How can we protect our clinics? Madeline Burrows makes the case for clinic defense
Good article -- recommended!
The Socialist Worker
How can we protect our clinics?
Madeline Burrows, an activist and author of the play MOM BABY GOD, makes the case for clinic defense as part of a strategy for winning back lost ground on our rights.
July 29, 2014
(excerpt)
...When I encountered that group of anti-choice men protesting outside Planned Parenthood and lobbing humiliating and degrading comments at myself and my teenage friend, it would have made a world of difference to see reproductive rights activists standing in opposition to their bigotry and lies.
We yelled back at them as we entered the clinic, but we were alone. We entered that clinic shaken up emotionally. Despite knowing that these men were wrong, despite the deep anger I felt that they had the gall to tell me and my friend what to do with our bodies, despite being an unapologetic feminist, they got to me. I felt dirty and exposed.
This is the kind of isolation and shame that so many women experience when they attempt to assert their right to reproductive health care and bodily autonomy, and it is an isolation that exists for political, not medical, reasons...
...Left unchallenged, this stigma has contributed to a political culture where it has become acceptable and even "moderate" to support a ban on abortion after 20 weeks, parental consent laws and state funding for the right wing's fake crisis pregnancy centers....
MORE at http://socialistworker.org/2014/07/29/how-can-we-protect-our-clinics