Mainstream media is so predictable with their binary framing of controversial issues (as either pro or con), their proclivity toward sensationalism and their power to set the agenda for what they think is important. A cursory review of news sources frames the war on women as an exercise in finger pointing. Obama, Democrats and feminists accuse the Republicans of starting the war. Republicans counter by accusing the Democrats of making up the war for political gain. That’s the binary framing that the media promotes. Regardless of who started the battle, the sensationalism is highly entertaining.

One Charleston Gazette editorial claimed that “the current Republican presidential campaign contains a weird assault on rights of American women.” Another post from the Progressive asserted “The Republicans are on a rampage. Like a bunch of drunken frat boys, egged on by their leader — that big, fat, bullying lout Rush Limbaugh — they’re taunting women, calling us “sluts,” and suggesting policies like forced vaginal probes for abortion patients and letting a woman’s boss decide what kind of birth control coverage she should get.” And from politcususa, Jason Easley called the Republican war on women “a poltical affirmation of misogyny.” Kellie Overbey (asisfor.org) claims that this viral power grab from a misogynistic cultish, maniacal lust for power” threatens women at their very core. But my all time favorite comes from Charlotte Taft, Abortion Care Network, when she wrote “My observation is that if the Republican Taliban has its way only corporations and fertilized eggs will be recognized as people with any rights!”

Beyond the sensationalism is the utterly egregious assault on women’s reproductive health. The Republican pandering to the religious right and to less educated and lower income white men, codifies the GOP as womb warriors. From attempts at state-mandated transvaginal ultrasounds to fetal personhood laws, from actual defunding Planned Parenthood to justifiable homicide law to a killing committed in the defense of an unborn child, the war has been an attack on women, their agency, and their legal and reproductive rights. Ruth Conniff, Editor of the Progressive wrote “It’s one thing to drive a wedge between Americans over issues like regulating late-term abortion. But it’s quite another to pivot to an all-out campaign to control, intimidate, and humiliate women as a group.” I’m not sure I’d call it a campaign. It’s more like a 21st century Inquisition. But modern women aren’t taking this battle sitting down.

In a call to action to defend women’s rights and the pursuit of equality, UniteWomen.org women gathered in state capitals across the nation this past weekend to shout “Enough is Enough!”  Angry with Congress, the White House, Democrats and Republicans, the outrage expressed by young and old alike points to one clear message: The men running this country are out of touch. As half of the nation’s population, women know more about what is in their best interest than a handful of men, mostly religious, many playing cheap political games and orchestrating a war against women. Their messages went right to the heart of their concerns. One woman carried a sign with an image of a uterus and text that listed things that belong is a uterus (hormones, baby, IUD) and things that don’t belong in a uterus (government, ‘persons’, religion, misplace moral outrage). Another sign read “women’s rights are human rights.” Or one I found particularly funny was an e-card “Ever notice when the Muslims suppress women’s rights, we call them terrorists, but when Catholics do it, we call them Bishops? ROFL” And then there is the elegance of simplicity, “I have the uterus. I make the rules.”

So, did the media provide much coverage for UniteWomen rallies? Nope. That’s how it goes. While bloggers and journalists posted editorials, commentaries and cartoons, mainstream media chose to avoid the fuss. But that didn’t stop thousands of women and men from rallying in state capitals from Austin, Sacramento, Denver, and Atlanta to Harrisburg, Richmond, Juneau and Montgomery.

 

And in cyberspace, women continue to rally. When women are pissed, they will find a way to get their messages known, mainstream media or not. I strongly suspect that the good ole boys, particularly the GOP, will finally realize in November that women have had enough.

Women know, as Andy Ostroy writes, if the Republicans “truly cared about women as much as they contend, they’d stay out of their bedrooms and vaginas and stop trying to cut everything that supports them and their families. Don’t think women won’t go to the polls in November remembering who’s on their side and who isn’t.”

Misogynist Phil Bryant

Misogynist Phil Bryant

I practically peed in my pants when I heard this one.

Recently, the Governor of the great state of Mississippi, Phil Bryant, was asked about a new law he just signed that would require all doctors who perform abortions to be board-certified OB-GYNs and have admitting privileges at a local hospital. It could ultimate force the only clinic in the state to shut down.
When asked about the law, he started ranting about abortion and, at one point, he actually said the following about people who run or work at abortion clinics: “…their one mission in life is to abort children, is to kill children in the womb.”
I’m not sure where to start with this one. My first reaction was does this guy think that abortion doctors and staff have all gotten together and adopted a mission statement which declares that “our goal is to abort children, to seek out those little fetuses and tie the woman down to the table and get that kid and kill it. We vow that nothing will detract us from our mission!”

Mississippi Dumb

Mississippi Dumb

Does this dork – an actual governor of an actual state in these United States of America – really believe that abortion providers wake up in the morning with this “mission” on their mind? For gosh’s sakes, Gov, get real.

I’ll let you in on a not so very secret. When these doctors and staff are driving to their clinic, they are generally thinking of one thing. They are thinking about how they are going to help a number of women that day – women who have sought out their services, women who if they have to will literally climb over hundreds of abortion protestors who are trying to block them from getting into the abortion clinic. They are thinking of the women who will travel hundreds of miles to find that clinic and who will walk in the front door aware that at any moment, they could be blown up. That’s the real mission of these doctors and their courageous staff. They are not thinking about killing “children in the womb.”

Abortion Mississippi

Abortion Mississippi

Now, if the Governor is insinuating that the doctors are in it for the money, that they want to “kill children” to make the big bucks, well, I’ve written before. The fact is that abortion clinics are also businesses. Many years ago, after abortion was legalized, a number of doctors identified a dramatic need in this country, i.e., hundreds and thousands of women who wanted a legal abortion. So, they set up abortion clinics – and that cost money. Then, lo and behold, they learned that it also took money to operate the clinic! So, they determined that if they wanted to remain available to those women, they had to charge a fee for their service. But, somewhere along the line, some anti-abortion advocates came up with the notion that these services should have been performed for free and it gave them yet another bumper sticker line, that abortion doctors were “making money off of dead babies.”

I could go on and on. But I grow weary of idiots, yes, idiots like this Governor who try to use their position of power and responsibility to stir things up. And, of course, when the next abortion doctor is killed, the Governor will avoid the questions and blame it on someone else.

Shame on you, Governor.

Last Saturday, outside a Lehigh Valley PA abortion clinic, Joe, a dyspeptic old white man, afflicted with a condition known as echolalia, repeated the same refrain, “Your parents were prolife, why aren’t you. Why don’t you emulate your parents?”  Over and over and over for two hours, he repeated, “Why don’t you emulate your parents”? The saying “A fool can ask more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer in a year” seems especially apt here. Joe’s foolish presentation of self is a weird concoction of fetal worship embellished with a blend of perverted Catholicism and draconian masculinity—one that in all likelihood is an insane reaction to feeling impotent, disempowered and humiliated by feminism and homosexuality. But I digress.

Let me return to the “emulate your parents” refrain, which, on so many levels, defies sensibilities. At the most fundamental level, why would anyone want to emulate someone who has a voracious appetite for all things monstrous? As an anti abortion activist, Joe sports a tattered, grotesque image of an alleged 21 week fetus. To passers-by and to incoming clients, he flaunts the image toward anyone who will pay attention, hoping that the dead fetal image’s loud and monstrous voice speaks of all things evil. His fetish for the fetus is obvious when clients approach the clinic and he “speaks” for the voiceless saying, “Mommy, I wanna live. Don’t kill me, Mommy. I love you, mommy. I wanna go to da beach, I wanna play ball.” I wonder if Joe’s behavior is what his children should emulate?

If I were to respond personally to Joe, I would tell him that I most definitely imitate my parents, but only to the extent that I was taught to think for myself, as they do. I was taught to stand up against bullies like Joe and his God-intoxicated friends. Like my parents, I choose education as a life choice against those who are drunk on fairy tales and their weird brew of American virtue and Christian Armageddon. From my parents’ tutelage, I grew to recognize those within the religious right as embodiments of intolerance, hatred, bigotry and hypocrisy. And while my parents chose to have three children, they were and are very prochoice. Standing up for women’s rights is what I learned from my parents. I express my choices, as a proud feminist, when I speak out against domestic violence, anti abortion zealots (like Joe) and anti contraceptive neo-nazis. I also learned that Christianity should facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, and forgiveness. But the Christianity I see outside the abortion clinics is altogether something else.  Lying to women while knuckle dragging rosary beads, terrorizing women with frightening utterances magnified by megaphones, and carrying grotesque and ignorant signs is not love and compassion. John Ruskin wrote in 1875, relevant and now, “It is neither Madonna-worship nor saint-worship, but the evangelical self-worship and hell-worship — gloating, with an imagination as unfounded as it is foul, over the torments of the damned, instead of the glories of the blest, — which have in reality degraded the languid powers of Christianity to their present state of shame and reproach.”

So, thanks for asking about my parents and me. But, Joe, I’d caution you about asking your kids to emulate you because you’d be asking them to be homophobic, anti Semitic, and racist. You’d expect them to do as you have done to call a gay Jewish volunteer a stiff-necked Jew or to talk about Martin Luther King, Jr. only when a person of color arrives at the clinic. You’d be asking them to disregard any other religious perspective; to be  as myopic as you are.

To emulate their father, you’d be asking your children to have a fetish for fetuses that draws them into your religiously fantastical swirling imaginarium of slaughtered babies. You’d be asking them to have no respect or deep compassion for the dominion of any conscious human female over the insides of her own body. They would only feel compassion for an as-yet insentient embryo/fetus that the woman doesn’t want there. Asking your children to emulate you means asking them to avoid a factual reality that is more obscured by obstinate prejudice and intransigent, willful ignorance supported only by emotionally charged irrational belief and misinformed and uninformed opinion and in which the consequences of this failure to face and accept truth, reason, and understanding are catastrophically and mercilessly cruel for women.

On the contrary, as a self-proclaimed Christian, an assertion you broadcast with hubristic regularity, I’d suggest you ask your children to emulate the life and works of Jesus and not their father.

Pavone Anti Abortion Priest

Pavone Anti Abortion Priest

Kate’s article on Father Frank Pavone (below) brought back some old memories and some new thoughts.

When I was with the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, I regularly had conversations with Father Pavone (as well as other pro-life leaders). In addition to our having a few lunches (where we split the tab), I once facilitated his visit to an abortion clinic and he once arranged for me to meet with a group of 30 other priests to talk about the abortion issue. When he came to Washington, D.C. for the annual “March for Life,” Frank would invite me to meet with some of his travelling companions.

My motivation for having these meetings was not necessarily to reach “common ground.” I never really thought that was generally possible. Instead, my goal was to make him and his folks understand more about what drove our doctors to perform abortions and what motivated the women to have abortions. I thought giving them that perspective would make their protestations more “calmer” and it would make them treat women a little more civilly.

The problem was that, after a while, I just felt like I was on display. I talked very candidly about abortion and it always seemed like he (and the others) were just not that interested in learning more about the abortion process and the women who sought abortions. When I met with his priests, I talked for an hour straight, laid out every step of the process, talked about the good stuff and the bad stuff and when I opened it up for questions, the only one asked was “What is George Tiller really like?” They never probed, never argued, never talked about why they opposed abortion.

"Pro Life" March Pictures

"Pro Life" March Pictures

Now, ten years or so later, I wonder what I accomplished, if anything.

I still see Father Pavone out there as he continues to rail about the horrors of abortion. As Kate alluded to, he recently has gotten into some hot water lately and, to be honest, I don’t give a damn. I am not out to wish anyone ill will. Meanwhile, there are folks out there who are seeking that elusive common ground but I really wonder if that is possible in light of the caustic ever present conversations that go on when talking about the abortion issue. I really wonder if it’s possible to have a civil conversation anymore about abortion.

Dr. Tiller was murdered in Church by A Christian AntiAbortion Pro Life Terrorist

Dr. Tiller was murdered in Church by A Christian AntiAbortion Pro Life Terrorist

Just take a peek at the Facebook page “Abortion.com.” It’s a pro-choice site and, yes, the administrator of the site can be a bit caustic at times. But, generally, the tenor of the “discussions” is very unproductive. It’s just folks lobbing bombshells at each other. That’s unfortunate because the administrator, who used to work in the field, is open to any questions about the abortion procedure and process, but, with a few exceptions (like our friend Rogelio), the pro-lifers on the site just like to jump in with a snide or viscous remark, calling all of us pro-choicers “baby killers” or “murderers.” Then they just run away. Wow, that’s some debate! Then there are those who seem intent on trying to bring down the whole site, trolling, spamming, etc. Indeed, recently someone actually threatened the administrator to the point where the FBI is now involved.

Maybe this more caustic “debate” is just reflective of the state of politics in general these days. Whether it is or not, I prefer to stick to my approach. I will try to present the facts about abortion and will answer any question, no matter how squeamish, that is posed to me. It’s a perfect opportunity for a pro-lifer who really wants to think about the issue to – dare I say it – work with the facts. Isn’t that how we should be making our decisions?

I dunno. Maybe I was just wasting my time. Maybe it really just comes down to my bumper sticker versus theirs. Geez, I hope not.

Celebrities are the lifeblood of the entertainment industry. Their fame, fortune and power to persuade, inform and entertain, however, extend beyond Hollywood. Unlike the entertainment celebrities, celebrated religious personalities from Tammy Faye Baker to Jimmy Swaggart, from Pat Robertson to Robert Schuller have used their fame and power to their own advantage, attracting millions in donations. But as with Hollywood celebrities, the religious superstars have fans and detractors. Just as some adore Lady Gaga while others despise her, there are those who worship the celebrated Fr. Frank Pavone while others think of him as a shameless, greedy imposter. Pavone began his early parish priest life in the Archdiocese of New York, and rose to fame and fortune following his 1993 appointment as the full-time director of Priests for Life. As a celebrity, Pavone embodies the outer trappings of a serious religious life with the all-consuming popularity of profane celebrity culture.  It might seem contradictory to consider the sacredness of religion with the sacrilegious nature of the celebrity world when describing one Catholic priest, especially a staunchly anti abortion leader. Yet, as celebrity scholar David Chidester notes, popular culture and religion operate in characteristically similar ways—both have their machinery, superstars and devotees. Like all entertainment celebrities, Pavone is both a name and a product. He is widely recognized across the U.S. as a television, radio, newspaper and Internet personality among the prolife glitterati and politicos. His fame has drawn nearly $12 million in donations yearly. As for his devotees, an encounter with the Executive Director of Priests for Life is no different than an encounter with the likes of George Clooney or Angelina Jolie. His groupies breathe in the air of the superhuman, sacred and transcendent. They pose for photographs, beg for autographs and grovel over his every word. One such encounter happened in an Allentown PA church where I interviewed Pavone, thanks to arrangements made by three female antiabortion protesters. On this particular evening, these three women, bedecked with jewels and voluptuous face painting were flushed with excitement. And despite his illogical arguments against abortion and his obvious disdain for women’s reproductive rights, these past-their-prime women cooed at his every word, undulated in ecstatic response to his touch. It was a sight to behold. Grown women being seduced by a charlatan in a collar—the sacred and the profane in one egotistical storyteller. Pavone’s narratives, following his bright moment in the media with the Terri Schiavo euthanasia debacle, have now been reduced from the inclusive prolife to exclusive anti abortion agenda as a venue for his celebrity. Priests for Life, thus, is a misleading term because the organization focuses solely on controversial, attention-grabbing topic of abortion. The death penalty, hunger, starvation and other ‘life’ issues just aren’t sexy enough for the antiabortion zealot known as Frank Pavone.

Curiously, his fan base reaches beyond the boundaries of Catholicism to other anti abortion institutions such as the aggressively misogynistic Operation Rescue and God-deluded Operation Save America. Pavone has also engaged in many secular activities include media-centric events like attending and being honored at the $500-a-plate the annual Proudly Pro Life Award dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria with Rush Limbaugh, Steve Forbes, Charlton Heston, and Ben Stein and 700 other guests. Like the celebrity Paris Hilton who sells perfume, jeans and herself, Pavone sells his abortion-related books, offers his services for scheduled talks, television appearances, and newspaper columns rather than adhere to a strictly clerical schedule. In many ways, Pavone’s work parallels that of Jimmy Swaggart. They both trafficked in the presentation of the charismatic self, the faithful servant living a meager existence. Yet, Pavone’s presentation as the devotee to the unborn appears to be a scam if ratings from independent charity evaluators have any credence. Charity Navigator gave his nonprofit industry an overall poor rating (46 out of 70 points) for lack of accountability and transparency. Further, in the fall of 2011, Fr. Frank was forced to stand down from his antiabortion mission to fulfill his role as a parish priest when he ran afoul of the church hierarchy. Like the celebrated Reverend Jimmy Swaggart who fell from grace, Pavone may be headed for a similar fate. His superior, Bishop Zurek of Amarillo, Texas, suspended him from his Priests for Life director position due to concerns over financial improprieties and a failure to be an obedient priest. In a Catholic Register article, Dorothy Cummings McLean argues that the worship of celebrities is the “hallmark of a powerful new paganism” that is dangerous for celebrity priests and Catholics because it diverts attention away from God. Like Fr.

Alberto Cutie and Fr. John Corapi, failed priests who basked in the profane magnificence of wealth and fame, McLean suggests that Frank Pavone is following a similar path. I’d agree. Pavone is a celebrity first, an anti abortion crusader second and a lowly priest only when obligated.

Paul Hill Convicted Anti Abortion Pro Life Christian Murderer

Paul Hill Convicted Anti Abortion Pro Life Christian Murderer

It might have come down to a simple question mark.

On July 29, 1994  anti-abortion advocate Paul Hill killed Doctor John Britton and his body guard, James Barrett, as they pulled into the parking lot of the Ladies Center in Pensacola, Florida. Hill just calmly walked up to the pick-up truck, took out a shotgun and, aware that the Doctor was wearing a bullet proof vest, shot him in the face. Hill was quickly arrested, tried and convicted. He died by lethal injection on Sept 3, 2003.

Several months before the murders, I was at the White House when President Bill Clinton signed into law the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. That law prohibited the “use of physical force, threat of physical force, or physical obstruction to intentionally injure, intimidate, interfere with …any person who is obtaining reproductive health services or providing…such services.” That law also included language confirming that anti-abortion protestors could exercise their First Amendment rights without fear of prosecution. Of course, how one defined the right to protest was subject to interpretation.

Bill Clinton Abortion Rights Advocate

Bill Clinton Abortion Rights Advocate

Once the law became effective, pro-choice groups started lobbying the Department of Justice to use it against protestors who were considered particularly dangerous. Paul Hill, because he believed that it was “justifiable homicide” to kill an abortion doctor, was very high on the list.

A long-time presence at the Ladies Center, Hill was known for carrying with him a very large sign that read: “EXECUTE MURDERERS ABORTIONISTS ACCESSORIES?” The sign caught the attention of many in the media, it intimidated patients and it terrified the clinic staff. When the National Coalition of Abortion Providers held a memorial service for Doctor David Gunn at the site of his murder in March, 1994, Paul Hill was quietly walking back and forth with that very sign.

Pro Lifer Murder Threat Today!

Pro Lifer Murder Threat Today!

Pro-choice groups were very concerned about Hill (as were some anti-abortion advocates), but the lawyers at the DOJ were not sure what they could do about him. In June, 1994 I had a conversation with one of their attorneys and he said that he had not crossed the Free Speech line because he was not saying out loud “I am going to kill a doctor.” Instead, he was “merely” expressing his views on the issue, i.e., saying that he thought it was “justified” to kill an abortion doctor. When I raised the issue of the sign, the attorney directed me to the question mark at the end of the sentence. I had never noticed it. Paul Hill was “merely” posing the question.

Department of Justice

Department of Justice

Was Paul Hill really that smart? Did he understand how far he could push the First Amendment? We’ll never know. We do know, however, that Hill was being watched very carefully by the authorities but that sign – and his very ugly speech – was not actionable.

I often wonder what the authorities might have done if there was no question mark on his sign.

I wonder if a case could have been made under the FACE law?

I wonder if the lives of two people could have been saved?

I think it’s safe to say that the more reactive and aggressive anti abortion activists are informed by some variation of formal religion. Their parochial focus on ‘thou shalt not murder’ ignores a host of other religious tenets including the purpose of religion.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama XIV said “The whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, and forgiveness.” From my vantage point, there are painfully few instances of love and compassion outside abortion clinics. Let me offer a few examples.

When a 2012 New Year’s day fire gutted a family planning clinic in Pensacola FL, was that an act of love and compassion? When the Planned Parenthood office in Grand Chute, Wisconsin was damaged recently by a small homemade explosive device placed on a building windowsill, was that an act driven by tolerance and humility?

It was difficult to identify love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility and forgiveness when the Maryland Coalition for Life determined that protesting at a middle school was the perfect response to a landlord who refused to terminate an abortion clinic’s lease? Anti-abortion activists, trying to shut down an abortion clinic in Maryland, targeted the sixth grade daughter of the man who simply owns the office park where the clinic is located. Where is the love and compassion for children when the protesters stood at the entrance of Robert Frost Middle School with graphic posters of aborted fetuses?

Was it love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility and forgiveness that motivated Scott Roeder to stalk George Tiller, eventually shooting him vigilante-style in church. Informed by the vitriol of Operation Rescue, Roeder compared the lawlessness in the Bible to Tiller’s lawlessness. In fact, he wrote that Tiller is the concentration camp Mengele of our day and needs to be stopped. Where was the humility in Scott Roeder?

In August 2011, where hundreds of clinic defenders gathered in peaceful support of Dr. LeRoy Carhart and in support of the care he provides to women in need of late abortions. One block away, amidst a small group of anti-choicers, Operation Rescue leader Troy Newman emerged, paraded down the street toward the clinic defenders. One of the defenders, a pregnant 20-something woman, sat on the curb in the heat and humidity.  A man darted across the street from her and started taking pictures.  He then darted back across the street toward her to take more.  Finally, he got down in the middle of the street in front of the pregnant woman, taking pictures of her. Startled at his actions, she asked who are you?

He said, “I’m Troy Newman, bitch.” How can this comment be interpreted as anything other that derision?

What drove an anti abortion protester, who recognized a friend entering an Allentown PA abortion clinic, to later drive to her friend’s place of work to publicly intimidate and harass her?

In all the outer trappings of her espoused Catholicism, rosary beads and membership in St. Joseph the Worker church in Orefield PA, where was this protester’s sense of tolerance, humility and love during the public humiliation?


What kind of love and compassion was evident when the Rev. Flip Benham was stalking a Charlotte, North Carolina abortion doctor and passing out hundreds of “wanted” posters with the physician’s name and photo on it, fliers that implicitly urge violence?

Benham knew that doctors in other places had been killed after similar posters were circulated. So how can this action remotely be considered religious or loving?

Where can you find love and compassion amongst the anti abortion terrorists as they scream at women with their bullhorns and use hateful language that diminishes human dignity? In what ways do they show love and compassion when telling a woman that the devil inside the clinic will drink the blood of her child or that the doctor will turn your child into baby road kill or your child will haunt you at night?

How can anyone claim to love both the woman and the fetus when, in truth, they value a woman’s fetus more than the woman? In the mind of the hubristic anti abortion activist, the fetus is a gift from God that they want to force on a woman, regardless of a woman’s wishes or circumstances. Organizations like Operation Rescue, Operation Save America and the Prolife Action League are singularly focused on ending abortion in America with absolutely no regard for the needs of women. There is little tolerance and certainly no humility within the leadership or their minions. Every time I hear an anti choicer invoke the name of Jesus, I cringe. There’s nothing Christ-like in that invocation, particularly because it lacks love and because it’s full of rage and contempt for every woman who enters a clinic.

The Dalai Lama XIV said the whole purpose of religion is to facilitate love and compassion, patience, tolerance, humility, and forgiveness. It’s clear to me that many anti abortion terrorists do not operate under loving and compassionate religious principles. They are driven by hate, anger and fear. They act out against strong, moral women who make decisions about when and if to bear children. And it is that female agency and morality that angers and scares the living hell out of these folks, that defies their personal sense of morality, and that drives them to act in heinous, immoral ways.

Abortion

Abortion

For many years, the anti-abortion movement, in particular the radical group “Lambs of Christ,” vowed to try to close the only clinic in North Dakota, the Fargo Women’s Health Organization.  The clinic was owned by my good friend, Susan Hill, who passed away last year and was run by another good friend, Jane Bovard.  In addition, their primary doctor was Susan Wicklund, who was actually the first abortion doctor to talk publicly about anti-abortion terrorism in an interview on “Sixty Minutes.”

Hoping to make North Dakota an “abortion free state,” the anti-abortion groups were merciless.  This little clinic, which looked like an old house, was truly the last bastion on the lone prairie. At times, there were literally thousands of protestors at their front door, the clinic was the target of numerous physical attacks and the staff was terrorized on a regular basis.  Ms. Bovard, who lived right in Fargo, was the target of incessant stalking, death threats and protests at her home.   Still, the clinic survived.  And, ultimately, Ms. Bovard went off on her own and opened up the Red River Women’s Clinic.  Because of the small population base, the town could not handle two clinics and the FWHO closed.  So, today there is still one clinic in North Dakota and, knock on wood, things seemed to have quieted down considerably in that state.

Abortion

Abortion

Over the years, the effort to save or close the only abortion clinic in North Dakota was a cause célèbre for activists on both sides of the issue.  Whenever anything of interest happened out there, the fundraising letters started flying.  Remember, when things are quiet, it’s very difficult to raise money.

And now we have Jackson, Mississippi.  For many years, there has been only one clinic in the state, the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and it was owned by, you guessed it, Susan Hill.  It was (and is) an absolutely beautiful clinic and it has been serving women in that state for many years.  But it is now in danger of closing – and not because of anti-abortion terrorism.

Phil Bryant Abortion

Phil Bryant Abortion

No, it seems that the Governor of the state, Phil Bryant, is ready to sign a bill into law that would require doctors who work in abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a local hospital and to be board certified in obstetrics and gynecology.  Diane Derzis, the new owner of the clinic, said its physicians are OB-GYN certified but only one has admitting privileges. That’s because most of her doctors live out of state because they have been stalked and threatened and most hospitals will not grant such privileges to out-of-state physicians.

Of course, anti-abortion advocates are saying these laws are necessary to insure the “safety” of the women.  How kind of them!  And then they discover that – oh look – I didn’t know that getting privileges was so difficult.  Gee whiz, I guess that means the clinic will have to close.  What a surprise!

This is

Susan Hill

Susan Hill

not about making abortion safer.  It’s about politics – once again – and it’s about claiming bragging rights for having the first state in the nation to have no abortion clinics.  But, of course, we all know that the women in Mississippi will continue to get abortions because the desire to NOT bear a child is so strong that a woman will go to extraordinary lengths to terminate her pregnancy.  Oh, yes, for some women, especially poor ones, this will be yet another obstacle to overcome.  But as history has shown, that woman will scrounge up a little more money for the bus trip to Louisiana or Alabama.  They will find an abortion provider and do what they have to do.

Meanwhile, however, the legislators in Mississippi thump their chests and crow about how they are now an “abortion free state.”  Abortions may no longer be performed in Mississippi, but women in Mississippi will continue to get abortions.

The Oxford English Dictionary cites selfless as an adjective to describe the relationship a servant has to God and a way of being that has little to no regard for the self. Similarly, other dictionaries define selfless as having little regard for fame, wealth or position; as having higher regard for the greater good. In my experiences, selflessness is a common denominator found in those in the pro-choice community. From lobbyists to legislators, volunteers to friends, counselors to nurses and from doctors to directors, these self-sacrificing individuals work for the greater good of women in need of safe, compassionate abortion services. They endure despite the vitriol of a well-funded, misogynistic minority Hell-bent on returning women to draconian servitude. Every single day, at home, at work, or in their church, doctors and clinic directors know they are the potential target of an unknown ‘prolife’ terrorist intent on killing them. Professional counselors recognize and must negotiate with the imposters, errant anti abortion moles attempting to discredit the clinics. The mother of a mother-daughter duo bumbled her way through a counseling session with directives and questions that not only revealed her anti abortion agenda but the (alleged) daughter’s lack of interest in the charade.

Even landlords have been the object of the fiendish anti abortion activists. When the MD Coalition for Life was upset with abortion clinic landlord Todd Stave because he refused their demands, they began protesting at Stave’s daughter’s middle school. But, rather than cave in to their demands to oust his tenant, a Germantown, MD abortion clinic, Stave turned the focus to the maliciousness of the MD Coalition for Life and others anti abortion zealots across the nation.

A common tactic, calling abortion-minded women selfish, is ironic when you consider that
the name-callers, the anti abortion activists, are the epitome of selfishness. They demand their free speech rights, their rights to hand out literature, their God-given right to save ‘babies’ (and sometimes women), and their right to impose their religious views on others. They are a bundle of self-serving, self-centered egotists. The evidence comes from frivolous lawsuits about imagined conspiracies and emotional harm (with NO regard for the emotional harm they inflict on women), from their constant boastful but unfounded claims of rescues, and from their slanderous attempts with police and human relations commissions to frame themselves as victims who are simply saints on a mission.

ImageBut the good news is that the selflessness of men and women across this nation who believe in women’s reproductive health rights lives on in the hearts and minds of millions. No amount of malevolent actions from the anti abortion-minded will thwart the fortitude, the compassion and the love for women who are in need of an abortion.

State Mandated Abortion Ultrasound

State Mandated Abortion Ultrasound

If the barrage of fundraising letters I am getting is any indication, there are a number of serious issues facing the pro-choice movement these days.  Battles are raging in just about every state legislature and every solicitation for money (do they ever write to us to just tell us how things are going?) has a common theme, which is access to abortion services are being restricted.

Whether or not requiring a woman to get an ultrasound before an abortion restricts her access to abortion is a question that I cannot answer at this time.  We’ll just have to wait and see.  But it is no secret that the number of abortion providers/abortion clinics has decreased over the years.  Of course, part of the reason why there are fewer abortion clinics is that the number of abortions has declined and an abortion clinic, like any other business, has to have a certain number of patients to pay the rent, buy supplies, pay staff, etc.   If the number of people using the facility decreases, that facility may be forced to close.  Indeed, in the ideal world, there would be no abortion facilities, right?

State Mandated Abortion Ultrasound

State Mandated Abortion Ultrasound

One thing that has always intrigued me when we talk about access to abortion is how our pro-choice friends bemoan the fact that fewer hospitals are performing abortions.  Well, I gotta tell you that if I were counseling a woman right now, I would tell her stay as far away as possible from any hospital if she was looking for an abortion.  Let me explain.

Abortion is a specialized form of medicine.  It’s not like going to your local orthopedic surgeon to get a lipoma removed.   In that case, you have your quick first meeting, the doc tells you it should be removed, you make your co-pay and you schedule the outpatient surgery.  Two weeks later, the lipoma is gone.  Wham bam, thank you ma’am.

GOP war on Birth Control

GOP war on Birth Control

Even though the surgery is just as simple as having a lipoma removed, a woman seeking an abortion has a lot more to deal with – as do the staff at the abortion clinic.  With variations on the theme, the women receive counseling about the abortion procedure, possible post abortion reactions and they may even delve into other more personal issues if the woman is so inclined.  Then they discuss forms of birth control that the woman might use to prevent her from coming back.  Of course, the patient might also have to deal with the possibility of anti-abortion picketers outside the facility and the stress that that might add to an already stressful situation.   If a woman has received the abortion pill, the staff is on call for the woman through that multi-day process.

Legislator's State of Misogyny

Legislator's State of Misogyny

So, abortion clinic staff and their doctors are used to dealing with women not just from the physical side but the emotional side.  There is even an organization – the National Abortion Federation – that hosts annual meetings where abortion doctors discuss the provision of abortion of abortion services and how to make the experience a more comfortable one for the woman.

Now, think about your last visit to a hospital.   Not very warm and fuzzy, wouldn’t you say?

And if you went in there for an abortion – assuming you found a hospital that does them – you would not be entering a comforting environment.  You surely would not receive any counseling about the procedure, no discussions about how to avoid an abortion in the future, no advice on birth control.  Even worse, you might be working with some staff people who are actually anti-abortion.  Yes, there are conscience clauses out there, but you always run the risk of getting a nurse who is pro-life, so you know they are not going to sit there and hold your hand during the procedure.  The only advantage to going to a hospital might be that there would be no protestors and you’d be in a big waiting room with others and no one would know why you are there.

But I would prefer to go to a place where there are experienced staff people who have dealt with the abortion issue from all angles – the medial and the emotional – than going into a sterile hospital where you’re basically on your own.  .

The average price for an abortion at an abortion clinic is about $350.  Believe me, it’s worth it.