Marcy Bloom's blog

Safe Abortion Hotline Lauched in Anti-Choice Ecuador

2008-07-17T08:00:00-04:00

It is inspiring to see innovative actions focus attention on the fight for reproductive justice and abortion rights in parts of the world that don't typically receive the attention they deserve.

At the invitation of the Ecuador's Coordinadora Juvenil por la Equidad de Género (Youth Committee for Gender Equity, or CPJ), the Dutch group Women on Waves arrived in Ecuador on June 14. CPJ, a youth-led organization of men and women between 13 and 30 years old, fosters the voices of young people and fights for legal abortion and other youth-relevant gender equity a issues. Women on Waves (WOW), a Dutch non-profit foundation that advances women's human rights, sails its ship "Harmony" in international waters off the coasts of countries where abortion is illegal, with the goals of preventing unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortions. WOW has recently completed successful campaigns in Portugal, Ireland, Poland, and Argentina. In its current campaign in Ecuador, the organization "wants to inform women of the possibility to do safe abortion themselves with medicines, Cytotec, that are available in Ecuador." The information provided is based on research done by the World Health Organization and their multi-lingual site has a section with instructions on how to do a safe abortion.

The WOW site provides a compelling daily account of their exciting campaign with CPJ, with all of the actions and the reactions to their reproductive freedom messages and human rights-based activities.

By far the most outstanding and "surprising" activity was the new safe abortion hotline launched on the hillside overlooking Quito at the statue of the Virgin of Panecillo. The WOW website describes the launch:

"A banner was unfurled from the Virgin of del Panecillo, a statue of the Virgin on a strategic hillside visible from most of Quito. The banner announced the launch of a hotline created by Ecuadorian activists to provide information on how women can safely induce an abortion, should they choose to do so. The hotline will be available to women throughout Ecuador. The enormous banner, reading "Aborto Seguro 099004545" (Safe Abortion and the phone number) and a side banner reading "Tu decisión" (Your Decision) were held by a group of activists from the balcony...

According to local activists, this was the first time a political group hung a banner from the Virgin.

What women's health and abortion rights backdrop in Ecuador led to this dynamic collaboration, culminating in the launch and promotion of this critically-needed hotline? The degree of violence against women in Ecuador is considerable; studies from the 1990s found eight out of every 10 women have suffered some type of physical, psychological, sexual, and or economic violence from their spouse or boyfriend. About 30% of the population -- mostly poor, rural, and indigenous -- have no access to even the most basic health care, and a lack of contraceptives among adolescents contributes to nearly one in 10 adolescents giving birth each year. Over a third of all women in Ecuador report that their pregnancies are either unwanted or wanted later. The infant mortality rate in rural areas is almost double that in urban areas. The fertility rate for women with little of nor education is almost three times that of women with the highest level of education.

In addition, The World Health Organization estimates that 95,000 illegal and dangerous abortions occur every year in the country (30 per 1,000 women in fertile age per year). Unsafe abortion leads to 20,000-30,000 hospitalizations and is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality. In fact, botched abortions are responsible for 18% of maternal deaths in Ecuador and it is disgraceful that there are only 200 registered legal abortions annually. Women can go to jail for 1 to 5 years for having an illegal abortion and abortion and those performing an abortion can go to jail for 2 to 5 years. Clearly, Ecuador regulates abortion strictly; the Constitution defines life as beginning at the moment of conception.

There currently existsonly two situations in which abortion is not a crime. The first is where the life or health of the woman is in danger and the women (or her husband or close family member if she is unable to) consents and the danger to her life cannot be avoided by any other method. The second situation is where the pregnancy results from rape or esturpo (defined in the Penal Code as the carnal union with an honest woman, employing seduction or deception to acquire her consent) and the woman is "insane or retarded." Thus, the law does not permit abortion when a woman of full mental faculties becomes pregnant as a results of rape.

As part of a new onslaught of fundamentalist actions in Latin America, political sectors in the country are seeking to overturn even this limited right to therapeutic abortion, which has existed in the country for several decades.

But there is some good news. In late 2007, the Ecuadorian Parliament debated a bill to reform sections of the Penal Code that include therapeutic abortion and/or eugenic abortion to safeguard the rights of women with high-risk pregnancies and to protect the rights of women with mental disabilities who are pregnant because of rape. Although that damaging proposal was eventually rejected in November 2007, there is a backlash (as always) and organized efforts to eradicate even the minimal abortion rights that women possess (at least in theory) have been redoubled this year as the Constituent Assembly currently reviews key aspects of the criminal code.

Anti-choice Ecuadorian obstetricians and gynecologists recently issued a declaration denouncing abortion as "not only an illegal act, but a criminal one" and stated that "under no circumstances should abortion be decriminalized." The physicians made their stand during the ongoing contentious debate over Ecuador's Constitution. According to Human Life International, language that could open the door to the decriminalization or legalization of abortion has been inserted into the current draft. As a result, a group of Ecuadorian evangelical protestant churches is mobilizing via petitions and rallies to prevent the legalization of abortion in the new Constitution. Stated a spokesperson: "Should the country we want legalize abortion and convert itself into...the...silent accomplice of the slaughter of thousands of unborn children?"

With a shocking rate of infant mortality, violence against women, rampant poverty, and unsafe abortion the third cause of maternal mortality, it remains a disgrace and a tragedy that any discussion of the so-called rights of the "unborn" as defined by oppressive and misogynistic religious dogma continue to trump the lives and rights of already-born women and children. It is women, after all, who are hurt, damaged, violated, and slaughtered by the violent ravages of illegal abortion. Where is the outcry of the churches for them? The powerful voices of CPJ and WOW are needed now more than ever to continue to bring the issues of women's safety, dignity, right-to-life, and reproductive justice front and center to the people of Ecuador -- and around the world.

Reproductive justice for Ecuadorian women is limited at this time -- and even that hangs by a thread. I wonder what the Virgin of Panecillo would say to women right now.

What Is a Woman Worth? The Feminization of AIDS

2008-06-02T08:00:00-04:00

What is a woman worth?

HIV infections among women and girls have risen in every part of the world in recent years. The numbers point to a fundamental and startling reality - the HIV/AIDS pandemic is inextricably linked to the brutal effects of sexism and gender inequality, most pronounced in Africa.

Consider these statistics: The latest reports from the UNAIDS (Dec. 2007) show 33.2 million people are living with HIV throughout the world. Sub-Saharan Africa has more than two-thirds (22.6 million) of the total number of HIV infections. Sixty-two per cent (14 million) of those infected are women and adolescent girls. Seventy-five per cent of all HIV-positive women in the world are African.Photo by Chuck Bigger

Why are we allowing women and girls to die from this preventable and treatable disease? What is a woman worth in our world today?

Gender Discrimination At the Core

"The toll on women and girls presents Africa and the world with a practical and moral challenge, which places gender at the center of the human condition. The practice of ignoring gender analysis has turned out to be lethal...what has happened to women is ...a gross and palpable violation of human rights," said Stephen Lewis, former UN Secretary-General's Envoy to Africa, at the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona, Spain in 2002.

Many forms of violence against African women contribute to, and worsen, the devastation of women and girls from the HIV/AIDS virus. Women and girls are often ill informed about sexual and reproductive matters and are more likely than men and boys to be uneducated and illiterate. Physiologically, women are two to four times more likely than men to become infected with HIV, but they lack social power to insist on safer sex or to reject sexual advances.

Gender Violence and Poverty are Disease Risks

Gender-based violence and harmful traditional practices are some of the major risks for contracting the HIV virus. These include sexual violence, marital rape, domestic violence, early child marriage of young girls to older men, forced marriage, wife inheritance, widow cleansing, polygamy, and female genital mutilation.

Poverty forces many women into subsistence sex work or transactional relationships that preclude negotiating condom use. For economic reasons, women are often unable to leave a relationship, even if they know that their partner has been infected or exposed to HIV. In many African countries, women are designated as minors, lack their own earning power, are unable to obtain credit and cannot own or inherit property.

The oppressive economic dependency of women on men is a core aspect of gender relations in this region. This critical issue must be taken on with real solutions and basic societal changes by governments, AIDS programs, non-profit groups, and, most importantly, the women themselves.

Thoraya Obaid, the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said in 2006: "Women and girls are vulnerable to AIDS not because of their individual behavior, but because of the discrimination and violence they face, the unequal power relations. Even being married is a risk factor for women...Female HIV infections are on the rise in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, as well as in Africa. And AIDS is the leading cause of death for 25-34-year-old African-American women in the United States...only by addressing the needs and human rights of women and ensuring their full participation will we change the course of this disease."

Cures To Reverse the Spread of HIV/AIDS

So what is to be done?

To reverse the spread of AIDS, women must have greater control of their decisions, bodies and lives-as well as their governments and public policies.

In 2004, UNAIDS launched the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, a worldwide alliance of civil society groups, governments, UN organizations and networks of women living with HIV/AIDS. The coalition's platform calls for education, literacy, and economic rights for women; equal access to antiretroviral treatment; access to sexual and reproductive health services; changes in harmful gender stereotypes; and zero tolerance for gender-based violence.

Three-quarters of all new HIV infections are sexually transmitted between men and women. The behaviors of men are critical to prevention efforts in Africa. They hold overwhelming power in decisions about sexual matters, including whether to have sex or to use condoms. In many societies, women are expected to know little about such matters and those who raise the issue of condom use risk accusations of being unfaithful or promiscuous.

Photo by Chuck BiggerHIV care and contraceptive management programs -- two important elements of women's health -- must begin to work together according to UNFPA. For too long they have separated themselves because of the politicizations and funding aspects of both of these issues. This is clearly shortsighted, if women's lives are to be saved.
Equal access to antiretroviral treatment will help to safeguard a woman's well being and prevent HIV transmission to her children. Ethics and human rights demand that women who are HIV positive are able to make informed contraceptive decisions, including the ability to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Voluntary contraception is integral to stemming the HIV pandemic.

Hard Choices Make Hard Policy

Some of the most effective steps to stemming the feminization of HIV/AIDS are not about healthcare per se but about broad social changes. Dr. Chinua Akuke of the Board of Directors of the Constituency for Africa in Washington, D.C. and an adjunct professor of public health at George Washington University, said: "The key question is whether African leaders and elite are ready to make hard choices that would slow down the rate of infections among women...The key is to focus on practical solutions to a problem that can only get worse if nothing is done."

She describes ten critical steps for African leaders.

Mount a comprehensive information, education and communication campaign against risk-behaving practices of men that put women at risk of HIV infection, with bans on sugar daddies, the rape of young girls by schoolteachers and the molestation of young girls by their own family members.
Address cultural practices that put women at disadvantage, such as women's subservience in sexual matters, the lack of property rights for widows and single women, the culture of wife inheritance after widowhood and the lack of opportunity for women to discuss sexual risks with their husbands.
Invest in the long-term education of girls and women to end women's disproportionate poverty.
Build enabling environments for empowering African women to control their own generated income and to overcome cultural taboos and tightly controlled economic choices that severely constrict the capacity of African women to negotiate safer personal behaviors.
Create political space for women. In order to fight AIDS, women must be in decision-making positions in government and in civil society.
Develop the necessary legal framework to protect women from discrimination and the lack of due process. Law reform on rape, sexual molestation, domestic violence, favors-for-forced sexual relations and property rights are crucial, as are bans on discrimination of individuals living with HIV/AIDS.
Establish public health services that are friendly and accessible to women, and run by women for women in a true feminist model. The fear of violence and lack of confidentiality prevent many women from accessing services for HIV or for other sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis that facilitate HIV transmission.
Make gender issues a major priority of international development assistance. National budgets should devote resources to ending gender inequalities and creating opportunities and protections for women.
Lead the fight against sexual violence against women and put in place functional laws that deny sanctuary to the perpetrators of violence. The law must punish rapists and abusers -- perpetrators who set off a chain of events that leave women emotionally scarred and at risk of HIV/AIDS.
Fight against widespread poverty with programs that target women. Poverty is a major reason why women knowingly engage in high-risk behaviors. The feminization of AIDS is closely intertwined with women's low status, deprivation and harsh living conditions and macroeconomic policies must create the opportunity for women to escape poverty.

Misogyny Kills

Women need gender-focused and women-sensitive approaches to halting HIV/AIDS, according to UNFPA. Solutions must be African-based and African-implemented, and women must be integral to all of it. Women must be able to gain more control in decisions affecting their lives.

Young men who learn to respect women and understand their responsibilities in halting HIV/AIDS are more likely to use condoms. Husbands can -- and must -- be enlisted to protect their wives and future children against HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

What we are really addressing in HIV-AIDS is the need to end misogyny-ending sexist attitudes and behaviors against women that violate their very beings.

What is a woman worth in this world? What are 14 million women worth? They are worth absolutely everything to themselves, their families, their communities, their countries-and their world. We desperately need their vitality, contributions, insights, and power. Let us begin with the personal and political empowerment of the women of Africa and let our African sisters know that they are not alone in their struggle for respect, dignity and life.

This article first appeared in On the Issues Magazine, a feminist, progressive magazine newly launched as an Internet publication.

To share your thoughts about how the U.S. can better prioritize global women's health, join our online forum on Tuesday, June 3rd, from 1pm to 4pm EST!

Feminist Majority Foundation Honors Women's Rights Leaders

2008-05-28T08:00:00-04:00

There are some occasions in our lives that are truly magical, unforgettable, and visionary. The evening of May 7, 2008 was one of these.

That night, I was privileged to attend the gala dinner of The Feminist Majority Foundation's Fourth Annual Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Global Women's Rights in Los Angeles. One of the illustrious honorees was my colleague and friend, María Luisa Sánchez Fuentes. She is the executive director of the Mexico City-based organization for which I am the US representative, Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida/The Information Group on Reproductive Choice, Mexico's leading voice for reproductive justice and access to legal abortion. For many years, María Luisa has been deeply committed to women's rights, dignity, respect, and the decriminalization of abortion in Mexico. She was instrumental in the incredible victory of April 24, 2007, when abortion in the first trimester was decriminalized in Mexico City. Women's lives have been saved since that momentous day, as more than 7,000 women have been able to access quality and safe abortion care.

María Luisa is one of those unassuming dynamic and inspirational leaders whose openness, caring, articulation, power, and dynamism are infectious. In fact, May 7 was an evening of powerful leadership. The evening was filled with the inspiration of many who have worked so hard to make a difference in the lives of the women of the world.

Founded in 1987, the Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) is the nation's largest feminist research and action organization dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health, and non-violence. The organization's premise is that feminists -- both women and men -- who believe in women's equality are in the majority -- but the majority must be empowered. The FMF's programs focus on advancing the legal, social, and political equality of women with men, countering the backlash to women's advancement, and recruiting and training young feminists to encourage future leadership in the feminist movement. The FMF consistently incorporates a global focus in all of its work. Thus, their Campaign for Afghan Women and Girls, launched in 1997, and chaired by the indomitable FMF board member Mavis Leno, is the first of its kind to build a U.S. grassroots constituency around a foreign policy issue of women's rights.

Yet another indomitable and respected leader who was present and whose vision was keenly felt throughout the evening was Eleanor "Ellie" Smeal, FMF's president and one of its founders. Ellie has been a key women's rights leader for more than thirty years and is one of the architects of the modern drive for women's equality. In addition, Katherine "Kathy" Spillar, another FMF founder, the executive vice-president of the FMF, and the executive editor of Ms. Magazine, as well as Peg Yorkin, philanthropist, and co-founder and board chair of FMF, also both welcomed and inspired the audience to stand up and do more for women.

But the evening really belonged to the three dedicated award winners who were present that evening. All have made it their life's work to serve the reproductive health needs of women, especially in areas of the world where women's rights are severely compromised and where health care is sorely needed. The honorees truly represent the best and the brightest.

Dr. Nafis Sadik became the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in 1987...just in time for women. Before she became UNFPA's leader, the agency was more likely to support coercive population policies than truly see the larger picture of women's health, rights, and gender equity. When she accepted the post of UNFPA's executive director, Dr. Sadik became one of the highest-ranking women in the U.N. and the first woman to ever serve as executive head of one of the U.N.'s major voluntarily funded programs. Dr. Sadik, a Pakistani gynecologist, made women's empowerment and rights primary to the UNFPA mission. With her dynamic vision and leadership, the agency has also tackled maternal mortality, the feminization of AIDS, education for girls, and ending poverty for women and girls. In 1994, she served as the Secretary-General of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo and was instrumental in reshaping the world's reproductive health agenda. This resulted in a 20-year program setting forth guidelines regarding women's health, reproductive rights, reproductive health, education, economic opportunity, gender equity, and development -- all considered to be landmark achievements. Now, as the special envoy to the U.N. for HIV/AIDS in Asia, she continues to work for the empowerment and equality of women and girls. She has repeatedly spoken out about the feminization of the AIDS pandemic and the adverse effects of girls having children at a very young age when they are s "physically, intellectually, and emotionally underdeveloped."

Dr. Solomon Orero, a Kenyan gynecologist, has never fully accepted his country's statute outlawing abortion. Kenya has been described as being one of 69 countries with the "most restrictive laws" on abortion. In fact, according to the February 17, 2002 New York Times, women in Africa are more likely to die during unsafe abortions than any other women in any other place in the world. One in 150 abortions in Africa end in death and the problem is particularly acute in the countries of East Africa. Despite the numerous obstacles, possessing true vision and leadership, Dr. Orero founded Kisumu Medical and Educational Trust, which expands access to reproductive health services. He is able to circumvent the oppressive abortion law of his country by using a loophole -- the exception allowing abortion to save a woman's life -- to perform safe and respectful abortions for women and girls who would otherwise seek out unsafe and life-threatening abortions. He has trained hundreds of other health care workers to treat the brutal effects of botched abortions and this has given them the tools to provide safe abortion care -- and save lives -- as well. Besides being a provider and educator, Dr. Orero also continues to fearlessly speak out against Kenya's abortion law and the deadly U.S. Global Gag Rule, which has forced the closing of at least eight desperately needed women's health clinics in Kenya.

Last year, following a multiple-year campaign and arduously working to educate the many diverse sectors of Mexican society, first-trimester abortion was decriminalized in Mexico City. One of the visionary leaders and driving forces behind this incredible accomplishment for Mexican women's human rights and respect is María Luisa Sánchez Fuentes, the executive director of Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida. María Luisa has long been committed to issues of women's rights, human rights, women's dignity, and women's poverty. Placing abortion on the public agenda as issues of public health, social justice, equality, and democracy, and declaring illegal and unsafe abortion to be a form of torture and violence against women, combined with international trends and international treaties that Mexico has signed, proved to be a brilliant and successful strategy that turned back even the ferocious protests of the Catholic Church. Now, with this breath-taking victory and "miracle of Mexico City," María Luisa will continue to work relentlessly to lead GIRE forward in its next critical efforts. These consist of training more hospital personnel to provide safe and compassionate abortion care, decriminalizing abortion in all of the states of Mexico, and turning back the constitutional challenges to the new law that will be heard this summer by the Mexican Supreme Court. María Luisa is truly a leader and role model for the women of her country...and for all of us.

Of course, all of the awardees are courageous and committed leaders and true humanitarians. With conviction and compassion, these three amazing individuals have changed the destinies of millions of women and girls-and saved their lives. Their award is appropriately named for Eleanor Roosevelt, herself a visionary, humanitarian, civil rights advocate, and passionate believer in human dignity and worth. She always believed that her greatest achievement was her work on the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which she imagined would become a cornerstone in the struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms for everyone, everywhere. And, in many ways, it has.

To be surrounded by inspiration, commitment, brilliance, passion, vision, power, and leadership is truly spectacular and unforgettable, and gives me hope for a better world and renewed respect and rights for women and girls.

The Best Gifts for Mother's Day Are Rights and Respect

2008-05-09T08:00:00-04:00

Sunday, May 11 is Mother's Day this year. It is the day that we all attempt to honor and respect the amazing woman who gave us life, the woman who nourished, protected, and loved us. Of course, we should thank our mothers daily, not simply one day a year. We need a world that supports and respects safe and voluntary motherhood, not just with cards, fancy dinners, and sentiment on one Sunday a year, but by respecting our rights every single day.

My incredible 92-year-old mother, Polly Bloom, died last fall. I miss her love, devotion, joy, and feistiness more than words can say. But what will never leave me are the life lessons she taught me. She modestly said that she never really wanted the flowers, perfume, body creams, and jewelry that I gave her over the years. What she loved most was for me to be strong, do good in the world, and to keep fighting for abortion rights, safe motherhood, and reproductive justice for all women.

She -- as well as my beloved dad -- were always so proud of my work. As I near this first Mother's Day without her, my body and soul are filled with a tremendous emptiness. But Polly's dedication and sacrifice have left me with so much love and the belief that I could do whatever I chose and wanted in life.

Polly was an unusual woman for her time and, in many ways, although a small woman, was larger than life. As a first generation American, she was devoted to her family and friends and very proud of her Sephardic Jewish heritage. For more than forty years, she volunteered at the Sephardic Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Brooklyn, New York and won awards for her years of commitment. She had a B.A. in Spanish literature from Brooklyn College, loved her first language (Ladino), and nurtured her three children, her husband, and her community.

Moreover, she truly understood what equality and rights for women meant. My mom was denied a therapeutic abortion (fetal demise had occurred) in the early part of the 1950s and that scarring experience caused her serious emotional and physical problems for many years. She was forced to carry a dead fetus in her body for several months because of the oppressive laws and sexist attitudes of that time. This denial of her rights always stayed with her. My feisty mom was very supportive of the idea that no other woman should ever have the same awful experience she had encountered desperately seeking out safe medical care, respect, and dignity. Polly Bloom really understood what reproductive justice was.

Mothers deserve -- and need -- reproductive justice. Reproductive justice is about every woman's freedom to choose to have children and to be able to decide when and under what circumstances these children will be born. It is about the right to quality, affordable, and accessible health care for a safe pregnancy, delivery, and a healthy newborn.

Supporting a woman's right to choose motherhood includes respecting her choices, and providing her with the tools and resources she needs to raise a healthy family. This means day care and family leave, educational opportunities, meaningful employment and livable wages, gender equality, an end to gender-based violence and ensuring a safe and hopeful future for herself and her children. Tragically, in the richest nation in the world, these resources are rapidly diminishing.

Reproductive justice is also the right to choose not to have children, the right to contraceptive choices, the right to medically accurate and comprehensive sexual education, and the right to end an unwanted pregnancy with safe, legal, and affordable abortion care. It is about recognizing that safe and respectful abortion care helps women choose their futures, become better mothers, and build stronger families. It recognizes that women know what it means to be pregnant, to give birth, and to start a family. Women know what it means to continue or to end the potential life growing inside of their bodies and to decide for their current or future families that it is -- or is not -- the right time for a child to be brought into this world.

My dear mother was justifiably horrified at the international maternal morbidity and mortality rates that we discussed. She hated the short-sighted and regressive domestic and international policies of the Bush administration. As she became older, she would increasingly say that she could not understand why so many women and girls died from unsafe births and unsafe abortions in our world. I told her I did not quite grasp it either.

Why do we allow 68,000 women and girls in the developing world to die every year from the brutalities of botched abortions when compassiona and safe medical procedures could easily preserve their lives and health? I don't know, dear mom. I am still trying to figure it out.

I know that if my inspiring mother was still alive, and if I asked her what she would like for this Mother's Day, she would again say, "Keep doing a good job and keep women safe, honey."

What a wonderful way to honor all mothers throughout the world -- with rights and respect. My mom is now gone from this earth, but she will always be in my heart. And I'll continue to listen to my incredible mom and make her proud of me.

Far From a Victimless Crime

2008-04-09T09:51:21-04:00

It is certainly not news that men of power and influence buy and use prostitutes. Still, the recent revelation that former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was involved with a high-priced prostitution ring gave me pause. I didn't see as much as I expected to in mainstream venues about what I believe to be the most important theme -- the view that prostitution, as the exchange of money for sex among adults, is a profound violation of women's human rights and a form of violence against women. So I decided to write about it.

Numerous organizations that study and provide support services to sex workers are clear in their perspective that prostitution constitutes violence against women and is a fundamental violation of women's human rights. For instance, Ruhama, a Dublin, Ireland-based organization that offers "dignity, support, hope, and choice to women involved in prostitution," believes that intrinsic to prostitution are numerous violations of human rights: sexual harassment, economic servitude, educational deprivation, job discrimination, partner and family violence, racism, class bias, vulnerability to frequent physical and sexual assault, and being subjected to body invasions that are equivalent to torture.

The Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres finds the system of prostitution is profoundly sexist and racist. It is based on the existing inequalities between men and women, adults and children, rich and poor, between countries of the north and south, and racial inequalities. This degrading system is linked to the sexualization of women and girls, the commercialization of women's bodies, and the "development of a prostitution culture that is increasingly globalized, as sexual trafficking is needed to feed the sex industry's constant demand for ‘new blood and exoticism' " and needs to constantly find new sources of girls and women.

Dr. Melissa Farley, a feminist researcher and clinical psychologist, has written extensively on this topic since 1993. As the current director of Prostitution Research and Education, a non-profit organization in San Francisco, she has researched prostitution and sex trafficking in nine countries. She writes that "U.S. prostitution can be understood in the context of the cultural normalization of prostitution as a glamorous and wealth-producing 'job' [as was seen in the media uproar of Spitzer] for girls who lack emotional support, education, and employment opportunities... The sexual exploitation of children and women in prostitution is often indistinguishable from incest, intimate partner violence, and rape..." And, she argues, "sexist and racist economic policies in the United States such as the lack of educational opportunities for poor families and a lack of sustainable income from many jobs contribute to women and girl's entry into prostitution.

Further, according to Dr. Farley, "Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)... characterized by anxiety, depression, insomnia, irritability, flashbacks, emotional numbing, and hyper-alertedness commonly occurs among prostituted women and is indicative of their extreme emotional distress. In nine countries, we found that 68% of those in prostitution met criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD...Across widely varying cultures, the traumatic consequences of prostitution were similar."

The discussion of prostitution as a human rights violation, exploitive, profitable (at least to the pimps), based on racist and sexist economic policies, and seen in the context of the cultural normalization of violence, abuse, and the degradation of women certainly needs to be reiterated. But not all of these ideas have universal agreement.

In 1997, for example, the Asia Women's Human Rights Council urged the "acceptance and recognition of prostitution as work for women." This position was based on the reality that millions of women in the world, and in particular, in Asia, survive or otherwise make a living through prostitution. The council drew the conclusion that an approach is needed that respects women in prostitution and expresses solidarity with them by accepting the existence of prostitution.

Aida Santos of Women's Education, Development, Productivity, and Research Organization, Inc., (WEDPRO), located in Quezon City in the Philippines, strongly disagreed in her response to the council: "It is indeed important that ‘we recognize and validate the reality of women who are working in prostitution,' but this reality should be in the context of a genuine understanding of the human rights violations embedded by the nature of prostitution that are constantly, if not daily, faced by the women in this sector. When your statement claims that ‘sex work is not the problem, that abuse, violence, and criminality are the social problems,' there is an assumption that the so-called sex work and the social problems are different sets of concerns. The social problems are part and parcel of the industry and to separate the two glosses over the nature and character -- and ideology -- of prostitution."

I agree. These factors are clearly interconnected and feed off each other. To this point, feminist author Nell Beram has written: "As for the economic defense of sex work by some feminists, it presumes that feminism is about economic equity at the expense of all else. Thirty years after the second wave, and on the heels of some incontrovertible feminist victories (Roe v. Wade, public acknowledgment of sexual harassment as a real phenomenon), why are our sights set so low?"

The dehumanization of women, the racial, ethnic, and class oppression and biases, the economic and survival issues -- a means of maintaining male subjugation of women, and the accompanying violence -- leads us back to Dr. Farley's premise that "all prostitution causes harm to women." According to Dr. Farley's research, it becomes impossible to continue to say that the oldest profession is a victimless crime, a common view in many societies.

To believe that prostitution has no victims, one would need to ignore the following facts from Dr. Farley's Fact Sheet:

78% of 55 women who sought help in 1991 from the Council for Prostitution Alternatives in Portland, Oregon reported being raped an average of 16 times a year by pimps, and were raped 33 times a year by johns.
73% reported having experienced physical assault in prostitution.
72% were currently or formerly homeless.
92% stated that they wanted to escape prostitution immediately.
75% of women in escort prostitution had attempted suicide.
67% meet diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder.
Estimates of the prevalence of incest among prostitutes range from 65% to 90%. The Council for Prostitution Alternatives found that 85% of their prostitute clients reported a history of sexual abuse in childhood, while 70% reported incest.

This information makes it clear that the victims of prostitutions are the women themselves. At an individual level, the harm of prostitution is physical, social, emotional, and psychological. This harm extends to all women and humanity as a whole -- socially, culturally, and globally. When a human being is reduced to a body, objectified to sexually service another, whether or not there is so-called "consent," violation of hte human being has taken place. As well as breaching an individual's human rights, the prostitution system and the trade and commodification of human beings is a violation of the rights and dignity of humankind as a whole.

The Coalition of Women in Trafficking is currently working for an international convention to recognize that all forms of sexual exploitation, including prostitution and trafficking, need to be declared "a violation of a person's human rights." The proposed new Convention Against All Forms of Sexual Exploitation would also decriminalize the women in prostitution and criminalize the pimps, procurers, and customers -- as the 1999 law in Sweden has done. The new convention also covers the support services, educational, and economic alternatives for women who survive and exit prostitution.

In response to the talking heads that insisted that Eliot Spitzer's use of a prostitute was a private matter, let me quote the powerful perspective of Norma Ramos, the co-executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, as demonstrated in a press release of March 11, 2008:

Governor Spitzer's regular use of prostituted women is no private matter. It is, in fact, a very public matter that raises the urgent issue of the demand for prostitution that fuels sex trafficking...

The contradiction and hypocrisy of Governor Spitzer's being a supporter of the recently passed New York State Anti-Trafficking legislation to he himself being part of the demand that fuels sex trafficking is an enormous betrayal of the human rights and women's rights movement that works to end human trafficking.

Prostitution is not a victimless crime, as so many are now proclaiming. It is widely recognized as violence against women, arises from negative social conditioning, and is contrary to equality for women...Continuing to have a class of women available for commercial sexual exploitation violates every human rights standard. The exploitive dynamics of prostitution are not altered by the amount of money involved.

I hope the world is listening. Unequivocally, prostitution, in every manifestation, is a human rights violation and violence against women and girls everywhere. And we need to say so.

"Broken Justice" : Race, Abortion, and Misogyny

2008-03-18T09:31:20-04:00

Broken Justice: A True Story of Race, Sex and Revenge in a Boston Courtroom -- the autobiography of a brave physician fighting for his freedom, career, and principles -- chronicles an historical event that should never have occurred. This fascinating book recounts the journey of a dedicated African-American doctor whose only goal in life is to bring quality health care to underserved and marginalized women. In 1974, the young and idealistic Dr. Kenneth Edelin is Boston City Hospital's chief resident in obstetrics and gynecology -- the first African-American to hold that position -- and is poised to complete his residency training. Among his many responsibilities in this busy hospital that primarily serves the poor is the provision of safe abortion care. Dr. Edelin is clearly committed to providing quality medical care and to treating the women he serves with respect. He is an inspiring role model for all of us.

In a twisted and prejudicial interpretation of the foundation of Roe vs. Wade, which had been decided just ten months before, Dr. Edelin becomes embroiled in the racist, anti-choice, conservative Catholic-identified, and misogynist atmosphere of Boston politics. Targeted to teach other progressive doctors a lesson of intimidation and fear, the bigoted grand jury and assistant district attorney indict the doctor on a charge of manslaughter with outlandish, even surreal accusations.

The indictment focuses on a legal, ethical, appropriate, and safely performed second trimester abortion that Dr. Edelin performed on a 17-year-old woman; the male fetus was named as the alleged victim. Dr. Edelin writes of this time:

In Boston, it was the perfect storm. It was the religious climate; it was the racial climate. [Writer's Note: A federal judge had recently ordered mandatory busing to desegregate the city's public schools and existing racial fears and prejudices rapidly exploded.] This city had always been a cauldron when it came to women's rights. It was the right place and the right time for those who wanted to make a statement. It was the wrong place and the wrong time for me." (Emphasis in the original.)

In the harrowing six week trial that follows, Dr. Edelin is labeled a baby-killer and accused of insensitive and unethical behavior. His take on his attorney's eloquent defense, the bias of the presiding judge, as well as the many prosecutorial lies and distortions, are the bulk of the book's compelling, and often angry, narration. Despite the fact that virtually all of the state's so-called evidence was faulty, biased, and confusing, the good doctor is convicted by an all-white, mostly Catholic jury who allowed their bigotry to perpetrate this injustice. There is a "sort-of" satisfying ending, as this shocking miscarriage of justice is ultimately reversed by the state Supreme Judicial Court in 1976. But the damage is done and, in fact, lingers to this day. Dr. Edelin writes, "The scar on my soul has never gone away...I may not think about it every day, but it has an impact on me everyday. It has changed me, and made me the man I am at 68." We often say that out of deep pain comes strength and wisdom; that is certainly true of this heroic physician.

Broken Justice recounts an important part of our reproductive justice history that may change the reader too -- and which must never be forgotten. I remember my own shock about Dr. Edelin's case very well from the 1970s and, sadly, the bias, prejudice, and fear that allowed this case to actually come to trial is still with us. In fact, it was one of the first real tests of Roe vs. Wade, and while Roe stood up to it, the case cast a shadow on the provision of abortion care in the US. And the singling out, and the scapegoat, of a young physician -- one who is black and considered by many to be an "outsider" -- reminds me of the violence, marginalization, fear, and isolation that all abortion providers still experience, and live with, today.

Dr. Edelin's easy narrative style, the revealing accounts of his childhood that contain heart-breaking scenes of his mother dying from breast cancer when he was only 12, as well as frank discussions of the pregnancy scares and illegal abortion experience in his own life, all create a passionate story that should have a wide appeal to the general public. His searing description of the agonizing death of a teen-age girl from an illegal abortion when he was a medical student in 1966 in Nashville will stay with any reader. It should. After all of these years, we are still fighting for a woman's right to choose a safe, legal, and accessible abortion. These are extraordinarily difficult times for reproductive justice and women's lives in the US and in the world, and we are fortunate to have this blunt account of Dr. Edelin's life and lessons so that he can teach us what he knows.

As he eloquently says in the foreword of Broken Justice: "Abortion is a fact of life...it arouses strong passions and feelings. At the center of this book are the rights of women to control their own bodies, and the rights of doctors to perform legitimate and legal medical procedures. For me, the struggles for reproductive rights for women and Civil Rights for African-Americans are intertwined and at the same time parallel. The denial of these two rights is an attempt by some to control the bodies of others. Both are forms of slavery. We must never let slavery in any form return to America."

Thank you, Dr. Edelin, for all you have given.

Need Abortion, Will Travel

2008-02-25T08:47:21-05:00

Recent coverage of the abortion providers' strike in Spain and the attacks on women's clinics there made use of the term "abortion tourism." LifeSiteNews, an anti-choice web site, refers to Barcelona, Spain as "Europe's abortion mecca, where people from all over the continent can travel to evade restrictions on late-term abortions." There was also sensationalist media coverage in Spain with disparaging references to "abortion tourists from other countries."

In November of 2007, LifeSiteNews also reported that "foreign women will be allowed to have abortions in Sweden up to 18 weeks gestation starting in January 2008 under changes to legislation passed by the Swedish parliament...Until now, abortion in Sweden has been reserved for Swedish citizens and residents, but since most European Union countries already allow foreign women access to abortion, the Swedish government has decided to follow suit...Several Christian Democrat members of parliament have warned that the new law could lead to 'abortion tourism.' "

There has always been abortion tourism. The term refers to travel undertaken in order to access to safe abortion care -- which is a long-standing crisis in the US as well as internationally.

In her May 2003 on abortion beyond borders, the Guttmacher Institute's Susan Cohen provided some relevant history: "New York legalized abortion, without a residency requirement, in 1970, which immediately put New York City on the map as an option for those women who could afford to travel. Before that it was an open secret that affluent American women would travel to London to obtain safe, legal procedure."

As a young woman growing up in New York City in those years, I vividly remember many pregnant friends who also went to Mexico, Sweden, Japan, and Puerto Rico for their safe abortions. Of course, it was, as Cohen notes, "poor women, mostly young and minority, who [could not travel and] suffered the health consequences [of unsafe, illegal abortions], and maternal mortality rates were high. Women of means had more options."

Tragically, not much has changed. The race, ethnic, and class disparities of abortion access in the US are well-known and this theme is universal.

In October 2007, the Global Safe Abortion Conference in London discussed this issue in the context of "abortion journeys" -- the long, distressing, often expensive journeys that women are forced to undertake in order to access safe abortion due to restrictive legislation in their home countries. Writing about the discussion at the conference, Grace Davies noted, "These journeys -- abortion tourism -- are a tragic reality for women around the world, from Kenya to Poland. In fact, the term ‘abortion tourism' highlights one of the central characteristic of the phenomenon. In highly restrictive situations, class and socio-economic status play a huge role in whether or not a woman can access safe abortion."

The examples presented at the Global Safe Abortion Conference were instructive -- and heart-breaking. At the conference, Claudia Diaz Olavarrieta reported on the research she had conducted in Mexico before the landmark decision of last April legalizing abortion in Mexico City. She reported that "Mexican women traveling to the US for safe abortion care were typically well-educated and wealthy, did not cross the border illegally, and as such did not have to resort to unsafe clandestine or self-induced attempted abortions...they also typically came from wealthier [more cosmopolitan] Mexico City rather than poorer northern and eastern states."

"The girls with money go off to Europe or to the US and come back just fine from their ‘appendix operations,' but the poor girls are subjected to all kinds of barbarities," stated a passionate supporter of legal abortion in Mexico City at the time that the momentous new law was being passed. Meanwhile, an opponent of the new life-saving law angrily stated that "people from all over the country will be coming [to Mexico City] for abortions. It's going to be abortion tourism. It will be chaos."

Perhaps the opponent of the new law should be asking why women are forced to travel to Mexico City for their safe abortions. Is it because of sexist laws and attitudes about women that make it impossible for them to obtain safe medical care in their own pueblos and communities? Could it be that these woman and girls are "simply" trying to save their lives, health, families, and futures?

Similar issues surrounding abortion tourism in Ireland were also explored at the conference. According to the Irish Family Planning Association and the Safe and Legal Abortion Rights Campaign in Ireland, "approximately 200 women per week travel to the United Kingdom from Ireland and Northern Ireland," where abortion is greatly restricted and virtually illegal. "Economics play a part...abortion remains a class issue," emphasized Goretti Horgan of Alliance for Choice Northern Ireland.

A minimum of "1000, 000 Irish women" have been compelled to travel to England for abortions over the last 20 years.

At a 1996 workshop on reproductive freedom held at a conference at the University of Connecticut School of Law, Ursula Nowakowska of Poland reported on the effects of her country's 1993 anti-abortion law. The law, "permitting abortions only if the life of the mother was seriously threatened or if there was severe deformation of the fetus," is essentially a farce, an insult, and a danger to women's lives and dignity, as are the restrictive anti-abortion laws in other countries. "...Women have gone to Western Europe or further east to obtain abortions" -- Poland's version of abortion tourism. "Most Polish women go to Poland's East and South neighboring countries: Ukraine, Lithuania, Russia, Bielorus, Czech Republic, and Slovakia... Fewer women can afford to seek abortion care in Western countries, as the abortion services there are more expensive, but the care is of much higher quality." For the Polish women who have the financial resources, they go to "Germany, Belgium, and Austria." A February 2008 report posted in the ASTRA bulletin on sexual and reproductive rights indicated that at least 31,000 Polish women underwent abortions in the United Kingdom in 2007, a 30% growth in the number of Polish women from recent years.

Yet another example is Portugal. Portugal decriminalized first-trimester abortion last year, "leading to the easing of one of Europe's most restrictive abortion laws." It is estimated that "perhaps 20,000 or more illegal abortions a year take place and thousands of women end up in hospitals with complications...Many thousands each year, unsurprisingly, choose instead to cross the border" to more liberal Spain-abortion tourism for Portuguese women. Figures for the number of women who left the country in recent years to access safe abortion care aren't available, although in 2006, "about 4,000 Portuguese women went for abortions to...one clinic in Spain...near the Portuguese border."

In the United States, despite the legalization of abortion 35 years ago and where restrictions on abortion are nothing short of a war against women's lives, "access to abortion has been severely eroded" -- leading to the current US version of abortion tourism. According to the National Abortion Federation, "88% of all US counties have no identifiable abortion provider. In non-metropolitan areas, the figure rises to 97%. As a result, among many other barriers to safe abortion care, nearly a quarter of US women wanting abortions have to travel 50 miles or more to reach the nearest abortion provider." During my 18 years as the executive director of Aradia Women's Health Center in Seattle, Washington, our clinic consistently saw women from throughout the state, as well as Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Iowa, Texas, California, Oregon, and Mexico.

As a response to these ongoing problems, the innovative Abortion Access Project has launched the Least Access States Initiative, targeting women in Mississippi, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Arkansas, who "share a troubling commonality -- they all live in states with the least accessible abortion services in the US." This is admirable and difficult work, as it will be daunting to ensure that women of these least-served states are eventually able to more freely exercise their rights.

So who dies from lack of abortion access? Who suffers? Who is forced to continue an unwanted pregnancy, or desperately turns to underground, unscrupulous, and deceptive clinics? Who cannot become an "abortion tourist" and travel within or outside of one's country for safe abortion care? The universal theme is clear -- it is disproportionately women or girls who are young and/or poor, indigenous, of color, an immigrant, a refugee, and/or geographically isolated. It is only women with fiscal resources who are able to travel the long distances to another state or country for safe abortion care.

The current abortion laws of many countries are completely inadequate to meet the needs of women and girls seeking safe abortion care. Therefore, pregnant women and girls who are able to do are virtually forced to become abortion tourists. Although the term is often used in sexist and disparaging ways, what it really points to is that women's reproductive health needs are being ignored. Women are too frequently being deprived of their right to access safe, compassioante, and professional abortion services close to home, or at the very least in their own state or country.

So our work goes on. We must continue to strive to liberalize abortion laws, reduce restrictions, destigmatize abortion -- to view abortion as a human right and a moral choice for all women and girls -- and must increase the pool of trained and compassionate abortion providers. We must continue the struggle to ensure that women and girls, of every class, race, and country, truly have access to safe, legal, timely, local, and community-based abortion care.

The Transformation of Emily Lyons

2008-01-29T08:55:14-05:00

January is a "catch-up" month for most people as they recover from the holiday season and get back into the routine of their lives. However, for those of us in the world of reproductive health and justice, January is hardly routine. In the US, we are always aware of the need to celebrate the January 22nd Roe vs. Wade anniversary. Dedicated abortion providers add "extra" security precautions to their already-embattled facilities and routines. And for Emily and Jeff Lyons, January has a more difficult--indeed, a much more painful--meaning that transformed their lives forever.

Ten years ago today, on January 29, 1998, a bomb exploded outside of the New Woman, All Women Healthcare Clinic in Birmingham, Alabama where Emily still works. The blast resulted in the murder of Birmingham police officer Robert (Sande) Sanderson and very serious injury to Emily. Eric Robert Rudolph was the perpetrator of this hateful act; he was also the 1996 Olympic bomber in Atlanta, where he murdered one woman and injured many others. In addition, Rudolph was "the villain" behind the 1997 bombings of a women's clinic in an Atlanta suburb, as well as a gay and lesbian nightclub in Atlanta.

I have known both Emily and Jeff for several years now and they have become close friends. They are smart, funny, loving, and joyful people. On her website, Emily talks openly about how this horrific act maimed her, and nearly killed her. This excerpt below is from her compelling memoir "Life's been a Blast: The Inspiring Story of Birmingham Bombing Survivor Emily Lyons:"

I have been called a bombing victim. Let me assure you that label is incorrect. I am a bombing survivor.

The Emily Lyons my family and friends knew was murdered by a bomb containing dynamite and nails on January 29, 1998 at 7:33 A.M. My husband and I joke about AA and AB, Before Bomb and After Bomb. The blast lasted only a few microseconds, but it separated two lifetimes. The physically capable person I was before the attack died. The ‘new me' went through a slow and painful birth process. Just like a newborn, I had to learn to walk, speak, use my vision, and many other basic functions. Everything I had known was, pardon the pun, blown away. Life as I knew it ended that fateful Thursday morning, and my new life began. I have gone so far as to make arrangements to put three dates on my tombstone: date of birth, date of bombing, and date of death."

Emily describes her maiming injuries that day: her shins were blasted away, her left eye was destroyed, and her right eye was severely damaged. Her entire body was riddled with nails and shrapnel. She has undergone numerous medical procedures and operations that she calls "hell" and there will be more in her future.

Why did Eric Rudolph bomb the Birmingham clinic? He declared that his bombings were part of a guerilla campaign against abortion and the homosexual agenda.

He has had a long association with the Christian Identity Movement, a white supremacist sect who see themselves as God's chosen people.

Rudolph was, and is, also associated with the Army of God, a terrorist group associated with Christian Identity. In fact, the Army of God web site still contains Rudolph's homepage, where Eric describes himself as an "anti-abortion prisoner," along with other crazed ramblings he is allegedly preparing for a book.

Emily's web site also contains some of what she and her husband Jeff describe as "his bovine excrement writings" that can be found here.

Rudolph was sentenced to life in prison on July 18, 2005. He avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty to four consecutive life sentences and through a plea agreement that required him to tell authorities the location in western North Carolina of five caches of more than 160 pounds of explosives he had hidden during his five years on the run. At his sentencing, he said that he considered the bombings a "moral duty" to stop abortions, since the US government is no longer "the protector of the innocent."

Anti-abortion violence is a well-documented phenomenon. I have written about the July 2007 Operation Save America attempted siege of Birmingham's women's clinics for RH Reality Check and Amie Newman recently wrote about the extensive security measures used in a Seattle women's clinic where she and I used to work. The National Abortion Federation provides security trainings for its members and keeps statistics on anti-abortion terrorism.

And what of Emily? To put it mildly, she and Jeff have been through it all. They are still devoted to each other and madly in love. They work hard and enjoy life. They cope with the ongoing effects of Emily's injuries. Emily has been transformed by the hate and horror of January 29, 1998--from an apolitical and quiet nurse to a fierce, dedicated and outspoken champion of choice and women's lives. She did not succumb to the hate. "To hide in fear, to be silent, to be consumed by anger and hate, or to not enjoy my life, would be a victory for my attacker. It is a victory I chose not to give him. Every time I smile is a reminder that he failed, and I enjoy constant reminders."

Ten years is a very long time to live with the painful effects of a violent and deranged act perpetrated by a madman. But Emily Lyons is a powerful and amazing hero for our times. "I fought hard to keep January 29, 1998 from being the final date on my tombstone. In the game of life, I am in extended play, and play is exactly what I intend to do. I want to laugh at every opportunity. My vow is to enjoy the years Eric Rudolph tried to take away from me."

And that is exactly what she is doing. I salute her and I hope others reading this will too. She has given so much of her power, heart, soul, and body to all of us. What more can she give?

Thank you, dear Emily.

Related Posts

Marcy Bloom, Birmingham Blues: Reproductive Justice and My Friend Emily
Marcy Bloom, The Hate of Paul Hill
Amie Newman, Clinic Violence in New Mexico, and Vigilance Everywhere

Witch-Hunt Against Spain's Abortion Clinics

2008-01-22T08:51:00-05:00

Legal abortion and quality abortion care save women's lives, preserve our health, allow us to choose our futures and raise the children we may already have, and are core aspects of women's equality and reproductive justice. More than anything else, respectful abortion care decreases the suffering, pain, and death of women and girls everywhere.

And yet, throughout the world, abortion is still ferociously debated, women who are denied their reproductive rights still suffer and die, and abortion clinics and physicians are frequently maligned, threatened, attacked, arsoned, bombed, brutalized, and harassed. In the US, seven doctors and clinic staff have been assassinated, despite the fact that abortion has been legal in the US for thirty-five years.

Having worked in women's clinics providing safe and professional abortion care since 1970, I often wonder if the world even notices the good and important work we do. Due to the ongoing stigma of abortion, it is still very difficult and frightening for many women and men to openly discuss their abortion experiences. Indeed, due to the fear of being professionally marginalized and physically attacked, even killed, women's clinic staff are also cautious about discussing what they do in public.

How do we prove to the world what is obvious to us--that if safe abortion did not exist, women would suffer? If we simply went away, for a day or a week, how different would the world be? What would happen to women?

On January 7, our colleagues in Spain stood up for themselves and stated to the world that they will not be victims of governmental persecution and anti-choice manipulation. They decided to go on strike, accepting only "emergency" cases.

Private clinics in Spain, which perform most of the country's abortions, began the five-day strike to protest what they declared was persecution and harassment by government inspectors as well as anti-abortion rights campaigners. The intimidation and fear began in November, when government representatives and police agents invaded clinics in Barcelona with accusations that "illegal" abortions (abortions past the legal limit) were occurring. Medical records and documents were seized, 40 patients (some from out of the country) were harassed, and twelve clinical staff members, including physicians, were detained, among them Dr. Carlos Morín, the director, who was subsequently arrested and remains in jail. The complaints against these clinics were brought by the Catholic organization e-Christians, based on a report by a Danish television program where Dr. Morín is alleged to have offered an abortion to an eight-month pregnant undercover Danish journalist.

From then on, the situation became even more sensationalized. A woman from the Netherlands was arrested because she had supposedly undergone an illegal late-term abortion at one of Dr. Morín's clinics. Other women's health clinics in Madrid--not associated with Dr .Morín--were arbitrarily harassed, invaded, and disrupted under the guise of "official inspections."

The New York Times reported on January 9 that the persistent crackdown, raids, and violence against these clinics revives a debate about Spain's abortion laws at an awkward time for the Socialist government of Prime Minster José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which had been trying to avoid so-called controversial issues before close elections occur in March. Under his leadership, the prime minister's party had previously discussed the reform of Spain's restrictive abortion laws. But now, with the prime minister's "liberal" image being viewed as a political liability, he is trying to polish his image as a moderate, attempting to appeal to undecided, younger, and conservative voters. (Sounds just like the US elections, doesn't it?) With the Socialist party presently leading only by a few percentage points, the prime minister now states that he no longer wishes to liberalize the current abortion laws and wants to only reassess the existing laws.

Abortion rights, and women's lives, just like in the US, are kicked around like a political football. However, it will be difficult to avoid this issue in Spain right now. After all, numerous women's lives were disrupted by the clinics' strike.

How many women were affected by the strike? According to Francisca García Gallego, Madrid regional director of the Association of Accredited Clinics for the Termination of Pregnancy, the organization which organized the strike, as many as 2,000 women likely felt its impact. She indicated that the striking clinics accepted only "medical emergency" cases for abortion care during this time, defined as when the mother's life or health was at risk. Women without medical emergencies who had appointments during the strike were seen before the stoppage or were given new appointments.

Spain decriminalized abortion in 1985, and under current law, women can have an abortion during the first 22 weeks of pregnancy if there is a risk of fetal defect, and in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in cases of rape. It is also theoretically allowed at any time if a pregnant woman's physical or mental health is medically certified as being in danger. The number of abortions in Spain has doubled in the past decade, to more than 100,000 procedures annually in the past decade. Clearly, as is true everywhere in the world, this demonstrates that this is a critical right and much-need medical care that must remain available for all women.

The arrests at the Barcelona clinics soon created a backlash at all clinics throughout Spain. This backlash was encouraged by conservative media and anti-choice activists, which promoted a "Christian Family Day" rally organized by Catholic bishops in Madrid on December 30 where more than 150,000 people demonstrated to defend so-called "traditional family values" and speak out against abortion. The conservative media also created public alarm with a "flurry of media reports about women who allegedly travel to Spain to receive illegal late term abortions," says García, of the clinic association. Ms. García also asserted that cases of illegal abortion were extremely rare in Spain and that 90% of abortions in Spain occur in the first 12 weeks. She decried the abusive clinic inspections, invasions, and violence, stated that patients' privacy and dignity had been violated, and the professionalism and safety of clinic staff undermined. "After 22 years of exercising this right, a shadow of doubt has started to appear over our professionalism. We feel physically threatened, but nobody in the government has come to our defense."

During the strike, government officials in Madrid finally responded and pledged to protect abortion providers from the violence and harassment. Local abortion clinics were told that they could solicit police protection against death threats and vandalism caused by ultra-conservatives or neo-Nazi groups.

That recognition and action are important and long overdue. But is it enough? What of the future? Will there be more strikes? Will abortion providers in other countries consider this tactic? Having been in the honorable field of abortion care for many years, I know that abortion providers are tired of being dismissed, manipulated, attacked, lied about, and targets of political expediency and religious fundamentalist hatred and violence. We have every right to protect ourselves, to continue to help women, to practice our craft, and to professionally provide safe and compassionate abortion care. The time for ending the use of our profession as political pawns must come to an end--today.

As eloquently stated by the Association of Accredited Clinics for the Termination of Pregnancy and The Spanish Interest Group on Population, Development, and Reproductive Health,

We want to manifest our solidarity with the women, who are the real victims of the inspections, the accusations, the libel, the illicit activities, and the (official) silence. Because it is the thousands of women in this country who see, again, the questioning of their ability to exercise a legitimate right that is about freedom and the will to choose to have children. With these words, we want to assure these women that our efforts to make possible their rights will continue, as we have persevered in this country for the past twenty years.

In Spain, the US, and virtually everywhere, the stigma of shame and cruelty that has been relentlessly and systematically used to vilify those seeking and performing safe abortion care remains. The witch-hunts go on.

An Uncommon Life in an Uncommon War

2007-12-03T08:32:00-05:00

There are many powerful war stories in our world. "This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor" by Dr. Susan Wicklund, with Alan Kessleheim, is one of them.

Dr. Wicklund has written a compelling memoir of her life and work as an abortion provider, caught up in the "culture wars" surrounding women's place in society, women's reproductive choices, and access to safe abortion care in the United States. Emerging from a close-knit working-class family in rural Wisconsin, young Susan experiences a traumatic abortion as a young woman where she was ignored and treated with horrific disrespect. This memory never leaves her and, becomes a guiding force for her life. Dr. Wicklund decides to become a physician even as she initially struggles with self-doubt about her abilities and as she juggles the joys and responsibilities of single motherhood to her daughter Sonja.

She ultimately finds her life's work as an abortion doctor. Her drive, passion, courage, skill, and sacrifice eventually propel her to become the one of the few abortion providers in four states (Montana, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and Minnesota) during a pivotal point in her career. The "abortion wars" and violence against abortion providers are in full 1980s-1990s force as Dr. Wicklund and her family cope with the extraordinary fear, violence, hate, and disruption initiated by the anti-choice extremists who blockade her peaceful home and her various workplaces, place posters labeling her a murderer in her hometown, harass her in her car and various airports screaming "baby-killer," and threaten her life and the lives of her loved ones. All of this ferociously hateful activity eventually forces her to wear imaginative disguises as she literally hides, outmaneuvers, outruns, and outsmarts the obsessive stalking and crazed violence of these religious fundamentalist bigots.

And outsmart them she does. But it took amazing fortitude, passionate dedication, and extraordinary sacrifice. We do not see heroes such as this very often in our life times.

The details in "This Common Secret" about Dr. Wicklund's life and how she and her family successfully cope with the venom of anti-choice violence are both fascinating and disturbing, and they contribute to a well-written and easy read. Equally fascinating is her description of her work and the unique style, skill, and warmth she brings to the women she serves. She never forgets her own painful and frightening abortion experience and is determined that no woman in her care has that kind of experience. She describes women's lives, decision-making processes, and absolute determination to have safe abortions -- women traveling for days and hundreds of miles to reach clinics are increasingly common in the US; in fact, the abortion access crisis in the US is worse than ever.

I have worked in the field of reproductive health and justice for many years and I have received several death threats in my life. "Several" is the operative word here. I am not confident that I could have coped with the nature and number of threats that Dr. Wicklund received, as well as the enormous disruption to her health and well-being that both the harassment and her constant travel to clinics in the four states she was serving required. In 1989, on her very first day as the sole abortion provider at a clinic in Milwaukee, she observes the protestors:

When I left the clinic (that day), I saw the protestors...were a force that had a negative impact on my patients, planting unnecessary fear and guilt in women at this vulnerable cross-roads as they weighed whether to end a unplanned pregnancy. Their rhetoric and self-righteous pleading were misleading and alarming. I knew, looking at them, that the last thing they cared about was the safety and well-being of the women I had seen that day.

The lives of women seeking abortion care, the dedicated staff of the clinics, Dr. Wicklund's beloved daughter, husband, her "flower" grandma (who harbors a tragic secret for more than 50 years), parents, and entire extended family of relatives, friends, and supporters are the many compelling figures who are an important part of this book.

But the center of it this compelling narrative is the unrelenting force and deep compassion that is Dr. Susan Wicklund herself. She exposes the violence and hypocrisy of the still powerful anti-choice movement in the US. She exposes her soul so that we can understand her motivation and her work and the need for safe and accessible abortion care. She shows true courage and sacrifice.

Yes, "This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Provider" is an extraordinary book. I believe that every member of Congress must read this, as well as all of the presidential candidates.

And George W. Bush needs his own copy. Read it, President Bush, and weep to see what your hypocritical anti-woman administration has done.

The Truth About Abortion and Mental Health

2007-11-15T07:58:31-05:00

The right to abortion and access to safe abortion care has been extraordinarily politicized in the US (and elsewhere) for decades now and women’s physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological needs have been ignored, distorted, and caught in the cross-fire. So I have found it exciting to be able to read and review the ground-breaking new book “Abortion Counseling: A Clinician’s Guide to Psychology, Legislation, Politics, and Competency” by Rachel B. Needle, PsyD, and Lenore E.A. Walker, EdD. In a clear, straightforward, and informative style that is accessible to all, Drs. Needle and Walker emphasize the importance of abortion counseling for women who may be contemplating an abortion, or those who have had one. The authors emphasize that “abortion counseling has a critical role to play in ensuring women’s mental health is the priority not the goals of a political agenda.”

Powerful words. The authors deal with this theme admirably and thoroughly. They state unequivocally that “unintended child-bearing is destructive to the mental health of women and their families [and] women’s mental health has become a political weapon in efforts to restrict legal access to abortion.”

With readable scientific information covering a myriad of topics in a comfortable format, Drs. Needle and Walker give readers dynamic ammunition and knowledge to cut through the vast anti-choice rhetoric that legal abortion harms women. Women’s cognitive decision-making and competency skills, the reasons women choose abortion, women who are high-risk for negative post-abortion outcomes, the myth of “post-abortion syndrome,” family violence, debunking myths about women’s reproductive health care, a model program for post-abortion counseling, the endless legal restrictions that attempt—and often succeed—in denying women access to safe abortion care, and the impact of the abortion debate on women, therapists, and clinic workers—these are among the issues covered in this comprehensive book.

Dr. Needle has a compelling and unique motivation for co-writing this book. The book is dedicated to “abortion providers [as] the true unsung heroes of this movement.” This includes Dr. Needle’s mother, who has worked in the field of abortion care for more than thirty years.

“Growing up the daughter of an abortion provider, I witnessed first-hand the controversy surrounding abortion and how the controversy harmed women," says Dr. Needle. She goes on:

Mental health professionals, on the whole, are not trained to address women who are considering abortion, or women who have terminated a pregnancy. There is no training on abortion counseling for mental health professionals and therefore there is minimal awareness of what is involved. There is a lack of understanding about abortion legislation and regulations, and little appreciation for how legislation can impact a woman and her family.

As Dr. Walker and I began to notice this lack of information available to mental health professionals, we felt the need to provide this resource where currently practicing clinicians and clinicians-in-training could go to learn more about abortion, including legislation, the myth of post-abortion syndrome, decision-making, competency, and how to assist women prior to and following an abortion procedure. Therapists and health care professionals need accurate information to assist women in making their own decisions about pregnancy planning.

Most importantly, despite the fact that the majority of research finds no evidence for negative psychological affects following pregnancy termination, the construct of a "post-abortion syndrome" continues to be raised by politicians and in the media. But research continues to find that terminating an unwanted pregnancy by an induced abortion does not cause women to become mentally ill. Those few women who may develop emotional problems after an abortion are then likely to misattribute their distress to the abortion rather than to the other factors that actually are known to create such emotional distress. These factors include pre-existing psychiatric conditions and a history of physical and sexual abuse. When these factors are controlled, studies of women who chose to have an abortion find that they are no more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety disorders, psychotic problems, or suicidal behavior than those women who chose to carry the pregnancy to full term.

Given all of the anti-choice rhetoric, distortion, and misinformation, as well as the lack of training in the area of pregnancy termination, it was time for a book to educate all those who are engaged in both pre- and post- abortion counseling. In order to do so, again, it is important for therapists to understand the politics and legislative history affecting women’s decision-making, be knowledgeable about accurate information about the abortion procedure itself, and understand the psychological theories about the development of stable emotions to assist counselors and therapists in determining the woman’s emotional state both pre- and post- termination. Finally, therapists—as well as the public—must be aware that research demonstrates that "post abortion syndrome" does not exist, even though some women may have some temporary negative or ambivalent feelings.

This is why we wrote our book. We trust that it will be helpful.

Yes, it is. “Abortion Counseling: A Clinician’s Guide to Psychology, Legislation, Politics, and Competency” is a book for everyone interested in knowing the truth about women, abortion, and women’s mental health. Whether you are new to the issue or a veteran, there is much to learn from this excellent resource.

I wish this dynamic book had been available when I first started to counsel women having abortions in 1970. There was no developed profession of abortion counseling at that time and we created a new field. This compelling book puts it all together with updated information and clear scientific discussion and analysis. “Abortion Counseling” cuts through the lies and will help to frame the future for women’s mental health as we continue to articulate the truth about abortion.

Killing for "Honor" - and Control of Women

2007-10-25T08:17:40-04:00

Issues of gender-based violence (GBV) are not tied to any one region of the world or to any particular religious or cultural group. So-called "honor killings" or "honor crimes" are but one extreme and horrific form of violence against women and are executed for instances of rape, infidelity, flirting, or any other behavior even perceived as violating community norms or traditions of behavior and disgracing the family's honor. Any action construed as violating codes of chastity, disrespect towards men, the family, or the "traditional" way of life warrants an "honor" killing.

In the eyes of the communities where these murders occur, it is not only expected, but actually required, of male family member to kill their female family member, usually a wife, sister, or daughter. To do otherwise is to be viewed as less than a "real man." Such is the danger, and destructiveness of strict and inflexible gender roles and stereotypes where women are viewed as passive, pure, and in need of constant "protection" and supervision, and men are expected to be dominant, controlling, and violent.

An Amnesty International statement notes, "The regime of honor is unforgiving: women on whom even only suspicion has fallen are not given any opportunity to defend themselves, and family members have no socially acceptable alternative but to remove the stain on their honor by attacking, brutalizing, mutilating, and, usually, killing the woman."

This reads like a terrifying Stephen King novel. But tragically, it is very real throughout the world.

The term "honor killing" communicates the perspective of the perpetrator, and thereby carries an implicit justification. Some women's rights advocates therefore prefer the terms "femicide," "shame killings," or "so-called honor killings," as MADRE observes.

The organization "Gendercide Watch" uses the term "gendercide" and defines these barbaric acts against women as "acts of murder in which a woman is killed for actual or perceived ‘immoral' behavior.... marital infidelity (actual or alleged), refusing to submit to an arranged marriage, demanding a divorce, speaking with men outside of the family, failing to serve a meal on time, or ‘allowing herself' to be raped."

Yes, in many places in the world, the victim is blamed for this terrible crime against her, and, in the other cases, for what are truly small, routine, and innocent acts of daily life.

The underlying purpose of gendercide is to maintain men's power in families, communities, and entire societies by denying girls and women basic--and internationally recognized--rights to make their own independent decisions about issues such as marriage, divorce, and whether and with whom to have sex. "Honor crimes" are now a recognized form of violence against women in international human rights laws and treaties.

Gendercide is sometimes assumed to be sanctioned by Islam since these shocking attacks appear to most commonly occur in the Middle East. But while the perpetrators of gendercide (in some countries, they are out of prison in few months and are treated as heroes in their communities) may use religious justification for their acts, no sanction for such murders is granted in Islamic religion or law and these crimes are not rooted in any religious text. In fact, they appear to have originated in customary law that pre-dates both Islam and Christianity.

This form of brutality against women is a global phenomenon. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that a minimum of 5,000 women and girls become gendercide victims every year.

These killings span communities, religions, and countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Palestinian Territories, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, Uganda, the United Kingdom, the United States, Venezuela, and Yemen.

Rana Husseini, journalist, feminist, and award-winning human rights defender, broke the silence and shame surrounding gendercide in her country of Jordan in 1994. As the new crime reporter of The Jordan Times, she started to investigate "crimes of honor" and was appalled by what she learned.

In the name of honor, a 16-year-old girl was killed by her family because she was raped repeatedly by her 31-year-old brother. She discovered she was pregnant, her family arranged an abortion, and then they married her off to a man fifty years her senior. When her husband divorced her six months later, another brother murdered her. (In some cases, the woman is forced to marry the rapist; this was impossible in this situation because the rapist was her brother.) The young woman was actually accused of being the seducer; her family repeatedly stated that she had tarnished the family image by committing an impure act. ‘Blood cleanses honor,' the killers say.

Her revolutionary series of reports on the horrors of gendercide exposed these crimes against women to her country and the world; the secrecy was ended and, in fact, the new Jordanian constitution has begun to recognize women's rights.

Avenging family honor is a product of societies in which women's bodies-specifically their hymens-have become a brutal tool in the control of women. A woman's honor, purity, and virginity are seen as the property of the community and the men around her and must be guarded at all times. The woman is guarded externally by her behavior and dress code, and internally by keeping her hymen intact.

While international law calls on governments to protect women, it is the states themselves who are far too often complicit in the violence of gendercide. Many countries do not yet recognize gendercide as murder; instead, the state frequently offers vastly reduced sentences (if any at all) for the "honor" rape, mutilation, and killing of women and girls. In the small, rural, and isolated areas where gendercide is often observed as being most prevalent, tribal elders dominate the cultural behavior and morés of their communities and are absolutely key to involve in changing attitudes towards women and in bringing about laws that will end gendercide.

Even with ongoing death threats, established and emerging human rights groups continue to challenge the foundation of gendercide as they also strive to protect women and girls who are in danger. Organizations such as BAOBAB for Women's Rights in Nigeria and The Jordanian Women's Union are examples of dynamic organizations who believe that empowering, and protecting, women through shelter, counsel, education, literacy training, and legal awareness are the best ways to fight discrimination and social oppression. Recently, officials in the Kurdish region of Iraq stated that they are "seeking to end the ancient tribal tradition of so-called ‘honor' killings related to premarital or extramarital sex and out-of- wedlock pregnancies."

Combating all gender-based violence, including gendercide, requires listening to, and supporting, the leadership of our sisters in Muslim countries--and everywhere. It is critical to focus on gendercide as violence against women and not allow these discussions, particularly in the West, to disintegrate into anti-Muslim and anti-Islam racist diatribes. So-called honor killings, after all, are yet another extension of the madonna-whore view of women and girls that we experience so often in the US and are, in fact, seen very clearly in the actions and statements of the anti-choice/ anti-contraceptive/anti-women's movements here. In the US, women having abortions are still often seen as promiscuous and as sluts (recently discussed by Amanda Marcotte). Strict gender roles, stereotypes of men and women, the fear of women's power and sexuality, and the control of women through violence are global phenomena and certainly are not the doing of any one country, religion, tradition, or culture.

We must use our voices to speak out for women's lives and dignity and seek to end gender-based violence wherever it is occurring.