Years ago researching my book on how it came to be that women became free to choose their destiny, I wanted to define what happened in my lifetime that changed my history and made it distinct from my mothers, grandmothers and even the women who came five years before me to find their place in the world. We, my peers and I, were the first group who got the benefit of reproductive rights. 1964, birth control pills and the Civil Rights Act put me and other women at the head of the line as Affirmative Action gave access to jobs, and then mortgages and credit and all the other levels of equality that were a result of the social change initiated by the Anti-war movement. On the streets and in the protests, the dissension and chaos was directed to end the deaths of drafted Viet Nam war soldiers. We were faced with the hypocrisy of who we said we were as a county and what we couldn’t not see. We saw the war on the black and white 6 o’clock news every night, and as well on the 6 o’clock news, we saw the hosing of and beating of black children in Mississippi, and Alabama, and Tennessee. It was not a pretty picture and shook our foundation to the core, broke our country down and divided it. That was a source of how it came to be that women began to determine their lives, their politics and their participation from that stew of social and political revolution.
We are there again. When the congress meets on March 23rd to repeal Affordable Health Care, with it the funding of Planned Parenthood is in question. Even as Planned Parenthood functions 97% for diagnostic and treatment of girls and women who need the care, and 3% abortion, since its inception it has been considered to be a threat. Since Roe v Wade in 1973, there has been the undercurrent and actual restrictions in some states, to limit access for women to have legal reproductive rights.
Now is the hour when the person holding the office of the Presidency and a GOP congress majority, silent in their descent stand by as poor judgements and mockery of democracy, play out a vote to repeal the Affordable Health Care with no promise for better healthcare in view. Our very foundation is being shaken to the core by the outrageous and yet persistent attempt by the GOP to take us back to a time when power was distributed in a hierarchy that limited mobility and voice, standing and power.
Hell no, we say. Berkeley Women Stand with Planned Parenthood and 350 other such meetings to be held in 150 locations on March 23rd in support of Planned Parenthood. We will not go back and we’re not going away. We are here to stay and will not stop in the face of the ludicrous politics that have brought us to this moment. Hell, no. No to the Supreme Court justice candidate who has a fuzzy record on women’s rights and fuzzy responses in the hearing. Thank you Al Franken. No to ACA going away with nothing for those it currently serves. No, not now, maybe not ever.