There are two ways you can help defend women’s rights and health. First, head over to the Planned Parenthood site to sign the petition disapproving of the Stupak amendment to the House health care bill. For those unfamiliar with the Stupak amendment, it’s a “dangerous piece of legislation that would ban abortion from private and public insurance plans for millions of American women.” We need to let the Senate know that we won’t stand for this as part of the Senate’s health care bill.
The second thing you can do is show up at the health clinic on the corner of 10th Ave S. and 17th St. (across from Al’s) at 8am on Saturday morning to assist as a clinic escort or just stand up to the red tapers and other anti-choice fundies that are sure to be out there in full force. The potential clients of the clinic shouldn’t have to be harassed to exercise their civil liberties. Show up to help support and defend these women!
admin Living abortion, activism, civil rights, pro-choice
On Saturday, I saw protestors in front of the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic. These weren’t the kind of protestors that show big pictures of bloody blobs of cells, these were the kind that put red tape over their mouths that say “LIFE” and they just stand there and pray. I understand that these people aren’t necessarily right-denying bigots, they just happen to think life starts at conception (but not your birthday, I guess). However, I believe that–on top of being a little self-glorifying and well, annoying–as a protest, this style is very ineffective and is actually wasting the time of the protestors.
A good protest would portray a threat of power to actually change the system. These red tape prayers are not doing anything that could actually change the system that allows abortions to happen. They definitely aren’t offering an alternative to what to do with all unintended/unwanted pregnancies (Are they planning a magical giant orphanage colony in Australia?). I suppose at best, they could cause a little anxiety in people walking into the clinic, but they can’t even do that with efficacy because… well, their mouths are taped! So if they’re not doing anything to actually stop the system of abortion, and they’re not doing much to stop a particular abortion at that clinic, why are they spending their Saturdays with tape on their mouths? Apparently, the whole point of these “protests” is to just get in proximity of something they don’t agree with and pray that God will make it vanish from the earth. This would be like me standing in front of a particular McDonald’s chain with a sign that says “Don’t eat meat” and sending positive energy into the Universe hoping that the national franchise will suddenly stop serving meat. It’s just not going to work.
If the “tapers” truly believe that just prayer will achieve their goals, these people need to get a clue and pray on their own time and start doing something more constructive with their Saturdays. Abortions wouldn’t be needed if everyone had a good supply of birth control; why don’t they spend all afternoon handing out condoms? Oh, or I have another idea: if they’re so concerned with the “lives” of children, why don’t they go care for and help nurture a baby that WAS born, perhaps even an unintended child, who’s living a miserable life because the mother didn’t know how to take care of a baby and had one anyway… you know, the exact scenario that their protests are encouraging.
admin Living abortion, anti-choice, civil rights, LIFE, pro-choice, religion, women's health
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