In the clinic where I used to work, I was on reception on clinic days until the last patient left. So although I knew very well each step our patients took during their morning (ultrasound-payment-counseling-abortion-recovery), it just would not have been practical for me to leave my post for three hours to shadow a patient. I have no desire to ever be medical staff, so there was no need for me to learn the gritty details.

Recently (a month ago, to be exact!) I packed up my entire life and moved to a new city. I was lucky enough to get a job at an abortion clinic almost immediately, this time doing intake. It is a much bigger clinic in a much bigger city, so there are always three or four other people working with me just in the office making appointments. There are eight doctors, as opposed to the one we have at home. Things move a lot faster, but there are a lot more people to keep all the balls in the air.

As part of my training, my supervisor thought it would be of interest for me to shadow a patient through her experience. That way I would have an idea of what the patients I talked to on the phone would be going through.

My patient was a lovely woman, probably in her mid to late thirties. She had two children already, and this was her second abortion. She was very quiet, but she didn’t seem nervous; she had a calm and confident attitude throughout. She was most definitely less anxious than I was.

Our first step was payment (unlike my old clinic, where we did ultrasound first). In Ontario, abortion is covered by Medicare, so very few people have to pay out of pocket. My patient was a recent immigrant, so although she did not yet have OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) coverage, she was eligible for temporary health care coverage through the federal government. I’m glad I got to see that process, because as the staff member doing payments explained to me, we were the only clinic in town who would accept this kind of payment. Dealing with the federal government was too much of a hassle for the other clinics. The staffer had to call the hotline and enter the patient’s number to make sure she was eligible. Robot Voice told us she was not. So the staffer had to call back, speak to an operator, get put on hold many times, and finally the error was cleared up. Apparently this is just the beginning: sometimes the forms need to be submitted five or six times before the government will reimburse the clinic the whole amount.

Next stop was counseling. I was surprised with how short this stop was. The counselor was very kind but efficient: she quickly established that the patient was sure of her decision, went over her medical history, and we were done. My feeling is that some patients need a bit more time to talk things out in counseling, but the counselors get a good sense for who is doing fine. I would probably need a long time, myself. But my patient seemed very sure of her decision.

Next the patient changed into a paper gown and went in for her ultrasound. They did the finger prick blood test, and for some reason it didn’t take, so the nurse had to try multiple times. I stared at my shoes and tried not to faint. The ultrasound was no biggie; I’ve seen them printed hundreds of times. My patient was only eight weeks pregnant, so it was just a little peanut on the screen.

Then we got called up to the show. As the patient hopped up on to the operating table, I introduced myself to the doctor and two nurses and explained that I was just here to observe. Although the OR was much bigger than the one where I used to work, I had a hard time finding an appropriate place to stand. I wanted to see what was happening, but I didn’t want to be staring right up the patient’s vagina, because…well, that just seemed rude. Finally I settled into a corner with a good view of the ultrasound. That way I could be engaged in what was happening without actually having to see a lot of blood. Can you tell I am squeamish?

Well, the nurse could. After she inserted the IV into the patient’s hand she looked up at me, and I must have been paler than usual because she asked, “You aren’t a fainter, are you?”. “No,” I lied. I managed to hold out for the whole procedure. Actually, for me, the IV was the worst part: that’s when I would have passed out, had it been my abortion.

There’s only one way to describe the rest of the procedure: fast. I was just starting to understand what was going on, when it was over. I went into the next room to watch the doctor examine the parts of conception, even though I had seen that before. I felt a strange need to see the whole thing through to the end.

I have to say, I am glad that I was able to go through the process with a patient; certainly it feels more familiar now when I am reassuring potential patients on the phone. But mostly, I was struck with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. It is amazing that in the city where I live now, I can have an abortion at any number of clinics, covered by medicare, and the staff are all very kind and professional. This is not the reality for the majority of Canadians, let alone the rest of the world! My fellow activists and I fight for this to be the standard everywhere, but we have so far to go. For me, sometimes I think working in abortion care is enough; but that won’t keep our rights secure, and it won’t make things better in other places. As my mother says, places like Toronto may be doing well for access, but “abortion still needs its champions”. And that is why, whether I work in abortion care or not, I will be an abortion gang member – proudly.

Out in force, I am. I tweet, a lot, and I follow almost 2000 others who also tweet about feminism, reproductive justice, and politics. One of the most lively and informative streams to follow are those tweets with the #prochoice hashtag – a twitter tradition that marks a tweet as about a certain topic and part of a larger conversation. As in on-the-ground organizing, there are a variety of styles of doing pro-choice activism on Twitter and each one contributes differently to the goal of making abortion safe, legal, and available to all women everywhere.

The Debaters: As in the offline world, anti-choice people are the minority online but make significantly more noise than those who think bodily autonomy is a basic human right. These squeaky wheels also spew the same lies about abortion as their offline counterparts, functioning for the sole purpose of making women scared of and ashamed about abortion. Also as in “real” life, there are a collection of brave pro-choice souls on Twitter who take on these people and their ridiculous arguments head on, day after day, calling out the misinformation, misogyny and hypocrisy. I laughed out loud the other day when @ProChoiceGal noted that being “brown/Arabic” and pro-choice defies the limited, bigoted logic of her anti-choice sparring partners. Abortion Gang contributor @KushielsMoon also makes quick, witty work of the deluge of anti’s who think “baby killer” is an original or effective epithet. These Twitterers do the necessary work of getting into the trenches with the enemy to expose them and surely change undecided minds by dishing out facts in a rational, respectful manner. They serve to remind everyone, women who’ve chosen abortion especially, that there are allies out there who respect and honor their choices.

The Sheroes: Every Saturday morning I log on for the wit and wisdom that is @ClinicEscort’s timeline as she, rain, shine, or blizzard, uses her body to shield women from the terrifying taunts of a cast of anti-choice sidewalk bullies who lurk outside her local clinic. She runs a weekly ‘Start to Godwin,’ chronicling how long it takes for one of the screamers to reference Hitler or Nazis. (@ClinicEscort notes the average time on the clock is 35 to 40 minutes. The record: 6 minutes.) The @abortioneers share similar escorting stories while @40DaysforChoice and a blog of the same name rallies reinforcements for the annual anti-choice harasser festival, 40 Days for Life. @NYCProChoiceMD shares a rare and valuable insider perspective as she tweets about her experiences as an abortion provider. The Abortion Gang’s own @IamDrTiller started her handle to give voice to the stories of clinic workers in the wake of Dr. Tiller’s assassination. These tweeps amplify on-the-ground pro-choice activism, serving as examples and reminders of the varied work people do every day to provide women with reproductive health care.

The Reporters: Recently @RobinMarty tweeted that she watches anti-choice propaganda so others don’t have to and the analysis she does on that dreck is truly invaluable to pro-choice activists. The site for which she writes, @rhrealitycheck, is both a blog and a Twitter handle dedicated to pro-choice news and analysis. Another writer for that site, @AmandaMarcotte, uses her sharp wit and excellent research skills to expose anti-choice myths and tactics. Another fave is @BiancaLaureano, who speaks the truth about Latina women and sexual health, including abortion. These tweeters do the research and write the stories that give the facts about abortion and shine a light on the women’s stories that are the reason we all work for reproductive justice.

Of course, this is just a small sampling of the amazing work being done by pro-choice Twitter activists. Be sure to check out the list of Abortion Gang writers on Twitter.  Who are your other favorite #prochoice tweeters? Is there a category you would have added? Enlighten us in the comments!

Sensation/Perception

We can say with certainty that before 24 weeks gestation (and possibly after), a fetus is incapable of feeling pain. In order to feel pain,

“its nervous system would both have to have the ability to perceive noxious stimuli on a sensory level, as well as to process those noxious stimuli in the brain. The primitive component of the nervous system, the reflexes, develops fairly early but nerve fibers that connect the sensory and motor nerves of the body to the brain don’t seem to be fully functional until 29-30 weeks; that is, the message from the body that something annoying is happening doesn’t make it to the upper level of the brain (the cortex) in order to be perceived by the fetus until 29 weeks, and those connections that allow that to happen don’t even start forming until 23 weeks.”*

They do not have the brain or nerve capacity to sense pain or perceive the world around them. Reactions up until a very late stage in fetal development are reflexive. Poke a one-celled organism and it will reflexively move. Reflex is survival, not perception. On the other hand, an unconscious person has a very different experience. There is a further distinction between merely unconscious persons, and brain dead persons. I believe the appropriate parallel is between a brain dead person and a fetus, not an unconscious person and a fetus. We cannot be sure whether an unconscious person feels pain or other sensations, or perceives their world. That is why doctors often tell family members to talk to and touch comatose patients. On the other hand, part of the definition of brain death is non-reaction to stimuli. That is why doctors tell the family to say goodbye before they remove life-sustaining equipment. Removal of life-sustaining equipment is perfectly legal because the medical community realizes that this person is never going to be a functioning individual again. So when antis ask me if I am okay with the death penalty/killing of unconscious persons, I shake my head. A person may be unconscious, but we do not know if they have sensation or perception. If antis really wanted a legitimate comparison, it would be with a brain dead person, but they know that society accepts the “killing” of them, which is why they ignore the legitimate comparison.

There is also a distinction between un- and non-conscious; namely the former person can become conscious at any moment, whereas the latter is incapable of consciousness in its present state. When pro-choicers make the distinction between the conscious woman and the non-conscious fetus, it is to delineate that the non-conscious being should not trump the conscious being, not that we seek the death of all unconscious beings. This leads me into my next point.

The Double Standard

We’ve already determined that the fetus is nothing like an unconscious person and is, in fact, more similar to a brain dead person. One of the important distinctions between the fetus and the other two isn’t necessarily sensation and perception, but reliance. Unconscious and brain dead people rely on machines to keep them alive, and sometimes not even that for the former. There is a fundamental difference between a fetus, and an unconscious, or even brain dead, person. The key is that the fetus requires one person, that being the pregnant woman, to maintain its potential for life. The unconscious/brain dead person relies on machines and all persons involved can come and go as they please, not mention they are not risking their lives. A pregnant woman is effectively stuck. The only way for the fetus to survive is if she hands over her body to its development and growth. There are no machines that can keep a fetus under 24 weeks (or so) gestation alive and as we all know abortions after the point of viability are on wanted pregnancies and done for fetal anomalies. Nobody in their right mind would require a family member or hospital employee to hook themselves up to an unconscious/brain dead person to maintain their life; one would never even ask, let alone require, one of those people to risk their lives. If we won’t do it for a person who is already alive, why is it acceptable to tell a woman she must carry an unwanted pregnancy for 9 months, risking her life in the process? This is a blatant double standard.

This latter point raises some important questions, namely what happens if/when science can mechanically maintain the life of a fetus separate from the woman, at very early gestation. Does a woman have the right to control her genetic material; should she still be allowed to abort at 12 weeks? That is a post I hope to write in the near future.

Regardless, when antis trot out the unconscious person argument, you can very easily light their straw man on fire by pointing out how a fetus is to an unconscious person as a rock is to a sleeping person. Namely, there is no similarity between the two.

*Thanks to NYCprochoiceMD for the help here.

So instead Diana bought Misoprostol, an ulcer medication that is 80-85% effective at causing a process identical to a miscarriage, at a pharmacy across the border for a fraction of the price and self-induced an abortion at home.

Use of Misoprostol as an alternative abortion method, particularly by low-income and immigrant women, is hardly a new phenomenon but has popped up in the news a lot lately. Last month, Nicholas Kristof hailed Misoprostol as a drug that could revolutionize abortion around the world. And as far as do-it-yourself abortion goes, Misoprostol certainly has a lot going for it: It’s relatively safe—much safer than other methods the Planned Parenthood in Brownsville has seen over the years: “women who have used syringes, taken cocktails of prescription drugs, douched with battery acid and beaten themselves in the abdomen.” It’s cheap: $87 to $167 per bottle in a Mexican pharmacy, just pennies per pill in India. Since its primary use isn’t as an abortifacient, it’s hard for governments to restrict—and is likely to become even more widely accessible. Since it causes a miscarriage that looks indistinguishable from a natural one, in places where abortion is illegal, if there’s a complication or it doesn’t work completely, a woman can seek help at a hospital instead of risking either arrest or death. It’s taken in the privacy of her own home, so in conservative communities like Diana’s, she can avoid the stigma of the clinic, the harassment of anti-choice protesters, the “feeling of being judged by the strangers around her.”

In short, Misoprostol could do a lot of good around the world and save the lives of some of the up to 70,000 women worldwide who die from complications of unsafe (usually illegal) abortions each year. And I’m happy Diana could get it and that it worked for her.

But I’m not happy that abortion is so stigmatized in the Rio Grande Valley that many women don’t even realize it is legal. I’m not happy that because of the Hyde Amendment, those women who are least able to afford it are forced to pay between $450 and more than $900 for an abortion in a clinic. I’m not happy that the nearest abortion clinic to Diana is 30 miles away and 35% of women in the U.S. live in counties that lack an abortion provider. I’m not happy that the clinic is so embattled that the doctor wears a bulletproof vest to work and says that many of his clients first find out about the facility when they are brought there by church groups to protest. I’m not happy that he says that about 20% of his patients have tried Misoprostol first before coming to the clinic. I’m not happy that due to cost, inconvenience, and shame, women in the U.S., where abortion is legal, are turning to Mexico, where it is largely illegal, to find alternative ways to end their pregnancies.

But you know who should be really happy about all this? The anti-choice movement. After all, self-induced abortion is about the only sign of success they can hope for. It is an objective truth that is stubbornly ignored by the anti-choice movement that abortion rates are the same whether abortion is legal or not. Women will always find ways to end their unwanted pregnancies—either safely and out-in-the-open or not-as-safely and underground. And it seems that, although Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land, women in the United States are all too often forced to turn to the latter.

As Gloria Feldt says in the article, “What we’re dealing with now is thirty-five years of women being very publicly shamed by anti-choice protesters. Underground abortion is one of the consequences.” It’s also the consequence of policies that make it impossible for poor women to afford abortions. It’s the consequence of every parental notification law that causes a teenager to ask her boyfriend to hit her stomach with a baseball bat rather than tell her parents she needs an abortion and every waiting period law that requires a woman to take two days off work she can’t afford to miss to go to the clinic.

The cumulative consequence of each small restriction, each unnecessary hurdle, each bloody anti-abortion sign, each hateful, self-righteous blog post is that a woman in the U.S., where abortion is legal and individual freedom is supposedly sacrosanct, says this:

“Logically, you should go to a clinic. If you have the money, you should. It’s safer. But the whole thing of being in a clinic like that is, it traumatizes people too. Really, the more private thing and the more convenient thing to do would be to just take the pill.”

Have we really reached a place in the U.S. where abortion is so restricted and stigmatized, where American women have been so abandoned by our health care system and so policed by our neighbors, that for some of us the more convenient option is to take a stomach ulcer pill and hope for the best?

Last Tuesday in Juneau Alaska, it was announced that a battle was lost for women’s rights; Ballot Measure 2 was approved by voters. As a result, any person under the age of 17 wishing to have an abortion will have to wait 48 hours before having the procedure, while her doctor notifies at least one parent. If the doctor cannot make telephone contact with a parent, Ballot Measure 2 states that they are to continue to “call, in not less than two-hour increments, for not less than five attempts in a 24-hour period.” This will be putting a huge amount of pressure on the doctor who will likely have to adjust previously booked appointments so that they may call the women’s parents no less than five times a day. If the doctor does not follow these procedures, he or she will face criminal felony charges. The only way the teen’s parents would not have to be notified is if she goes before a judge and asks permission to get an abortion. Though the teen’s parents do not necessarily have to approve of her choice, they must be notified. After that, the judge may let her doctor proceed without notifying her parents. Two days after the doctor notifies her parents or she goes before a judge, she may finally be allowed to exercise her reproductive rights and have an abortion.

The majority of teens, who have an abortion, do voluntarily involve at least one parent in the process. Therefore the fact that a teen has not already told one of her parents shows it is likely to be dangerous for her family to know she is planning an abortion. More than 20% of young women, who choose not to tell their family about their abortion, do so because of fear that they may be kicked out of the house. Another 8% choose not to tell their family for fear of physical abuse, because they have been abused in the past. Even if she was not being abused, the outcome of her being forced to inform her parents would most likely be an unparallel amount of anguish and stress to everyone involved. To better understand what this would be like I reached out to several female teens who have a better understanding of what this would be like.

I posed the question to one teen named Jessica*: “What would happen to you if you were pregnant? What would your first step be, and who would you tell?” She said that she would first call her boyfriend Seth* to tell him. They have already discussed what would happen if she got pregnant and both have agreed that abortion would be the way to go, though Seth was slightly uneasy about it. Then, she said she would call Planned Parenthood to schedule the procedure. We both agreed that this is what most teens wanting an abortion would do.


Next, I asked: “At what point would you tell your parents?” Jessica responded with “Never. Unless they somehow found out that I was considering abortion, I would keep it a secret. Even if they found out, I would probably lie to cover it up. They would be mad.” Jessica’s mom believes that it is not the government’s right to limit women’s reproductive rights, and admits that if she had gotten pregnant in high school she probably would have gotten an abortion. That being said, Jessica still tells me her mom would be angry at her if she had an abortion.

We’ve been talking for a while now and I ask “So what would happen if your mom found out you were going to have an abortion and you couldn’t cover it up? Like what would happen if your doctor went up to your mom and said that you were going to have an abortion in two days?” Jessica tells me her mom would “freak out” she continues to say how her mom would scream about how she shouldn’t be having sex in high school and shouldn’t be having an abortion. “All I could do is sit there and just take it” says Jessica. “She would be yelling and all I could do is sit there and pretend I didn’t care what she thought, but I really would.”

I asked the same questions to a few friends from my own high school and their responses were very similar to Jessica’s. Some of their parent’s would be supportive of their decision, but others would be mad, and in some case even kick them out of the house for having an abortion. The overall consensus was that in a few situations it might be good to have the parents notified that their daughter is having an abortion, but overall this new law will do more harm than help the teens in Alaska.

If you are a teen in Alaska, click here for more information about your rights under this new law.

*Names were changed

Earlier this week, here on the Gang, Persephone had a fantastic article that debunked a number of the myths that the Antis use to try and pollute this discussion of facts. It’s odd that so many who use their faith to guide them through this struggle would so boldly use lies to misinform and frighten the public away from this medical procedure. They make up propagandized talking points to willfully corrupt and program the thinking of the masses with lies. How is this okay? How can a group of self-proclaimed moralists use underhanded and dishonest means to attack this issue in such a disgraceful Machiavellian manner? They cling to their godly assertion that the ends justify the means…and that works for them. But what about the rest of us?

For you see, when you are talking about a portion of the masses using false information to steer an issue that affects every single person in our society, their justification does not matter because it only satisfies their positions, which are obviously at odds with the majority of the people. Because their ends affect us all, then said justification would have to satisfy our concerns as well. However, society has demonstrated repeatedly that it does not share their faith-based outlook on this issue. Time and again, society has gone the way of science on this matter. So they lie, trying to manipulate the science that has built the foundation beneath the pro-choice arguments. Why? For the purpose of turning facts to propaganda, and to confuse people into buying into their lies.

Not only does this approach ring of a sad desperation from a faction losing more and more ground to the truth of the science they try to discredit with misinformation, but it also proves harmful to the public in numerous ways. The first thing that it does to harm the nation is to purposely derail the truth of the situation, causing public confusion. Lying to the public certainly has become a popular political tactic over the generations, but as we have recently seen, a miseducated public is a dangerous thing indeed. These lies they wield so wrecklessly have inflamed passions among their followers that have led to the murders of Pro-Choice members of the public, specifically, doctors providing abortion care. Anti-choice propaganda has poisoned the minds of people to the point where they believe terrorism is the only means they have left at their disposal.

Not only have they incited domestic terrorists, but through their Crisis Pregnancy Centers they have caused young women to be frightened for their lives, telling them that abortion often leads to the death of the mother. This was also chronicled for the Gang this week in Sarah’s post about the HBO Documentary 12th & Delaware. This is the second harmful effect that they have on the public through their fiction-fed confusion. As a result, these young women, still not wanting to have the child, attempt to take matters into their own hands at home, putting their lives at risk just as they had been misled to believe they would be doing in the first place. So they are raising the amount of risk these women face, all because they believe that they know better than you do about what should happen to your body.

The entire public is also harmed by this misinformation, not just the women who seek out this procedure. Throughout the generations we have seen information propagandized by governments for the purpose of steering the masses in whichever direction they deem necessary. They lie to the people, because they want to control them. If you want the public to be free-thinking and open minded, you tell them the truth and let them decide for themselves what makes sense. But that is not the approach being taken by the Antis. Rather, they have opted for the route of control rather than enlightenment. Is this really the direction we want to move in?

What kind of future do we the people want for ourselves? Do we want one where the choices that affect our bodies are no longer in our power to decide, where faith-based propaganda determines what version of the truth you will be spoon fed by those who long ago drank the kool-aid? Or do we want a future where the people are entrusted with the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so that we may decide for ourselves, and from a place of knowledge and power what path we alone should take? I know which future I’m pulling for. I’m pulling for team Science over team Faith. How about you?

Sometimes I feel like I never stop virtually waving my arms and yelling through cyberspace, “I’m here! I’m here!” Because that’s where I am–in cyberspace, most of the time. It has been said time and time again that this next wave of feminism (if you subscribe to the “wave” idea) is online. We’re blogging, facebooking, podcasting, tweeting about feminism. If there’s a way to bring the activism to the larger stage that is the World Wide Web, feminists are going to find that way in. It’s a way to reach more people; it’s worldwide. Many teachers are embracing technology in the classroom–my literary theory prof might ask us to pull out our smartphones or iPads to look something up, and my sister recently wrote a grant to get a couple of iPods for her fifth grade class. Similarly, feminists are using technology as a way to reach out to the masses, including the younger generation who know nothing about a world where computers didn’t exist.

So where are these people looking? I don’t have an answer. Obviously they’re not looking in the right place because we’re all pretty easy to find. It’s true that the first Google search result for “young feminism” is an outdated NOW page. But the third result is the fbomb, an awesome blog by and for young feminists. Maybe the problem is that those who are accusing us of not existing don’t consider online activism as “real” activism. I mean, shouldn’t we be out there in the world holding our signs and wearing our This is What a Feminist Looks Like t-shirts? If you do that, great. There’s nothing wrong with it, and it’s more than many people will ever do.

But I think it’s just as effective to put a This is What a Feminist Looks Like badge on my blog (which is what I did last night to celebrate the Young Feminist Blog Carnival–except it was a This is What A Young Feminist Looks Like badge!) and Facebook about feminism. It may not be “active” in the way that activism is usually thought about, but for now, while I’m plugging away at my undergraduate degree, trying to find a part-time job, and living in an area where the F-word is a bad one, it’s all I’ve got.

You may not see me, but I’m here. We’re here. I promise.

I am an accountant, clawing my way upwards in the proverbial “man’s world.”  If I don’t make it to the top,  I want it to be because I am truly not good enough, not because anyone expects me to get knocked up and drop out of the workforce before I turn 30.  When I make it to the top, it will be because I am the best – not because I am a token minority gender in my field.

I am a volunteer with a group the helps women enter the workforce for the first time and empowers them to pursue careers.

I am a feminist because I am trying to close the wage gap one woman at a time.

I am 25, have both undergraduate and graduate degrees, and own my own home.

I am a feminist because I believe that we all should be able to chase our dreams.

I am passionate about accounting because it is a way to be able to compare totally different companies to each other, to know which one is healthier, which one is better to partner with, which one is the better choice to lend money to.  Accounting leads to greater transparency, and greater transparency leads to greater fairness.

I am a feminist because I believe that the world should be a fair place – for everyone, and that with fairness comes greater opportunity.  Greater opportunity means that we all do better – and when we all do better, we all do better.

In this sex book (which is really awesome) we read that the clitoris is the only organ in the human body, male or female, with the sole purpose of sexual pleasure. I found this really fascinating and, of course, it got the wheels in my head spinning. Here we have women with the only organ in a human being that is meant solely to make sex feel good. And yet, many antis believe that motherhood should be the punishment for having sex. How is it that women can have this awesome sex organ that makes us want to have sex, and yet the consequence is motherhood? I have a friend who told me this to my face: if I were to get pregnant in my monogamous relationship, even though I am on birth control, I should have to have the child; sex is for procreation so abortion should not be an option in such a case. The fact that a child would derail the career I’ve been working towards for 15 years is irrelevant. I know the “risks” of having sex, so I should have to live with the consequences. I feel like reconciling this awesome fact of nature with this human moral “risk” is easy, but in the U.S., the fact of nature has no bearing when anti-choice abortion laws are enacted.

One thing that I didn’t bring up to my friend, though I was tempted to, was her daughters. I wanted to ask her if she would deny her young daughters an abortion (or wish for them to be denied one) because they had consensual sex. This type of attitude bothers me quite a bit. I tried to impress upon her that she was imposing her values on other women. Her response was it was just her opinion and since it would never actually affect another woman, it didn’t matter. I suppose she isn’t wrong, but the attitude still bothers me. I know that if I were to need an abortion, I could go to my mother, no matter “how” I became pregnant. I worry that her daughters would not feel that they would have that same luxury. I hope to be a strong feminist role model in their world, and if I am the person they come to in such a situation, I will gladly be there; but their mother should be as well.

I am not sure which kind of anti I dislike more, ones like my friend, or ones like Sharron Angle. I suppose at least Angle is consistent in her imposition of her morals, but is it better to impose a narrow subset of your morals on others rather than all your morals? In my case it doesn’t matter. My boyfriend is pro-choice and would want me to come to him if I were to get pregnant; he knows that it is half his responsibility. We have already made use of the sex book, and tonight I will be making quinoa and goat cheese stuffed chicken breast knowing that I will never be punished with motherhood for having sex. It still makes me wonder how people can impose their morals on me and not understand that it is wrong. Has anybody dealt with similar anti friends? Were you able to help them change their mind?

When I began to write about 12th & Delaware I didn’t know how to organize my thoughts. I tried different approaches and none of them sounded like anything more than a rant from an angry person. So I took a step back and thought about the film for a week. I also saved it on my boyfriend’s dvr in hopes that he would watch it. What helped me organize how I feel about it was explaining him why it is important to me that he watch it.

First I explained to him what it was about and why it’s important. Then I told him the problems with crisis pregnancy centers. I explained that they disguise themselves as women’s clinics that provide services related to pregnancy but they do not provide abortions. He looked at me and said, “okay, so what’s problem with that?” I went on to tell him that the big deal is that these CPCs lure (young) women through the door with signs that, for example, say “Pregnant? Need Help?” These messages give the idea that a pregnant woman could go into the clinic and receive the services they need or want, whether that be prenatal care, an abortion, adoption services, or other reproductive health services. I told him that this is not the case. CPCs do not perform abortions. Not only do they not perform abortions, they are extremely anti-aboriton and anti-choice. They believe that the only answer is to carry the pregnancy to full term. He understood what I was saying and seemed to have one of those ah-ha moments. I continued talking. I told him that these clinics scare me and in my opinion they are horrible. They lie to women who walk in looking for help and support and until recently they were not obligated to tell women upfront that abortion is not an option at their facility. I was upset and could have gone on forever but I stopped and he agreed to watch it.

The juxtaposition of the two clinics might have left some pro-choice viewers with something to be desired. There was not much focus on the pro-choice clinic. I definitely think that it is important to recognize the amazing work that the employees of Women’s World Medical (and the other clinics like it) do. The doctors and support staff that work at clinics that provide abortion services and comprehensive reproductive health services are heros in my eyes. But by highlighting the behavior of the employees of the CPC and the anti-choice protestors outside the pro-choice clinic, 12th & Delaware showed the closed minded, immoral, dishonest, dangerous, and harassing behavior of the pro-life movement.

I enjoyed the documentary. A lot. About 10 minutes into it I opened my computer and started to take notes. I knew I wanted to write about it. This film lets the viewer have a candid look at the world inside a crisis pregnancy center. The footage of Anne, the director of Pregnancy Care Center (the CPC) is astonishing. A lot of the time I was sitting with my mouth wide open shaking my head. I think at one point I was even laughing in disbelief. I have been aware of CPCs for a long time now and I have also volunteered as a clinic escort in the Northern Virginia area. I have seen the anti-choice protestors out on Saturday mornings and I have heard the things they have to say. But this documentary was something else. I saw Anne lie to young women who came into her clinic. I saw her inappropriately coerce women into having an ultrasound (buying her lunch and basically locking her in the exam room). I watched as she trained employees on the tactics they should use to keep women in the clinic as long as possible so that they would decide against having an abortion.

Since watching 12th & Delaware, I keep thinking about all of the other crisis pregnancy centers across the country. There are 4000 “pro-life” centers and only about 800 pro-choice clinics that provide abortion services. There are so many people out there just like Anne and Father Tom (one of the founders of the CPC) who will do almost anything to keep women from having abortions or the right to choice. Right now there is a young woman somewhere sitting in a crisis pregnancy center being fed lies about the dangers of abortion and preached to about God and life. Not only is this infuriating, it makes me sad. Young women who don’t know any better believe people like Anne when she lies and says that abortion causes breast cancer. They believe her when she gives false information about the number of weeks they are along in their pregnancy.

I know that people like Anne and Father Tom think what they are doing is right, that it is okay to say almost anything if it keeps a woman from having an abortion. But in some ways seeing this in 12th & Delaware I am left feeling more validated in my pro-choice beliefs. I know that I am right and the pro-life side is just plain wrong. Anti-choicers have murdered abortion doctors because they believe what the doctor is doing is murder. That is wrong. They are just plain wrong. Anti-choicers threaten my life and the lives of all women.

I have said it a million times to friends, family, and others, I believe that what a woman wants to do with her body is her choice and her choice only. It is not my place or anyone else’s to tell a woman what is best for her. The government should have no place in the decisions that women make about their reproductive health. I am not anti-life, I am pro-freedom and I trust women. I care about having the ability to make my own decisions and have control over my body. I believe in giving people information about reproductive health. Comprehensive information that will allow them to make the best decision for themselves based on their values and beliefs, not mine or anyone else’s.

People like Candace Dye and her husband (the founders and owners of the pro-choice clinic featured in 12th & Delaware) deserve a medal of honor. They, and others like them, wake up every day and fight to protect a woman’s right to choose. They risk their lives so that the abortion doctors can get to the clinic safely and help women in need. They continue to provide women with invaluable reproductive health services and access to safe abortion even when a crisis pregnancy center opens across the street from their clinic. I commend my fellow pro-choicers for their strength and willingness to stand up and fight for the right to choice.

If you haven’t seen 12th & Delaware yet, you should. It’s a little scary and depressing but it left me feeling empowered to never stop fighting for women’s rights and the right to choice.