Publisher’s Message: Fight Like Hell. It’s For Life.

By Sue Gillis

Nothing enrages me more than to continually fight for what is a woman’s absolute right. The right to control her own reproductive choices.

To get right down to it, in the most personal sense, this is my body. Mine. No one owns my body. No one will ever tell me what I can or cannot do with my own body. Not ever.

It was not always this way. Think about this in case you do not know or have forgotten. Birth control pills were not available until 1963. I remember very well. I was 19 years old. Getting them was another matter. It meant going to a doctor, who of course was male, and almost shamefully requesting a prescription. “But you are not married,” said the doc. No. “Well, I’m afraid I can’t give them to you.”

Hard to believe, you say? Then get this. Abortion was not legal until Roe v. Wade passed in 1973. Before Roe v. Wade, what did a woman with an unwanted pregnancy do? What did low-income married women do? Whatever did women in poor health do? Whatever did women financially unable to support any more children do? I’ll tell you what they did. They found a doctor or someone else to get them the pills. They got abortions in back alleys. They were maimed. Thousands died. Most were scarred forever by whatever humiliating, degrading method was used to stop unwanted pregnancy.

If you were one of those women, you know exactly what I am talking about.

Desperate women risked their lives to end their pregnancy. And they still have to. Look what is happening to women in the developing world. The Bush administration has withheld 32 million dollars from health clinics that include abortion as an option in reproductive counseling, resulting in an alarming decline in the health and quality of women’s lives.

On Sunday, April 25, the March for Women’s Lives took place in Washington, D.C. Over one million women and men marched for reproductive rights, reproductive health, and women’s right to choose. Although I was unable to attend this time, I watched the march on C-SPAN. So many people marching once again aroused my anger to a fevered pitch against those who oppose choice. Not in 12 years have women had to march for these hard-fought for rights.

Why is it that every conservative Republican administration has to tear apart good Americans? Polarize us. Make us sick with distrust, anger, and pessimism. Naïve question? Rhetorical? Why not raise the bar? Why not lift us up by advocating respect for our differences?

If you are a woman reading this piece and you do not agree, guess what? You can bring your unwanted pregnancy to term. That is your choice. That is what reproductive choice means. You get to choose, and so do I.

I am older now, past childbearing years. I will fight like hell for reproductive choice all the rest of my life. And I sure hope every young woman reading this will fight like hell, too.

Let me be perfectly clear. If George Bush wins a second term, Roe v. Wade will be overturned. We are only one Supreme Court vote away from this happening.

Do something for this upcoming election. Send money to Planned Parenthood or NOW. Organize. March. Take one person you know who is on the fence to the polls in November. E-mail your friends and family. Get involved. The torch is yours to carry on. It really is up to you.

The good news is that over one-third of those attending the march on Sunday were under 25. I have hope. I believe in our country. Democracy did not come easily to our forefathers and foremothers. They fought like hell for the rights we enjoy today. And every one of us must fight like hell to keep them.