In case you didn’t know it, I think Gloria Feldt is a rock star. The four-part book review of The War on Choice should have been a giveaway that I really respect all the work that Feldt has done for women’s health. Feldt is the former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She is the author of many books, including Behind Every Choice is a Story, and a contributor to Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing Up Female, and Send Yourself Roses: Thoughts on My Life, Love and Leading Roles. Gloria blogs regularly on her own site, GloriaFeldt.com. I caught up with her this week to ask her some questions about what the future of the pro-choice movement will look like.
Much of the information in The War on Choice seems specific to the Bush administration. In fact, while I was reading the book I felt I could breath a sigh of relief since Bush is no longer in office. But do you feel that it would be a mistake for pro-choice activists to assume that having Democratic control of the White House and Congress means that reproductive rights are no longer under attack?
It is always the biggest mistake for advocates to celebrate for more than 5 minutes after winning an election. First of all, as I pointed out in Beyond Roe, we have merely lived to fight another day. It’s our job now to keep putting forward the initiatives we need to secure reproductive rights, health care, and justice and to restore the access that has been lost in the past decade. Plus there are always places where opponents of choice will try to do damage.
A good hot topic example is health reform. On the one hand, we have the opportunity to expand access to birth control and to rectify the injustices of the Hyde amendment that outlaws coverage of abortions in government health plans. But we must be both vigilant and proactive.
What do you say to the Democrats who are willing to sacrifice reproductive health coverage in order to get a health care package through Congress?
I believe in the iron fist in the velvet glove principle. I would always be respectful but ratchet up the constituent pressure enough and as is needed to remind them who helped get then elected and what you want them to do. It is always helpful to send personal letters and e-mails, have constituent visits especially ones that include campaign donors, get letters to the editor, op eds, and posts on political blogs published, etc. Thank them for every good vote too. Provide them with personal stories they can use to justify their votes. It’s been said that the job of advocates is to make it impossible for politicians not to do the right thing. They need to know they are going to feel more pain if they don’t support you than if they do.
You talk about the impact of judicial appointments in “The War on Choice,” and in your article “Beyond Roe.” What can pro-choice advocates do to encourage the Obama administration to appoint pro-choice judges to the federal courts?
Stay on his radar screen. I wish the advocacy groups were being much more vocal and demanding of him. He has backed away from his promise that FOCA would be a priority and (and if you believe the White House and Sotomayor) that he wouldn’t appoint a justice who wouldn’t affirm support of reproductive rights. Why aren’t the groups calling him on that? So I think a little internal conversation needs to be had to shore up our own activist muscles.
If Obama hasn’t become more visibly pro-choice or lived up to his campaign promises by 2012, should pro-choice activists back another candidate?
It’s too soon to start supporting another presidential candidate for 2012–we need to focus on keeping the pressure on this one. If all else fails that’s always an option–but only useful as a lever if you can really follow through. With regard to U. S. representatives and state legislators who are elected every two years, by all means keep the fear of losing their elections palpable.
In “Beyond Roe” you talk about the importance of re-articulating the pro-choice agenda from within a human rights context, rather than relying on the right to privacy as the foundation of the pro-choice movement. Can you expand on what that would look like?
First and foremost, passing the Freedom of Choice Act at the state and local levels. Check out the language in it. Originally in the 1990′s when it was first drafted, FOCA was a codification of Roe’s right to privacy. But when I was president of PPFA, we rewrote it with Congressional staff as a civil rights bill that guarantees a person can’t be discriminated against for choosing to have or not have a child. (As you probably know, when dealing with putting human rights into law, the language shifts to civil rights.) That is a language shift that changes everything. In order to get to the point that such legislation can be passed, it will be necessary to frame the public discourse in human and civil rights terms. That’s a big heave, but I believe it is absolutely essential. And I believe Americans fundamentally believe in fairness, equality, and justice which are the basis for human rights.
Perhaps Hillary Clinton will lead the way by expanding upon her famous “women’s rights are human rights and human rights are women’s rights” speech to explicitly include reproductive rights. She will have many opportunities to do this in the global context as secretary of state. Gains have been made in international human rights law to include reproductive rights within this framework. Also, we now have the experience of some other countries, such as Mexico, that are in the process of legalizing abortion based on human rights principles. In the U.S., the Center for Reproductive Rights has done the most work to advance the idea of reproductive rights as human rights. And Equality Now has done groundbreaking work on getting language into international agreements.
I treasure the cobalt blue mug Dr. Tiller gave me, with his signature “Trust Women” slogan. That in the end is what reproductive rights as human rights would look like.
