ABORTION, again and again and again
Oct. 2, 2021, What is there left to say?
Nothing…
And Everything.
I was a graduate student in anti-racist feminist political theory from 1968–1972
Roe v. Wade was passed in 1973
Although I never had need of an abortion almost every friend, I had in those years did. I helped find doctors. I helped find the back-alleys. I helped find the money. I sat in the hallways praying that my friend would not die, and I was and am an atheist.
This time was terror-filled for us — and we were privileged enough to find abortions and be able to pay for them.
My daughter Sarah Stumbar is a young social medicine doctor. She runs a mobile health unit for undocumented and uninsured people. During Covid she repurposed empty hotels to treat the houseless with Covid, with the assist from her medical students. She like all doctors are exhausted. BUT…she works on Saturdays at Planned Parenthood in Miami to make abortion available — especially now with the dire need of so many coming from Texas and other states where there is so little access.
Did I mention that you need to understand that the legal right to choose an abortion is a far cry from actually being able to get (access) to an abortion? This is why so much of the assault is against the clinics. It is why so many clinics have faced impossible regulations and have been shuttered.
Back to my beloved Dr. daughter for another moment. She must walk a gauntlet of abortion haters each time she enters the abortion clinic. These are the people who will be further unleashed to ferment fear and hatred given the new Texas law.
When she was a resident in training as a medical student at an abortion clinic, she had to leave her home and take a circuitous route to work so no one could trace her steps back to her home. She would call me when she left for her shift; and text when she got inside the doors. This is not what democracy should look like.
THE ANTI ABORTION LOBBY AND MOVEMENT IS A TERROR FILLED MOBILIZATION — IT IS A WAR OF TERROR ON WOMEN’S AND GIRL’S BODIES.
So if I sound enraged, I am. There is no middle ground left if there ever was one. And, Roe would never have happened without the amazing radical demanding women’s liberation movement…in the streets, disobeying.
So, what about TEXAS?
You need not look elsewhere to other countries to see women disrespected, undervalued, and also feared. We have our very own Taliban — hey are home grown American white men.
Senate Bill 8 SB8
It uses the fugitive slave law decrees to terrorize
And galvanize the lawless and make their hate “lawful”. It is VIGILANTE LAW.
There is no justice to be found here. Do not let the disguise of the Supreme Court let you think there is anything lawful or ok here. This is a racist and misogynist attempt to smash women’s rights to their/our bodies.
The so-called justices — laughable — made their Texas decree in the middle of the night.
A SHADOW DOCKET — no argument in defense of their rendering. Just a simple decree. This is what fascism looks like — or more specifically this is what the macho bullies of patriarchal law look like
THERE IS NO DEMOCRACY FOR ANYONE IF WOMEN OF EVERY KIND AND AGE AND COLOR IS NOT FREE TO DECIDE ABOUT HER BODY.
NO TO IMPERIAL ACTS AGAINST MY/our BODY
NO TO COLONIAL ACTS AGAINST MY/our BODY
NO TO TERRORIZING MY/our BODY
THEY WAR ON US BECAUSE THEY KNOW OUR POTENTIAL POWER TO STAND FOR DEMOCRACY.
THAT WITH ABORTION RIGHTS THE FIELD IS LEVELED AND WOMEN ARE ABLE TO FULLY ENGAGE IN LIFE WITH ALL THEIR ABILITIES AND TALENTS.
There is a politics to sex
Politics is always also personal
Our bodies are the most powerful thing we have
Determining what our bodies do is what our power is.
It is why terror is unleashed at us and so pivotal to controlling women’s bodies. It is why one in 3 women suffer sexual violence of some sort.
So I hope I have given you some political language to think and act with — that abortion is a necessity for any democratic society. AND, the war of terror on women’s bodies requires smashing the racist, capitalist, patriarchal Court/legal system.
So — to conclude when there is no concluding:
A doctor in Texas last week went public with a fabulous statement of defiance against the TexasB8. He said he started practicing as an OBGYN in 1972. One of his first patients, a 16-year-old teenager died on his table when he could not stop her hemorrhaging from a botched abortion. He has never forgotten her. He says he will never forget her or go back to 1972, ever. Then he said he performed an abortion last week for someone after the 6 week deadline. He dared anyone to charge him.
The Court has blown it along with most anti-abortion politicians.
THEY HAVE SHOWN THEIR HAND, THEIR INTENT, THEIR NEED, and smashed their cover.
Powerful people should know not to do this. Their power is in keeping this a secret. That their misogyny is central to how democracy works well enough. But they are so desperate they have shown the world that our bodies are what must be controlled to control us.
BUT WE WILL NOT HAVE IT.
There is no democracy without reproductive rights to our bodies.
FIGHT BACK
STAND UP and if you cannot stand, RISE.
PUSH BACK
Never ever again.
