40 Years ago today with Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court declared abortion legal. Now, in a just released NBC/WSJ Poll, fully 70% of Americans don't want Roe v. Wade to be overturned. And over 50% believe abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances. But, as we all know, Roe v. Wade didn't end the controversy. It just started it. I was 23 at the time, and by the time I was 25 had started working in a small Atlanta abortion clinic. The next year, 1977, I also attended Jimmy Carter's inauguration in DC. And the years since have been fraught with intimidation, harassment, assassinations, bombings, restrictive legislation, terrorism and thuggery.
40 Years. That's 2 generations. That's over 50 million women and families that have benefited from legal abortion in this country. Most women alive can't even remember the bad old days of illegal abortion. They take for granted that abortion and birth control will be there for them if needed. Even though access to abortion in the US is woven into the American fabric, it is held together by a fragile string. Obama's reelection seems to cement it for another 4 years and 2 more Supreme Court appointments; but State legislatures are wreaking havoc on the availability of abortion in many communities.
As I read of yet another in a long list of right-wing anti-abortion legislators who have paid for an abortion, or are caught with a prostitute, or a young boy, or toe-tapping in a men's room, I am repeatedly consumed by the fact that abortion remains in enigma, and many people against it are hypocrites. People are against it until they need it. People get abortions, then forget. Men pay for abortions for their wives and girlfriends, then vote against it for everyone else. Business as usual.
2012 saw the most number of State based abortion restrictions ever. From intrusive ultrasound bills to "Personhood" amendments to TRAP laws designed to force clinics to build to hospital standards, State legislatures have come at us from all sides. If only they'd have spent as much time on gun control and jobs, more misery would have been prevented and more lives would have been saved.
As I mosey through the images in my brain, I am repeatedly struck by the hypocrisy of it all. Mississippi may soon be the first state to legislate an abortion clinic out of business. This is the state with a disgusting record on infant mortality, poverty rates, maternal mortality, job creation and feeding it's citizens.
And Newtown was a bizarre reminder that the same out of control gun fanatics working against sensible gun control laws are giving cover to the terrorists who have threatened (and killed) abortion providers. My colleagues and I have been literally on the front lines of an epic cultural war where we were just easy and unsympathetic target practice.
So, the only way I know to stem the tide of further encroachment is to encourage any woman (or man) out there who knows of an influential person (legislator, pastor, educator, corporate boss, etc.) who is ranting and raving against abortion, but has knowingly had an abortion, paid for an abortion, gotten a woman pregnant who has had an abortion, etc. to remind that person of his culpability. Remind them privately for sure, and publicly if you can.
President Obama uttered the word "gay" yesterday for the first time in an inaugural address. Gay Americans have been successful in coming out of the closet. Now, "abortion" needs to come out of the closet and take it's place among the rescued labels of an antiquated past. The hypocrisy has to stop. And the only way is exposure.