Feminists for Choice

Jane About Thisismyabortion.com

April 17, 2013 By Elin 2 Comments

Feminist Conversations is a regular feature here at Feminists For Choice. Today we are talking to Jane, founder of the website thisismyabortion.com. On the site, Jane shares pictures of her abortion and the website has received many comments from women all over the world.

1. How did the project come about?
This project came about after I had an abortion. The day I went in for my procedure, I was bombarded by anti-choice fanatics outside the clinic displaying bloody images of dead babies. It was horrific. I was determined to know what my abortion would look like. I decided to take pictures with my phone of the abortion after the procedure was over. It took some time for me to decide to publish these photos and make a project out of it.

2.What was your main goal when deciding to show pictures of your abortion? Was it mostly personal or also political?
The main goal for me was educational. I felt vastly manipulated by the anti-choice protesters outside that clinic that day. They took advantage of my fragile state in an unscrupulous calculated manner. It was, and is, blatant propaganda to fulfill an anti-choice agenda. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Feminist Conversations Tagged With: Abortion, anti-choice, antichoice propganda, choice, Jane, thisismyabortion.com

Mississippi’s Last Abortion Clinic Remains Open!

April 16, 2013 By Sarah Leave a Comment

A federal judge has blocked part of a state law that could have closed Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the only clinic in Mississippi. Last year, the state passed a law that would have required that physicians at abortion clinics have admitting privileges at local hospitals. While the physicians at JWHO tried to comply with that mandate, no area hospital would grant the privileges. According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which has represents the clinic, “the physicians responsible for vast majority of the clinic’s patients were not granted privileges by any of the hospitals in the area-with several hospitals refusing to even process the physicians’ applications, citing hospital policies on abortion care.”

Today’s ruling by District Court Judge Daniel P. Jordan III blocks the remaining forms of enforcement of this requirement, and prevents the state Department of Health from revoking the clinic’s license for being unable to comply with the admitting regulation. In his opinion, Judge Jordan wrote that “Closing its doors would — as the state seems to concede in this argument — force Mississippi women to leave Mississippi to obtain a legal abortion.” The judge also stated that Mississippi’s position in the case “would result in a patchwork system where constitutional rights are available in some states but not others.”

Filed Under: Abortion, Quick Hit Tagged With: Abortion, jackson women's health organization, women's health

Kansas Weighs New Anti-Choice Laws

April 16, 2013 By Sarah Leave a Comment

The South Wind Women’s Clinic in Wichita may offer a place for women to receive abortion care, but anti-choice legislators in the state are hoping to impose new restrictions on the procedure. Both the state House and Senate have passed a bill that would define life as beginning at fertilization, and anti-choice Governor Sam Brownback is expected to sign it into law.

The bill does more than include language about when life begins. It would also mandate what information clinics must give women about abortion risks—including the medically inaccurate claim of a possible link between breast cancer and abortion—and fetal development; prohibit clinic employees from providing sex education in schools; ban terminations performed solely because of the sex of the fetus; and prohibit the use of tax credits, tax preferences, and public funds for abortion services, as well as prevent public health-care services provided by the state from being used in any way to carry out abortions.

Book Review: Generation Roe

April 15, 2013 By Serena Leave a Comment

Sarah Erdreich has been very busy, ya’ll. She has published a book called Generation Roe: The Future of the Prochoice Movement. I admire Sarah’s tenacity and her ability to get so many abortion patients and providers to talk to her. Many of them were willing to use their own names.

1. How were you able to gather so many statistics to support your arguments?A lot of research!
I spent hours falling down the research rabbit hole—reading a paper to get information on one specific issue, but then learning about something else that I wanted to include, so going to the footnotes to find that source, and so on. The biggest challenge was finding sources that were reputable and nonpartisan, and for that the Guttmacher Institute and Centers for Disease Control in particular were really invaluable.

2. How were you able to get so many doctors to share their stories? You mention that many of them have received death threats at their homes. How did you convince them to speak out? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Shelf Tagged With: authors, book reviews, history of abortion, interviews, prochoice, sarah erdreich, women's history

Antis Freak Out Over Nothing; Also Known As Monday

April 11, 2013 By Sarah Leave a Comment

A recent op-ed by Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post shows off the anti-choice movement’s flair for using emotionally manipulative language and glossing over the facts. In “Planned Parenthood’s Defense of Infanticide,” Thiessen claims that a Planned Parenthood representative was “caught on camera defending infanticide.”

During a recent political hearing in Florida, Planned Parenthood’s Alisa LaPolt Snow was asked what the organization’s response would be if, in the case of a failed abortion, the fetus was born alive. Snow’s answer? “We believe that any decision that’s made should be left up to the woman, her family, and the physician.”

That seems like a perfectly reasonable response to me. After all, who else should be asked to make a decision in that moment? Isn’t that what happens with any child, whether they’re five minutes old or five years old? Let’s say that a five-year-old was gravely ill. Who would be in charge of making his medical decisions? His parents and physician. That doesn’t mean that I’m advocating killing five-year-olds. It means that in America, as in much of the world, parents are the ones that make medical decisions for their children.

Hospital Refuses to Accomodate Pregnant Employee, Places Her on Unpaid Leave

April 9, 2013 By Sarah Leave a Comment

Late last month, the National Women’s Law Center filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of Amy Crosby, a pregnant hospital cleaner in Florida. Crosby was forced to take unpaid medical leave when her employer, Tallahassee Medical Hospital, refused to accomodate Crosby’s doctor’s request that she not be required to lift anything heavier than 20 pounds. At the time that Crosby was placed on leave, she was 23 weeks pregnant.

Tallahassee Medical Hospital’s response is particularly puzzling because they had previously allowed other employees who had temporary physical disabilities or on-the-job injuries to be transferred to lighter duty. Yet in Crosby’s case, she was told that if she did not return to work by April 11, she will be fired even though the hospital still refuses to follow her doctor’s request.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Women's Health Tagged With: amy crosby, Florida, national women's law center, Pregnancy, women's health

Are You the “Better” Feminist?

April 8, 2013 By Elin and Hennie Weiss Leave a Comment

We both really enjoy the British feminist website The F-Word, and have written several guest posts for them. The site employs an intersectional outlook that focuses on all types of feminists while incorporating variables such as race, sexualities, ethnicity, and disabilities to the pieces that they post.

One thing got us going, though–a discussion in the comments section of a post that discussed a “song of the day.” The discussion centered on the singer India.Arie and the lyrics to her song “Video,” and the author of the piece appreciated Arie’s refusal to be defined by traditional beauty regimes.

What caught our attention were the comments posted by readers. One person wrote, “I just get a little tired with this trend for women who are basically hot preaching (or being used to preach) self-acceptance … It would be easy for us all to love ourselves unconditionally if we only departed from patriarchal beauty standards as much as India.Arie does.”

Another reader agreed and said that “it’s similar with that TLC song ‘Unpretty’; the message is great but you feel slightly aware of how gorgeous the women singing about how what’s inside is more important than looks.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Pop Culture Tagged With: beauty standards, female singers, feminism, hip hop, hiphop, india.arie, tlc, women in hiphop

Emergency Contraception Restrictions Overturned!

April 5, 2013 By Sarah 1 Comment

This morning, Judge Edward Korman of the District Court of Eastern New York overturned the Obama administration’s ban on allowing women under age 17 to purchase emergency contraception without a prescription. Judge Korman has ordered the FDA to make Plan B available over the counter to all women “within thirty days.”

In late 2011, the administration overruled a decision by the FDA to allow teenage girls to purchase Plan B without a prescription. The administration’s move came as a surprise and was blasted for being politically motivated. In the decision released today, Judge Korman seemed to agree with that assessment, writing that the restriction was “a strong showing of bad faith and improper political influence … The decisions of the Secretary with respect to Plan B One-Step…were arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable.” (The full decision can be read here.)

Plan B has been available to women ages 17 and older without a prescription, and to younger women that have a prescription. But keeping the medication behind pharmacy counters meant that women could only buy the pill when the pharmacy was open, and many pharmacies are closed on evenings and weekends. Since Plan B is most effective if taken within 72 hours of having unprotected sex, such delays matter. Women have also reported encountering pharmacists that refused to sell them Plan B, because the medication violated their own personal beliefs.

Today’s decision is great news, and a great way to start the weekend!

Filed Under: Abortion, Birth Control Tagged With: edward korman, emergency contraception, Obama Administration, plan b, women's health

Getting Over the Pill

April 5, 2013 By Jodi 4 Comments

I know when the romance started for me. I was at summer camp, where all the best romances begin, getting a windbreaker or a jean jacket–some outerwear-oriented excuse for busting in where I wasn’t supposed to be. At the sink, I saw my counselor, older, cooler, and in my memory, always blonde, popping a candy necklace pill out from a plastic flip-top compact.

I knew I wasn’t supposed to know what I was seeing. But I did. She was on the pill. Having sex. Which somehow made me feel a few steps closer to having sex myself. Inside that pink clam shell was the secret of adult life. Everything I needed to know about sex and men in its own handy dandy carrying case.

Now, of course, I realize she might not have been having sex, and I want to swaddle my younger smartypants self in a thick blanket, knowing when and how she’ll have the easy answers bruised out of her.

But there was no reasoning, then. And no reason to reason … I was in love with the pill, and as I grew up, I could see I wasn’t alone. It was the hot girl’s one and only punchline in Sixteen Candles and Roseanne’s cool-mom badge of honor, and long before that, Loretta Lynn was singing its praises for good reason. The lyrics make it clear how much the pill could change the fundamental facts of a woman’s life.

You wined me and dined me when I was your girl
Promised if I’d be your wife you’d show me the world
But all I’ve seen of this old world is a bed and a doctor bill
I`m tearing down your brooder house ’cause now I’ve got the pill

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Birth Control, Women's Health Tagged With: birth control, hormonal birth control, side effects, the pill

National Women’s Law Center Launches CPC Toolkit

April 4, 2013 By Sarah Leave a Comment

Crisis pregnancy clinics, or CPCs, represent one of the more insidious threats to reproductive rights. These clinics purport to be supportive resources for women and teens that are pregnant and want information about their choice, yet they disseminate scientifically inaccurate information and emotionally manipulative information about abortion and contraception.

The National Women’s Law Center recently introduced a toolkit targeting the deceptive practices at CPCs and ways consumer protection laws can help women given misleading and/or incorrect information at a CPC. The toolkit provides a wealth of material, including an eye-opening fact sheet on the ways that crisis pregnancy clinics target communities of color. The NWLC also has a new hotline (1-855-CPC-FACT) and email to answer questions or assist in filing a complaint.

Filed Under: Abortion