Six months after the extremist Supreme Court took away bodily autonomy for millions of Americans by overturning Roe v. Wade—we’re marking the 50th anniversary of Roe with a conversation about the ongoing battle for abortion rights in our country.
AS:
Abortion access typifies so many societal struggles about women’s place and power in our world. It says a lot about how we think of women’s roles in their own lives and in society. What’s really telling is how abortion is an emotional minefield that people use to manipulate others for their own gain. That’s why it’s been used as a powerful tool to hook people by the nose and lead them to political centers that strip away so many of their other rights.
FBK:
DR:
Those days were awful. When I worked at Planned Parenthood in the 1990s, the anti-choice organizations had us in defensive mode on everything, but most especially late term abortions. They described a procedure almost correctly but with horrific and callously inaccurate details. We, the pro-choice movement, tried to correct the facts rather than address the emotions they were playing on. And we are still debating when abortion is acceptable rather than the right to have one.
FBK:
Late term abortion was a key part of the right wing’s messaging in their 50-year battle to overturn Roe. And politically, they’ve been systematically chipping away at abortion rights since then: putting anti-choice zealots on school boards, city councils, state judiciaries, state legislatures, Congress…and most importantly, the Supreme Court. And at the same time, passing parental consent laws, blocking clinic access, setting up fake reproductive care centers, bombing clinics, and killing doctors. The bottom line: It worked.
DR:
Very true. Back in the 90s, Barbara Boxer and a small handful of women were the unabashed champions of reproductive rights. They never gave up rights for political gain and they never stopped fighting. But now, there’s a lot of real and dedicated support from many, many elected officials at federal, state, and local levels thanks to the work of a lot of organizations, but I think EMILY’s List can take a lot of the credit.
AS:
After my home state of Texas reversed its abortion access a billboard popped up along the highway I often drive: Right-Wing Women: You Lost Your Rights Too! I think that really summarizes this question that’s been running in my mind lately: how do you get to the point of convincing a woman to vote against her own interests?
FBK:
What really infuriates me is the mis-named “pro-life” community. They’re all about protecting “life” in utero, but anti-choice Republicans have no plans to help people who are now forced to carry pregnancies to term against their will. They all voted against extending the Child Tax Credit in Congress; many Republican governors have refused federal Medicaid money; and they seem to believe that private social services and places of worship will help women who have no safety net.
DR:
Speaking of semantics, all of us seem to be much more comfortable saying the word abortion now. After Roe, in our personal lives, we didn’t really change the way we talked about abortion. We continued to speak of it in hushed tones among our closest friends. I think that’s why the Republicans seemed so gobsmacked when voters turned out to say—no way! And now we see that we should talk about abortion for what it is: a common medical procedure and a common decision that people make for a wide variety of reasons. And not the business of politicians.
AS:
DR:
AS:
FBK:
DR:
AS:
FBK:
Yes, Republicans don’t fully get that the backlash from the Dobbs decision is only going to get stronger. EMILY’s List is such a powerful force for changing the face of our government to reflect all of America—and they’re the political organization to make Republicans pay for what they did. They give me hope for the future of abortion rights!
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