Reproductive Rights

Abortion, Morality and the Liberation of Women is now available on YouTube.

January 2012: Stand Up for Abortion and Birth Control

Join us in Washington DC
and sign this statement

by Sunsara Taylor
 
IT IS TIME!
January 22 and 23, on the 39th anniversary of the Roe V. Wade Supreme Court Decision which legalized abortion, come to DC to:

Stand up for Abortion and Birth Control 

39 years after women won the right to abortion, this fundamental right is hanging by a thread.
  • Nearly 90% of U.S. counties have no abortion provider.
  • 2011 saw the greatest number of restrictions passed at the state level – parental notification laws, mandatory waiting periods, gestational bans, etc. – restricting this access even further.
  • Doctors who provide abortions are hunted, terrorized and killed.
  • And the stigma and shame cast on women who get abortions is greater than ever.
But that is not all.

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Disappointed Doesn’t Cut It Anymore: A Mother’s Rebuttal of President Obama’s Plan B Politics

by Kate Stewart

Disappointed doesn’t cut it anymore.

Disappointed, angry, dismayed -- these are only some of the emotions I am feeling this afternoon after hearing President Obama's poor excuse for restricting access to Plan B One Step.

I am also scared. Scared about the health of my daughters. 

As the mother of two daughters, just like President Obama, I try to use "common sense" as much as possible. But, also like President Obama, I am not a doctor; I am not a scientist. I use my own judgment when it comes to things I am confident I can handle -- a case of the sniffles, a little cold. 

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Mississippi “Personhood” Amendment Defeated

From the Feminist Majority 

In an exciting and important victory for women’s rights advocates, Mississippi voters defeated the Personhood Amendment. While the state went Republican and voted for many candidates who supported Initiative 26, a state constitutional personhood amendment that would have given full rights to fertilized eggs, women’s rights supporters successfully defeated this dangerous initiative 58% to 42% with 96 percent of precincts reporting.

The Feminist Majority Foundation Campus Choices organizers were on the ground in Mississippi working with hundreds of Mississippians on college campuses, the statewide coalition against Initiative 26, Mississippians for Healthy Families, and the only remaining clinic providing abortion services, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The Feminist Majority Foundation had a national campus organizing team, on-the-ground student organizers and scores of volunteers who organized thousands of students on the major campuses.  Its signs and stickers, which read “Vote NO on 26, Save Women’s Lives” were also featured in major news outlets, including the New York Times and the Mississippi Clarion Ledger.

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Mississippi Votes No on Initiative 26, but Zygote-Rights Zealots Press On

...efforts to grant eggs, embryos and fetuses entirely independent constitutional status would [deny] pregnant women their rights to life, liberty and medical-decision making.

by Akiba Solomon

Even in Mississippi—a Bible belt state with only one abortion clinic—58 percent of voters rejected Ballot Initiative 26, the so-called Personhood Amendment that would have granted zygotes the same rights as the women who carry them.

Sponsored by the Colorado-based evangelical Christian group Personhood USA, and modeled after a provision that failed in Colorado twice, Initiative 26 would have outlawed abortion in Mississippi, even in cases of rape, incest, domestic violence and life-threatening pregnancy. In addition, this change in the state’s constitution would have criminalized in-vitro fertilization and birth control methods including the IUD.

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A Woman Hating Assault: The Christian Fascists’ “Personhood” Campaign

by Sikivu Hutchinson  

Taking its dangerous “life begins at conception” assault from state legislature to state legislature, one of the most dangerous political forces in the U.S. is stepping up its crusade for the “rights” of the unborn.
 
Backed by an organization called Personhood USA,the latest offensive by anti-choice Christian fascists involves a renewed movement to amend state constitutions to establish human rights and personhood status for fertilized eggs. On November 8th, Mississippi voters will decide the fate of Initiative 26, a personhood amendment that could precipitate the dismantling of Roe vs. Wade.
 
Ever immune to morality, reason, church-state separation precedents and an understanding of the basic laws of biology, the most flat earth reactionary segment of the pro-death anti-choice movement wants to circumvent constitutional protections for abortion by conferring personhood on fertilized eggs.This would eviscerate the premise that women have a sovereign and singular right to control their bodies by designating rights before implantation and a clinically viable pregnancy has been determined.

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Defending Abortion Doctor Carhart and the Lives of Women

This article originally appeared as correspondence on the Revolution website

A two-sided battle for public opinion about abortion—and over whether Dr. Leroy Carhart will be able to continue providing later term abortions which save the lives of women—became visible on the street this week near Carhart's clinic in Germantown, Maryland.
 
On one end of the street, up to 200 Catholic anti-abortion protesters gathered, as they do almost every weekend, to sing and pray for an end to abortion and raise funds for so-called "counselors" to chase women entering Dr. Carhart's clinic, trying to lure them into a fake "pregnancy option" clinic across the street and lie to them about abortion.

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Abortion Doctor Leroy Carhart is a Hero—Operation Rescue Wants Him Dead

Why YOU should be in Maryland
July 31—August 7 

A determining focal point in the battle for abortion rights and the lives of women begins July 31 in Germantown, MD. One of the most courageous and prominent abortion providers in the country is being targeted by one of the most hateful, fascistic, anti-woman groups in the country. Anyone who cares about the future for women needs to be there or find a way to support those who will be.

Dr. LeRoy Carhart is a hero. He provides abortions. As simple as that may sound—and as simple as that ought to be—this means that every day for more than two decades he has risked his life for the lives of women. He's been threatened. He's been stalked. His family has been harassed—even receiving calls "informing" them of his murder. Once, his farm was burned to the ground.

But that is not all.

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A Wave of Attacks… An Urgent Threat to Abortion Rights

This coordinated assault on the state and federal levels serves as a legal counterpart to the deadly terror directed at abortion providers, such as the murder of Dr. George Tiller in a Wichita, Kansas church in May 2009.

From Revolution newspaper:

A wave of extremely dangerous, utterly heartless, and profoundly anti-woman legislation swept through state legislatures this spring and early summer. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 512 laws limiting abortion were proposed in 49 states in the first three months of 2011. The New York Times reported that, by late May, 64 anti-abortion laws had been passed, 30 in April alone, in what the Times called “a campaign [that is] the largest in history.”

With the ascendancy of the Republican Party and its “Tea Party” component in many state legislatures, and with the Democrats either assisting outright or offering objections that in no essential way challenge the onslaught, these laws are a poisonous brew concocted from a combination of modern technology and the patriarchal, oppressive ideology that is a cornerstone of Christian Fascism.

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Summer Celebration of Choice

By Debra Sweet 

Momentum is building for a beautiful gathering of abortion rights supporters in Germantown, MD (near Washington, DC) July 31-August 7!

Watch and spread this video of Dr. LeRoy Carhart calling on supporters to come out for a Summer Celebration of Choice: We are all especially excited about the Kick-Off Walk, and encourage all activists to join. The walk is also a fundraiser to support the Abortion Access Fund, which enables women who often travel very long distances to obtain crucially needed and lifesaving abortions.

The National Organization for Women had its annual conference June 23-25 in Tampa, Florida. There, the members passed a resolution of support for both the Summer Celebration of Choice and the Summer of Trust. Thank you to the inspiring leaders and the dedicated members of NOW, and we hope to see you all in Germantown this summer!

Get involved, spread the word, and make your plans to attend now!
 
 
 
Make this Summer a Turning Point for the Right to Abortion in the United States!

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Dr. George Tiller Interviewed, 2001

 May 31, 2011, marks the second anniversary of the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Wichita Kansas. Never Again!

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World Can't Wait mobilizes people living in the United States to stand up and stop war on the world, repression and torture carried out by the US government. We take action, regardless of which political party holds power, to expose the crimes of our government, from war crimes to systematic mass incarceration, and to put humanity and the planet first.