Ms Magazine to print names(voluntary) of women who have had abortions

[superconnected]

In the worst idea I've heard come out of the feminist arena,

today I got this email

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Date: Wed Jul 26 17:14:56 2006
From: Gloria Steinem <[e-mail]>
< Add to Address Book | Block Address | Report as Spam >
To: name withheld
Subject: I Had An Abortion




Dear Friends, We Had Abortions.

Step forward. Let your voice be heard.

Sign the Ms. Petition for Safe, Legal, and Accessible Abortion and Birth Control.
Make a contribution so Ms. can promote the petition and provice funds to fight abortion bans and support targeted abortion providers.


We have had abortions.

That was the headline of a petition in the 1972 debut issue of Ms. magazine in which 53 well-known U.S. women, including myself, declared that they had undergone abortions -- despite state laws rendering the procedure illegal.

It's time for a new petition for honesty and freedom.

Even then, to many it seemed absurd that the government could deny a woman sovereignty over her own body. It is even more absurd in 2006 that an abortion ban has passed into law in South Dakota, though it has been stayed because an initiative to remove the ban has been placed on the state's November ballot.

At the time of the original Ms. petition, illegal abortions were causing untold suffering and countless deaths of young women in the United States. Today, in the developing nations each year, approximately 70,000 women and girls die from botched and unsafe abortions and another 500,000 maternal deaths occur -- most of this suffering and loss could be prevented. U.S. international family planning policies contribute to this death toll.

Today Ms. has started a new petition and I invite you to join me in a campaign for honesty and freedom. You can read the full petition here.

We recognize that, still, not every woman will be able to sign today - 33 years after Roe - even though abortion is a very common, necessary and important procedure for millions of women in the U.S. But if a multitude of women step forward publicly - and more and more continue to join them - we would transform the public debate.

Just as in 1972, Ms. will send the signed petitions to the White House, members of Congress and state legislators. We will also post the petition online.

And we ask you to make a contribution so Ms. can promote the petition and provide needed funds to fight abortion bans and support targeted abortion providers, such as the sole remaining women's clinic in Mississippi.

It is time to speak out again - in even larger numbers - and to make politicians face their neighbors, influential movers and shakers, and yes, their own family members. We cannot, we must not - for U.S. women and the women of the world - lose the right to safe and accessible abortion or access to birth control.

Your name and your voice will make a difference.

In Sisterhood,



Gloria Steinem


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I clicked on the link and it wants you to check a box if you've had an abortion (I haven't) and then you can check a box to be listed in their magazines issue of names of women who have had abortions.

EEEWWWWWW. Sorry but wouldn't your psycho religious boss like my last boss go after you for doing damning crap like that.

Won't the right wing take that list to heart and go after you if bush ever realizes his end of the constitution project and we go by way of the christian taliban?

It's just insane to me that that magazine came up with this bad of an idea.

First I thought it was the right wing posing as them but then I went to msmagazine.com to inform them and it was on their front page.

[WindRavenX]

1. IMO, it's a powerful campaign

Too many people think only sluts, whores, etc get abortions. Giving real names to the procedure humanizes it and will make you rethink judgements. Those who are already at that level of hate aren't the ones the magazine is attempting to reach.

Kudos to the magazine, imo.

[SmokingJacket]

2. A step toward taking the shame out of it, I guess.

Still... if I'd had an abortion, I don't think I'd want my name on a public list because of it.

[bicentennial_baby]

3. Worst idea? Why?

I've had one, no shame here...and I don't care who knows about it. Good for Ms. :thumbsup:

[superconnected]

8. The same reason many gays don't want people to know they are gay

right now - If the country ever goes bad they fear they will have retribution.

Do you really want everyone knowing you had an abortion- the extremely insane right?

There are men who really do believe they should kill you for that - and women believe you deserve it, right here in America. I've met them. My last boss was homicidally chrisitan.

[WindRavenX]

9. ...hence it's a VOLUNTARY list

:eyes:

no one who doesn't want to have their name will have to. That's the power of the list. It's women, on their own initiative, coming forward and saying "I have had an abortion". No one is making them do it.

[bicentennial_baby]

15. I don't give a fuck...

Anyone wants to come test me, have at it...I'll kill a motherfucker who steps to me, for that reason. Like I said, no shame in my game...EVER.

Got it?

[karlrschneider]

4. Your title bothered me until I read the whole post

Given that it's voluntary, I see no problem with it. (I thought they were going to somehow snag a list of names and 'out' them, as it were, at first.)
k

[superconnected]

14. You right, it reads like that.

I can change it. I don't want to mislead.

[karlrschneider]

16. I don't think it's a big deal, a read of the remainder makes it clear

(my comment wasn't meant to be a criticism) :D

[Demeter]

5. It Is An Extreme Act

What we really need is impeachment and conviction of all the crooks and liars. This doesn't involve putting our lives on the line, but theirs.

[WinkyDink]

6. The problem is that the Fundies, RW'ers, and Coulters of the nation

won't admit to theirs.

[yourout]

7. It would bring the wrath of every psyco fundie on the planet.

It would take some serious courage to do this for I would fear what these nut jobs would do if they had names.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. I'm sorry, but if women who have made the decision to abort won't

speak out, then who will? I've had an abortion and stood up and told a large audience why I firmly believe that what I chose was the best solution possible, for me, my son, and the embryo! I've had my story on a pro-choice web site for years.

I would take any 'boss' to court that tried to impose any of his religious 'hokey' on me for any reason.

What the h*ll has happened to Americans, that they are so afraid? Speak up, stand up, and fight!!

[bicentennial_baby]

17. Thank You!

:applause: I'm with ya

:)

[SoCalDem]

11. Blowback guaranteed.

Here's why..

a woman who's pregnant and does not want to be, does not care one whit about what celeb or another has had one.

a young woman who is not pregnant will not BECOME pregnant just to emulate her "idol"..

The problem is THIS..


abortion needs to go back to where it BELONGS..


It's a medical procedure that should be between the doctor and the woman (and her husband/boyfriend IF she chooses)

If the woman is religious and IF her religion is against it, then that's something SHE needs to work through

If doctors are religious and IF their religion is against it, then THEY need to decide to exclude that particulat procedure from their repertoire..

abortion is a surgical/medical procedure and belongs OUT of the legislative process..

Crustly old curmudgeonly politicans need to quit the pantysniffing and get back to balancing our budget and keeping us out of unnecessary wars

[Solo_in_MD]

12. Careful with that approach

because it is also an elective procedure. The Cal Supreme Court has ruled that the state must pay for abortions for any woman who can not afford it. Your approach undermines that since abortion for purposes of birth control is an elective procedure. Are you sure you want to put abortion in the same category as mamoplasty?

[sinkingfeeling]

18. The celebrity thing was done in 1972, prior to Roe vs. Wade. This is to

call attention to the millions of American women who have had legal abortions. Women MUST proclaim that having an abortion is NOT shameful. It is a medical procedure and our brilliant, white, male Senators and Congressmen, at both state and federal levels, should keep their noses out of it!

It is estimated that one in 8 American women have had an abortion. In the UK, the number rises to 1 out of every 3. I wish that the millions of women who have had abortions would sign their names and give the anti-abortionists a sense of the resistance to their crap.

[Totally Committed]

13. Wait 'til they see the hate mail they get...

and the negative attention, too (I hope nothing worse than that, though...) They will be sorry they stepped forward. I am an ardent feminist, and usually agree with Steinem, but this is a mistake. The RW Christo-Fascists are Whackadoo nutjobs, and I wouldn't trust them with that information for the world.

TC

[Midlodemocrat]

19. The only people who will put their names out there are the

pro-choice ones. During the last campaign, I was stunned to hear from two of my uber RW friends that they had both had abortions. And, they voted for Bush.

There's no way they would sign on to this campaign. Hypocrisy at its best.