There's nothing worse than being jarred out of a pleasant slumber by an annoying, buzzing, urgent sound; but mature people put up with this daily annoyance because there's stuff that needs doing.
Well, here's your alarm, kids: in addition to abortion bans in South Dakota and Mississippi and a "notify the father" bill in Tennessee, we now have an assault on contraception itself. Oklahoma is considering a law that would allow pharmacists to withhold contraception on the belief that it could be used to induce an abortion. Overall, there are 11 states that are looking to pass abortion bans; that doesn't include Massachusetts, where Mitt Romney has proclaimed that he will sign any abortion ban that passes his desk.
This is it, folks. The war has been on for decades, and this is the final battle. We lose here, we lose it all.
If you've ever needed an abortion, or ever thought you might need an abortion, or had a friend who needed an abortion, or had a friend who thought she might need an abortion; then you need to stop and think about what would have happened if instead of a clean facility, they had an unsanitary back-alley clinic, or had to use some kind of toxic connoction to induce a miscarriage, or maybe even just didn't have the choice.
If this thought makes you feel even the least bit icky, well, guess what? Unless you get off your rear and do something about it right now, that horror scenario is going to be the future for generations to come.
One friend of mine suggests giving $10 a month to NARAL, deducted automatically from your bank account. If you find NARAL distasteful because of their naivite, consider that their effectiveness in lobbying and organizing young activists is unmatched in the reproductive rights camp.
I would suggest supplementing support for NARAL with a $10 a month donation to Planned Parenthood. (Or, if you absolutely insist, substituting support for NARAL with a $20/month donation to Planned Parenthood). These are the folks who are doing the work on the ground and in the legal trenches to keep abortion safe and legal nationwide. In fact, they're the runs who will run abortion clinics where nobody else will -- in particular, they run the only clinic in South Dakota.
Frankly, unless you're dead broke, donating money is the bare minimum you should be doing to support reproductive freedom. For those that have the time, it is even more important, and even more effective, to supplement this with your time and labor. This can be done by:
- Campaigning for pro-choice candidates;
- Joining your local Democratic or Republican committee and shoving the apparatus towards a hard pro-choice stance;
- Volunteering for your local NARAL or Planned Parenthood.
- Talking with your friends, co-workers, family, etc. and getting them invovled, too.
(For those who might consider a form of "magickal activism" more appropriate, let me suggest that laborare est orare. There is no method for the realization of one's Will that is more effective than actual work.)