EDITOR'S NOTE: Trust Women Week overlaps with the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and reasserts our firm commitment to reclaiming the future of reproductive decision-making in 2012. Throughout the week, Amplify will be honoring women's experiences and voices by featuring a different story from The 1 in 3 Campaign January 21-27.

As we close out our week of storytelling, Harriett talks about abortion access before Roe v. Wade and the terrible impact of income inequality on women's ability to access safe abortion care. In October, Harriet was featured in The San Francisco Chronicle sharing her own abortion story and her hope that more women who have had abortions will come forward. She is also the founder of California Republicans for Choice.

1in3Campaign.org: Harriett - Part 2 of 2 from Advocates for Youth on Vimeo.

HARRIETT: Before abortion was legal here in California – and we were one of the first states – we wealthy women would go to a pro-choice doctor, a pro-choice obstetrician and explain the problem, why she couldn’t have the child.

Then he’d say, “Well, can you afford to go to Japan, fly to Japan?”

And she said, “Yes, we could swing that.”

And he said say, Then you call Japan Airlines and you ask for Miss Suzuki. You don’t have to use the ‘A Word’ you just say Miss Suzuki. All she handles are the abortion package deals, and that involves air and ground transportation, meals, lodging, and surgery. And thousands of women are doing this.”

And yet a young woman, or an older woman without money, they would have to go – if they really wanted one – they’d have to try to find somebody in the Bay Area who could do it…Go to Mexico…It’s very chancy and terribly unfair.

The biggest difference I see is that it’s even for everybody, because in California low-income women can get abortions. We got Pete Wilson to change his stand on that. That’s when I was running California Republicans for Choice and we had…Low-income women can get abortions.

And there’s some thing else that…You know, we who have money, we don’t understand really what it’s like to live when you’re really poor. And so many people just can’t understand that, and I think that’s a terrible thing. They’re pushing something…

All of them who are making these laws have plenty of money to get their wives, sisters, children to where they can have a safe abortion if they wanted. But they’re not going to suffer. Low-income women are going to suffer. And that’s just terribly, terribly unfair.

This blog was originally posted for ACRJ.

“I want you to cuddle me while I fall asleep. That’s what mommies and daddies are for.”

I kept my daughter, Maddie, home from preschool yesterday to see if we could kick her persistent cold. All morning I had juggled streaming Netflix with phone meetings. Now I was trying to convince her to take a nap while I began drafting a blog piece on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, writing in my head until I could get her settled and return to my computer.

I was distractedly making coaxing sounds and bargains with her—yes, you can nap in the living room….no, you can’t drink milk on the couch--but I wasn’t really paying attention. I was mostly thinking about what I wanted to say about Roe, abortion, and reproductive justice when she cut through my mental chatter with, “cuddling—that’s what mommies and daddies are for.”

I have had two abortions—one when I was 21 and another when I was 30. Each was both clear and complex in its own way, and each brought its own complicated feelings and waves of relief.

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By: Lauren Kalina, Advocates for Youth Intern

On January 10th, the UN released their Zero Draft for the Rio+20 Conference. The Rio+20 Conference is the sobriquet for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD). It is being hosted in Brazil this summer to mark the 20th anniversary of 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED.) The conference will focus on the facilitation of sustainable development in the context of today’s society.

While the Zero Draft is an important beginning to outlining needs and priorities for the upcoming conference, there is an important aspect of sustainable development that the draft seems to have forgotten: the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people.

Young people play a crucial role in advocating and organizing around the intersection of environmental sustainability and reproductive rights. An example of this is The Time is Now Campaign, which addresses several of these intersection points, such as: population maintenance, contraception and family planning services, HIV/AIDS prevention, natural resources management, sex education, and more.

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Trust Women Week overlaps with the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and reasserts our firm commitment to reclaiming the future of reproductive decision-making in 2012. Throughout the week, Amplify will be honoring women's experiences and voices by featuring a different story from The 1 in 3 Campaign January 21-27.

1in3Campaign - Bianca from biancalaureano on Vimeo.

by Bianca Laureano

This week marks a fantastic anniversary as I’m entering the 100th post for the Media Justice column. I plan to do a few series highlighting some of my favorite pieces, ones that I’m most proud of, that still invoke something magnificent and specific for me, and that I just really dig. I’d like to start with a mash-up of posts that I’ve written that centers and discusses abortion. As this is the 39th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Trust Women Week,  and a week where we will be featuring testimonios from people about their experiences with abortion for the 1 in 3 Campaign, I think this mash-up fits well.

What Did The Doula Do?
The first time I shared my experiences being an abortion doula was in the article What Did The Doula Do?  I was inspired by the conversation that actor Taye Diggs had on the Jimmy Kimmel show where he discussed the birth of his most recent child and how he and his wife worked with a doula. Unfortunately, the video of their interview is no longer available online, but their conversation started a public discussion about doulas and the type of work we do. Many folks only know doulas to work with people who are pregnant and carrying a pregnancy to term. What I and many other abortion doulas do is be present for the person who is terminating their pregnancy. We offer support, pain management, comfort, and compassion to people who are making a very difficult decision. There are some folks who think this type of care is not care, and they are entitled to their opinions and I hope that if they ever find themselves feeling isolated, judged, shamed, that they too have someone who can be compassionate, kind, a witness and sit with them as they heal.

La Femme Fetal
One of the first columns I wrote about abortion and how it intersected with media justice was called La Femme Fetal. It was almost 2 years ago today that this column was published and it discussed one of the only songs in the Hip-Hop genre that discussed abortion from a pro-choice lens. The song “La Femme Fetal” by Digable Planets is one of the only songs, still today, that speaks to the compassion people making one of the hardest decisions in their life need. In this post I reflected on my contribution to the question “what does choice mean to me,” and my activism within the field of reproductive justice and the legacy of Rosie Jimenez. The song “La Femme Fetal” is now 19 years old and we still remain without a similar contribution to this genre. Do you know of others that exist today? If so, please share them!

Reflecting on No Easy Decision
When MTV (finally) did a show (not series) on young women who had abortions they called the show “No Easy Decision.” This show was the first of its kind on the network and gave a different perspective to their hit shows 16 and Pregnant, Teen Mom, and Teen Mom 2. There was a lot of talk about the series, many efforts to support the testimonios of those young people who shared their experiences. I also had some doubts about the show as Dr. Drew was going to be the facilitator. I shared those concerns in this post where I reflected on the show.  I had to admit that I was impressed with the show, the quality and lack of judgmental rhetoric and language that was present as the young people spoke. It’s a show that I’d like to see become a series where the voices of other youth can be shared and we may begin to have a better understanding of the complexity that comes with being a young person, reproductive health, access to quality care, and access to services.

Abortion and the Sons of Anarchy
If you have not seen the Sons of Anarchy I still don’t know what to tell you about yourself. In this post I discuss one of my favorite television shows Sons of Anarchy, what stereotypes I had about the show prior to watching and why I’m now in support of the series. This show is really part of a ground-breaking series where multiple perspectives we often rarely hear are shared. One of the first (and only?) times a character chooses to terminate a pregnancy, seeks support, receives support, and follows through with the procedure occurred during the third season of Sons of Anarchy. This post discusses that representation and how it was created on screen to be extremely effective and realistic. I can’t recall another television show that has had a similar storyline. Often the character changes their mind, or miscarries, or something happens where the termination does not occur. This was not the case for this episode and I am very grateful for this narrative being shared.

Online Course: Sociology of Human Sexuality Part 3
You may have read along when I was posting on the course I was teaching last summer (a total of 5 parts). This section was the discussion on pregnancy options and abortion.  We had a birth and postpartum doula join us in class to discuss what type of work they do with pregnant people. We then had a section on abortion where the history of how abortion became legal in the US was provided, along with an understanding of the laws in the US that may be state specific, and a discussion of what research has shown about the health and well-being of people who terminate a pregnancy. I remember this class and this summer very fondly. The students are amazing intellecutals and just brilliant people overall. I was very humbled and honored that students self-selected to share with the group their own personal experiences of pregnancy, childbirth, and abortion. It is times like this when I’m so thankful and happy to be a part of a community of people who find comfort in the class and learning space we create together.

I’m also extremely honored and thankful for remaining with you over these past years and interacting with readers at Amplify. It’s been more than I could have imagined and so enjoyable! Thank you all for reading, tweeting, sharing, and leaving comments. Thank you for seeing me.

It's seems like the Volunteer State has been on a phobia kick lately. Between the "Don't Say Gay" bill, a potential Romer v. Evans violation, and trying to allow students to bully LGBTIQ students if they do it in the name of Jesus, the Tennessee legislature sure has time to go to the bottom of the cracker barrel; even in light of the fact that Tennessee is suffering from a major deficit and 9% unemployment, they sure have found something to focus their attention on:

A bill that would limit who could enter public restrooms has been filed in the Tennessee General Assembly. The proposed legislation would restrict access to public restrooms and public dressing rooms designated by sex, to members of that particular sex.

State Representative Richard Floyd drafted the legislation after an employee at a Texas Macy's store was fired in December for stopping a transgender teenager from trying on clothing in a women's dressing room.

"I cannot imagine firing anybody for something like that. I just cannot, I cannot grasp that, I can't get my mind around it," Representative Floyd explained.

“Sex” means and refers only to the designation of an
individual person as male or female as indicated on the individual’s birth
certificate;

A violation of subsection (b) is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by
a to a fine of fifty dollars ($50.00).

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Even though Rick Santorum's recent comments about abstinence lessons in education have been roundly denounced as false, even by the head of one of the programs he was referring to, he's still sticking to that whole "Obama hates abstinence" line.  

As ThinkProgress and Jezebel report, last night Santorum upped the ante, observing that Obama hates abstinence because he hates poor people.  

I've addressed before how profoundly untrue it is the claim that comprehensive sex education doesn't teach abstinence. (The new National Sexuality Education Standards name it as an necessary component of the lesson at 17 different points of a child's education!).

I don't particularly understand the comment that not having abstinence-only programs leads people into poverty, not just because I don't think sex automatically leads to poverty, but because abstinence-only programs don't work, not even at helping teens remain abstinent. As to the President hating poor people, well, I'm not in his head, but it seems unlikely.

I'm still not sure where Santorum is trying to go with all these claims, but rest assured that it comes down to a deep fear of sexuality.  Some people on the far right would simply rather have teens receive programs that don't help them at all, than have them receive programs that do work and also empower them to control their own sexuality.    

EDITOR'S NOTE: Trust Women Week overlaps with the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and reasserts our firm commitment to reclaiming the future of reproductive decision-making in 2012. Throughout the week, Amplify will be honoring women's experiences and voices by featuring a different story from The 1 in 3 Campaign January 21-27.

1in3Campaign.org: Alex from Advocates for Youth on Vimeo.

ALEX: I had my daughter and then nine months went past and I got pregnant again. And that was a big shock. And I wasn’t contemplating keeping the baby but this would have been my first abortion and I was very scared. And me and my daughter’s father didn’t have any money. Abortions cost money. A lot of money. $350 is not cheap when you’re 19 with no job and a new baby and the baby’s father is halfway trying to support us.

I ended up calling a friend of my mom’s who had gone through… Who was an older woman, but she related to young people and she knew, you know, certain people who knew certain people who knew certain people who could help me with terminating the pregnancy. So she referred us to a clinic.

And before that, we had to go borrow money from two different family members to get the abortion done. We didn’t even have any money… We didn’t even have any money to get the abortion done, and that’s just… Like, how could we not have any money to do that, but we would have money to raise another one? You know what I mean? Like there woulda just been no way. So that day, we rushed around, we got our money, and we went to the clinic.

I think that women should definitely share these stories - especially if they’re older women and they’ve been through this before. I think knowledge is power. And if no one talks about it, then how are we supposed to know what to do or what to expect?

A study has come out this week that contradicts one of the anti-abortion movement's attempts to mislead the public:  the common claim that abortion is bad for a woman's health.

Not so, says a study out this week in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. 

From Reuters:

Researchers [in the United States] found that women were about 14 times more likely to die during or after giving birth to a live baby than to die from complications of an abortion.

Kendall said mental health problems seemed to be linked specifically to unwanted pregnancies rather than abortion.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Trust Women Week overlaps with the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and reasserts our firm commitment to reclaiming the future of reproductive decision-making in 2012. Throughout the week, Amplify will be honoring women's experiences and voices by featuring a different story from The 1 in 3 Campaign January 21-27.

1in3Campaign.org: Joy from Advocates for Youth on Vimeo.

JOY: Let’s see… I was 23 and I had just finished undergrad and I moved to San Diego on my way… I was going to be teaching English in Korea, so I was there working for the summer. I was in a relationship, taking birth control pills – Not consistently or correctly. I didn’t have a lot of education on how I was supposed to be taking them… – and I was in a sexual relationship. And I ended up getting pregnant.

For me, it was never really a question of what my decision was going to be. I just needed, you know, the resources to be able to do that. I found out relatively quickly that I was pregnant and decided to get an abortion. I was in the state of California and there were really no restrictions. I was 23, also, at the time. The only thing that was a little bit prohibitive was the cost, but that just really wasn’t an issue cause I was… Like I said, I had a partner who was able to support that and I also had a job as well.

I think the interesting thing about me having an abortion is that you kind of keep that under wraps, and I did that for a long time. But, the more I talked to people about it the more I found out there were so many people that I knew who had had abortions. It was a decision that I had to make and I was so grateful that I was able to have that decision. And I think that, you know, we all make mistakes and there’s, you know, some folks who very much think that “You make a mistake. You pay for it. That’s sort of the way that it is.” And I would just argue that having the ability to, like, make a mistake or to not do something the way that, you know, you had planned on doing – and then being able to turn that around is very liberating and has tremendous impact on my life.

I mean, I would not be here if at the age of 23 I did not have the option to have an abortion. I would be a completely different person. And you know, my sister was a teen mom. She had five children before she was the age of 22 and her life is so different than mine.

It’s just… I just couldn’t imagine being in a situation where I wasn’t able to choose how I wanted to plan out my life.