Last Thursday afternoon at the Netroots Nations conference in Las Vegas, Will Neville and Sarah Audelo of Advocates for Youth, Kate Michelman, former President of NARAL, and Digby of Hullabloo spoke on a panel titled “The View from Under the Bus: The Search for “Common Ground” on Abortion.” Of the several panels that I attended over the weekend, this was the best one by far.

It scared me, it enraged me, it inspired me. It made me want to cry and scream at the same time. Why? Because it was an honest discussion of the perilous state of abortion rights in this country. As some of you may know, last week the Obama administration decided to eliminate abortion coverage for low-income, high-risk women within the temporary health-insurance pools which were set up in transition to the new health care system. As NARAL explains:

This policy means that women who are part of these pools because they have significant health problems, such as diabetes or cancer, will not be able to access abortion care, even if their health is at further risk.

The President did not have to do this. But the fact is, he did.

The fact is, we are careening toward the day when Roe v. Wade will be overturned and abortion will no longer be safe and legal. I am immensely serious about this. How can anyone deny this when they look at the hundreds of state anti-abortion laws that have been passed across this country? We’ve written about several of these on Amplify, and each time it’s terrifying- each time we’re outraged that such a law has been put into place. We’re almost surprised that it keeps happening, but we shouldn’t be. We can no longer sit back and watch as state after state passes law after law. We can no longer let these laws continue to accumulate, because if we do, then I guarantee that within the next decade, Roe v. Wade has a serious shot of being overturned. 
To take this lightly is to take women’s rights lightly. Abortion rights are under serious attack in this country and we have, in all honesty, been pathetic in our attempt to fight back. There are plenty of people who believe that a woman should not be able to decide for herself when and if she has children. It’s not okay that those people get to make the laws that govern my body. And if they believe that I don’t have the right to decide when and if to have children, then why should they believe I have the right to use contraceptives? If I’m not allowed to choose when I have children, why should I be allowed to take a pill that would be a tool of that choice? If you think that these people won’t go after a woman’s right to contraceptives, you are absolutely fooling yourself.

We are circling back around to an immensely dangerous time. Abortion has become so stigmatized. It’s become such a dirty word, that even though by the time they’re 45, one in three women has had an abortion, no one ever talks about it. We have been made to believe that we should be ashamed of our right to choose when and if to give birth. We have let this happen. It is our fault that things are so bad right now. The people who believe that abortion should be illegal are of course going to voice their opinions, but if we stay silent, we give them all of the power. If all that anyone hears is that abortion is murder and abortion is a sin and women who have abortions are evil, selfish, whores, then what else are people supposed to think?

We must be Silent No More. 

Amplify, in partnership with RH Reality Check, is planning an online speak-out. More details are soon to come, but we will be inviting people to finally share their stories about abortion. If you have had an abortion, if a friend of yours has had an abortion, if your mother has had an abortion, if you work or volunteer at a health clinic that provides abortion services, if you’ve never had an abortion or don’t know anyone who has but you’re pro-choice, if you’re a feminist, if you’re a women’s rights activist, if you know someone who has been harmed by an unsafe or illegal abortion, if you want to speak about abortion rights in other countries, if you believe abortion must be legal even though it wouldn’t be a choice that you would make for yourself, if the hundreds of anti-choice laws frustrate you, if you find it unacceptable that doctors are being killed for performing abortions, if you just want to scream “ABORTION!” at the top of your lungs because you don’t want to be silent anymore…we need to hear your stories.

It’s time to start climbing out from under the bus.

~ Samantha
Community Editor