and women's reproductive rights in particular.... The right has already suffered from years and years of battering.

Key Dates in the Fight Over Legalized Abortion

Resources

A very minor listing of various links to groups and resources are below. However, there are also many great local programs in every area of the country and you may wish to do a search within your local community for groups that may need your help.

Planned Parenthood of America
Save Roe
National Abortion & Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL)
National Abortion Federation/Prochoice.org
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
American Association of University Women
National Coalition of Jewish Women
People for the American Way
The Alan Guttmacher Institute
Million4roe.com/Feminist Majority
National Organization for Women (NOW)
ACLU Reproductive Rights Project
Medical Students for Choice
Pro-Choice Public Education Project
Abortion Access Project
Supreme Court Watch