| CAKE Byte - Generation Pro Choice | |||
Ah 1973 — the year when Richard Nixon resigned as President, the Knicks won the NBA championship, the Godfather won for best picture, but Marlon Brando refused to accept his Oscar for Best Actor to protest the treatment of Native Americans, Last Tango in Paris became an international hit, Pablo Picasso died, "I Am Woman," Helen Reddy and "Papa was a Rolling Stone" by the Temptations were blasting on the radio, the price of a stamp was $0.08, the median income was 10K, women earned 56% as much as men, women could not get credit cards, and there were no female senators. Oh and one other thing, on this day 30 years ago, the Supreme court granted women social and sexual equality by recognizing every woman’s basic constitutional right to make her own childbearing decisions, paving the way for "generation pro-choice." A little history: While establishing the right to an abortion in the first trimester, Roe v. Wade gave states the right to intervene in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy to protect the woman and the "potential" life of the unborn child. Denounced by the National Council of Bishops, the decision gave rise to a vocal antiabortion movement that put pressure on the courts and created an anti-Roe litmus test for the judicial appointments of the Reagan and Bush administrations. In a 1989 case, Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, the court, while not striking down Roe, limited its scope, permitting states greater latitude in regulating and restricting abortions. Then in 1992, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court reaffirmed the abortion rights granted in Roe v. Wade, but still permitted further restrictions at the state level. The Roe decision did not prompt "abortion on demand" as many opponents of the procedure predicted it would, nor have various legislatures or court rulings restricted access as much as some supporters claim. New research from the Alan Guttmacher Institute found the rate of abortions is at its lowest level since Roe, about 1.31 million in the year 2000, down 4 percent from 1996. The U.S. abortion rate has fallen to its lowest level in 29 years, a trend triggered by fewer providers, more restrictive state laws and growing use of contraceptives, including the morning-after pill. Women now make 73% as much as men, we have sex education, albeit abstinence-only in most cases, access to contraception and the morning after pill, better jobs, better pay, better health care services and most importantly access to reproductive freedom has given women social and sexual equality today. We’ve come a long way baby, but yet on closer inspection there is still a lot to fight for.
The percentage without a provider today: 87
Furthermore, there is a war against women being waged in the current administration that has gone unchecked by generation pro-choice. The lengthening string of anti-choice executive orders, regulations, legal briefs, legislative maneuvers and key appointments emanating from his administration suggests that undermining the reproductive freedom essential to women's health, privacy and equality is a major preoccupation of his administration. His policies and actions include:
President Bush’s assault on reproductive rights is part of a larger ongoing cultural battle against sexual equality and freedom. If abortion were the only target, the administration would not be attempting to block women’s access to contraceptives — which drives DOWN the number of abortions. His administration would not be declaring war on sex education that discusses ways to prevent pregnancy and sexual transmitted infections. A big thrust of Bush’s aggressive anti-choice campaign is to undermine the legal foundation of the Roe decision — women’s constitutional liberty has been threatened, essential reproductive health care has been denied or delayed and some women will needlessly die. Overtime these decisions chip away at our basic rights, threatening the strides made in the previous generation. Given the assault on women’s reproductive rights, WHERE IS THE RESISTANCE from our generation of women and men who has grown up with reproductive freedom firmly integrated in our consciousness? This is an issue of women’s EMPOWERMENT — an indicator in all modern societies that are worth their salt in wealth, progress and power. Being pro-choice inherently means that you respect life. Without these basic rights women have nothing. Access to abortion is a sexual RIGHTS issue — without being able to choose if, when and how we have a child, women are not EQUAL. Access to abortion is a part of every woman’s reproductive health care — on average, 20% of all pregnancies end in abortion and a woman will have two abortions over her lifetime for a variety of reasons including her health, the viability of the child, economic and social hardships and so on. The option of terminating a pregnancy is a part of every woman’s reproductive health care. Thirty years ago, a generation chose to promote progress and equality to allow the next generation to grow up in a world that respects reproductive freedom and health. It is our turn to choose equality over oppression. Help spread the message of reproductive freedom. Light the torch to protect choice - go to www.naral.org/generation/f lash.html
Love,
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