Why Counter-demonstrate for Women's Health? Former resident sheds light on current fight for rights

author : Marit Knutson topic : Reproductive Rights | Radical Women

by Marit Knutson

As a Radical Women member, which is part of the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights (BACORR), I have been asked by many constituents – liberal and radical alike – why counter-demonstrate? First, why hit the streets on a “wedge issue” that further severs the beleaguered anti-war movement? And second, why restrict their freedom of speech? The religious and conservative out-of-towners will march and then leave, and their message will apparently have no impact since we are all progressives here.

Is this really the case though?

Since January 2005, the “Walk for Life – West Coast,” funded by the Archdioceses of San Francisco and Oakland, has bused in 15,000 people annually on the weekend commemorating the historic anniversary of Roe v Wade. They enter en masse and march along the Embarcadero, with children, rosaries, and large crosses, proclaiming “Abortion hurts women” and “Women deserve better than abortion.” The staunch religious platform was a shock to me last year when I first participated in the counter-demonstration. The opposition is composed of everyday folks, but their call to action represents an extremely dangerous contemporary current.

The reproductive justice movement is more than just about abortion. We have a common opponent, in which building solidarity is paramount. The notion of a fracturing effect negates this opportunity. In forming a united front, we must face this current of the right wing and oppose their agenda as they continue mobilizing thousands of young people, telling them that women’s lives aren’t at stake and that women are actually murderers when they seek abortion. This continues to be an issue of public health, affecting the self-determination of the queer community, women of color, low income women, and all those with resources least available to them. Historically these women have been least able to get the help they need most, and the ones who fall victim to vicious attacks and scape-goating. Faced with the right wing’s adoration of the police state and the often vocal support of the Iraq war and other imperialist atrocities, the reproductive justice movement is angrier than ever. And as the movement becomes more multi-issue and inclusive, we become stronger and more representative of the interests of all oppressed segments of the population. We have so much to gain from being united, and too much to lose if we refuse to counter-demonstrate as a coalition.

This year the right wing will arrive again, on Jan. 19, and so will we, countering their presence in San Francisco, which they dubbed “one of America’s darkest cities.” The reproductive justice movement headed by BACORR will be commemorating the 35th anniversary of Roe, celebrating a woman’s right to choose. The event will be celebratory, but the nature of the climate today must be taken into account: the right to a safe, legal abortion hangs by a thread, especially after recent regressive Supreme Court rulings that were tipped in favor of the anti-choice movement by Bush’s appointees.

I agree with the rightwing on one point, however. Women do deserve better than abortion. We deserve free, comprehensive medical coverage. We deserve safe, legal access to abortion and all other reproductive medical procedures when needed. We deserve to not be forced in any regard – we reserve the freedom from having unwanted children, from being sterilized without our notification based on racist eugenics laws from the 1920s, from being told there is no other option but to keep the child, especially if we are poor women of color. We deserve not to have reproductive healthcare funds federally cut, as occurred under the Hyde Amendment. And no more parental consent laws! Making abortion hard to access or illegal only creates countless dangerous scenarios where women must perform the procedure themselves, complicating their own lives and often leading to permanent injury or death. So yes, women do deserve better than abortion. Women deserve more rights, not less.

Let’s continue to move forward, not backward – REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE FOR ALL!

[Editor’s Note: A counter-demonstration to the Washington State “March for Life” is planned for noon on Tuesday, January 22 at the Capitol Campus. See Announcements for more information.]

Marit Knutson is an Evergreen State College graduate whose focus was political economy. She lives in San Francisco and is a member for Bay Area Radical Women and a faction member in the Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights.