In the April 26th issue of Newsweek, Sarah Kliff ignited a firestorm of debate with her article “Remember Roe!”, asking, “How can the next generation defend abortion rights when they don’t think abortion rights need defending?” In the still-choppy wake of the healthcare reform bill’s passage — made possible in part by a compromise of reproductive rights that bans federally funded abortion coverage — Kliff’s question reopened a debate that harkens back to the 1970s and that, perplexingly, is still defined in narrow terms that fail to represent most women.
What sent the Newsweek article ricocheting across the blogosphere was Kliff’s citation of a NARAL study in order to argue that reproductive rights are vulnerable because the younger generation of pro-choice feminists is indifferent to the cause of protecting those rights. The study found that fewer abortion-rights supporters considered the issue “very important” than their pro-life counterparts, and that pro-life advocates more successfully harnessed their supporters’ fervor. Kliff hitched her citation to NARAL President Nancy Keenan’s anecdotal observation that [Keenan] “just doesn’t see a passion among the post-Roe generation” of pro-choice women.
The post-Roe generation reacted swiftly, snuffing any doubts about their “passion for the cause.” Within hours of the article’s publication, the Twitter stream #fem2 (for “feminist 2.0”) accumulated responses from young activists railing against Kliff’s reliance on a limited study and subjective corroboration from the feminist establishment. “Note to Older Feminists: WE EXIST!” announced a post on AbortionGang.org, a blog run by young reproductive-rights activists. Young representatives from organizations like Choice USA and the National Organization of Women (NOW) weighed in; a Twitter petition called for Newsweek to interview young activists; and the reaction snowballed as mainstream websites like Feministing.com and Gawker Media’s Jezebel.com joined the chorus.
Yet an important point was lost in the debate: it wasn’t only younger women that were disregarded by traditional organizations like NARAL. The reality is that any constituency that doesn’t fit the Feminist profiled defined by white, upper-middle-class champions of the 1970s women’s movement is excluded from the discourse. The mass of rejoinders to Kliff’s article had forgotten third-wave feminism, the vital contributions of bell hooks and Chandra Talpade Mohanty. Women of color and low-income women were simply absent from NARAL’s study and the subsequent debate; so this great opportunity for a reevaluation of feminism and the reproductive-rights movement was squandered.
It is well documented that abortion rates are much higher within minority communities; the rate among black women is more than five times that of white women. The pro-life contingent uses these statistics to inundate African- American communities with media campaigns claiming that family planning organizations like Planned Parenthood are colluding in a program of population control. “Black Children are an Endangered Species,” proclaim billboards erected throughout Atlanta by Georgia Right to Life. Right to Life obviously thinks it important to reach communities of color, so why does direct engagement with these audiences still elude prochoice organizations like NARAL?
These same billboards — and the Georgia’s Senate Bill 529 that accompanied them, criminalizing abortion “solicitation” to women of color — were vigorously opposed and ultimately defeated by a coalition of reproductive-justice organizations run by women of color. SisterSong, SPARK Reproductive Justice Now! and Sisterlove mobilized a successful campaign that killed the bill before it went to a vote. “We truly raised the voices of women of color,” said Heidi Williamson, National Policy Coordinator for SisterSong. This is the passionate, triumphant voice missing from the Newsweek article debate.
There are many other minority-run reproductive-justice organizations across America. Desiree Flores, Program Officer at the Ms. Foundation for Women — a national non-profit that funds many such organizations — says their innovative tactics ensure the health of the movement: “They’re bringing people traditionally written off as unlikely allies or lacking political power into the reproductive- rights movement,” and their message goes “beyond ‘pro-choice’ or ‘pro-life’ in order to reach … people for whom these terms are outdated.”
As the dynamics of race, class and labor in America continue to change, it’s imperative that the voices of minority and low-income women be heard in the reproductive- rights debate. Only then will the movement reflect all the dimensions of justice that belong to a feminism for our times.
Comments
...and of course, any women who oppose abortion's legality or prefer significant restrictions are dismissed entirely.
Great article, and timely. It's sad that the right to abortion is still an issue of debate 20+ years after it was legalized.
For more on Black Genocide from Abortion - watch the fully documented film: Maafa21 Black Genocide in 21st Century America. Be open minded and see the amount of documentation pulled from the vaults of the Planned Parenthood and Margaret Sanger papers. It is a credible argument and worth exploring further. See a preview of Maafa 21 here: http://www.maafa21.com
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......Women's rights cost money. The lack of living wages and lack universal health care means poor women must beg for money to pay for an abortion.
......Too many theocrats and others blame women, punish women for having sex. Sex is the one free loving healing chance for poor women to feel better.
......Condoms are denied by the Vatican or deliberately mis-used by some sabotaging males. Some young women are victims of religiously mis-leading bad sex ed in schools.
..... Some women hoping for a family discover some impregnating males are already married, siring other children recklessly, are felons, addicts or become violent.
..... Women discovering these problems choose abortion unless they are so poor they can not afford health care.
..... Some women already have too many children and must decide during a loss of job or very low income can pregnancy be afforded?
..... Some women learn in the same month of a pregnancy exam, they are also infected with diseases or suffer with life threatening cancers, few of these women are offered Medicaid abortions and often treatment for their non-pregnancy conditions conflicts with pregnancy.
......Some women, especially in other countries are forced to die early and forced to stay pregnant than receive life saving abortions....
......Almost all late term abortions are for women who early on wanted a child and find out that the fetus is dead, dying or so horribly deformed that abortion is the only sensible choice, yet doctors are murdered for doing the compassionate thing for such women.
......Our nations religious fanatics are much like the KKK wearing not white hoods but fake nurses uniforms from fake clincs funded by the Bush Crime Family with tax dollars.
.......These new KKKlaners male and female are harassing women with threats, shouts of "murderer" false information as they attempt to enter abortion clinics and theocrats are passing laws women must go to the fake clinics to get two ultrasounds, one 24 hours before the day of the second routine abortion ultrasound WHILE FORCING DOCTORS TO LIE TO PATIENTS that 2 inch embryonic things are "babies."
.......We must fully repudiate all who attack women's freedom to choose.
.......The King James Bible is not anti-abortion, it is pro-violent abortion in many passages including Hosea 13:16, get a concordance and check also 2 Kings 8:12, Amos, Jeremiah and Matthew where little ones are "dashed against the stones."
.......If religious terrorists are telling the truth, then menstruation is murder and women have a duty to only have sex in a 3 day window of maximum fertility to ensure implantation, sex at any other time may create a zygote alleged as a "life" yet have little or no chance and growing in a uterus, ectopic pregnancy or failure to be pregnant with a fertilized egg is murdering that egg.
.......There is nothing wrong with abortion. Only insane religious nuts claim otherwise.
.......Worst case scenario: reckless cruel woman deliberately gets pregnant just to kill a man's "child." Now you want laws to force such a women to stay pregnant? What kind of mother results from forced chattel slavery pregnancy including rapists progeny?
.......Trust women to decide for themselves and repeal the Hyde Amendment so that all poor women can receive Medicaid abortions on demand. 843-718-4657 if you wish to donate to South Carolina Women's Choice Fund tax deductible help for the poor.
Hatsoff to organizations like Desiree FLores', the Ms. Foundation for Women for keeping traditionally under-represented women in the dialogue and action on abortion issues.
Women of color certainly are stakeholders in the dialogue although it does appear, if we play the 'numbers' game that they are less involved as women of color are having less abortions. However, we women of color understand the complexity of the issue and necessity for staying in the dialogue.
I must say, though as woman of color, our younger generation are having abortions for all the wrong reasons. (White women have them, usually for different reasons). It is sad and unfortuante that our young women find themselves in the position of needing abortions at all. Something has happened in the Black community that needs to be corrected. Our young women do not respect their body enough and the young men are not responsible or respectful enough. The Black community has to take more responsiblity (and this includes the Black church) for putting an end to these unnecessary abortions. Abortion is not birth control and a woman's body is still sacred.
Hi, I'm Molly and I work at NARAL Pro-Choice America. I wanted to share some important points.
We welcome the discussion that the Newsweek story spurred within the pro-choice community.
Please see Nancy Keenan's blog post on this topic http://www.blogforchoice.com/archives/2010/04/nancy-keenan-re-1.html as well as the transcript of our online discussion that she did with Newsweek and younger pro-choice leaders and writers: http://www.newsweek.com/id/237137
Just a point of clarification. The post implies that NARAL Pro-Choice America's research did not include diverse audiences. We did five focus groups (three with women, two with men) in three cities (Denver, Fairfax, Virginia, and St. Louis), and 55 percent of the participants were from communities of color. In addition, the survey reflected the ethnic and racial makeup of the country, including the oversample of 300 voters under age 30 that we did.
One of the main reasons we did this research is because our the next generation of voters will be the largest and most diverse in our nation's history. We see this research as a starting point and welcome all ideas and suggestions on how we can better engage and learn from young women and men from all backgrounds.
Thanks for the opportunity to respond.
It doesn't matter how the conception occurred, the body of another being is now in existence. A woman can do anything she wants to do with her body, UNTIL IT AFFECTS SOMEONE ELSE'S BODY. And in the case of ABORTION, that's EXACTLY what happens. If a woman doesn't not have an abortion, she has a baby. If she does have an abortion, she won't have a baby. Therefore, how can you say abortion is not murder when it is preventing the "start of life?" It is the same for contraception. It prevents life from beginning or, in some cases, takes it after it has already begun. Think about it...
It doesn't matter how the conception occurred, the body of another being is now in existence. A woman can do anything she wants to do with her body, UNTIL IT AFFECTS SOMEONE ELSE'S BODY. And in the case of ABORTION, that's EXACTLY what happens. If a woman doesn't have an abortion, she has a baby. If she does have an abortion, she won't have a baby. Therefore, how can you say abortion is not murder when it is preventing the "start of life?" It is the same for contraception. It prevents life from beginning or, in some cases, takes it after it has already begun. Think about it...
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