Stop Patriarchy

http://revcom.us/a/298/arkansas-law-biggest-assault-on-right-to-abortion-en.html

Revolution #271, June 10, 2012

On May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller was assassinated as he acted as an usher in his Wichita, Kansas church on a Sunday morning. Dr. George Tiller was a hero. Dr. Tiller’s commitment to women went far beyond merely providing abortions to women, as essential as that is. Dr. Tiller withstood years and years of targeted harassment, threats, and terror directed at him and his family. When his clinic was firebombed, he posted a sign outside during its reconstruction which read, “Hell No, We Won’t Go!” When he was shot in both arms during a previous assassination attempt, he went immediately back to work.

Not only did he provide abortions, he provided late-term abortions. These types of abortions make up only 2% of all abortions but are some of the most essential; women who seek them tend to be those who discover a life-threatening problem late in the pregnancy or women who were unable to get abortions earlier due to being extremely young and/or extremely poor and/or in places with extreme restrictions to abortion access. Women traveled from around the world seeking out his services.


Not only did he provide these late-term abortions at great risk to himself, he did it with extraordinary compassion. Once, Dr. Tiller heard that a woman who was driving up from the South to visit his clinic was sleeping in her car because she couldn’t afford a motel. Despite the fact that he had already offered to provide her abortion for free, he instructed his staff to pay for her hotel and her meals during her travels. When he heard that an extremely young woman who had been impregnated through rape was traveling from another city to his clinic, he had his entire staff dressed in T-shirts which read, “Friends of Annie” [the young woman’s name] when she arrived! When I attended his memorial three years ago, many women from Wichita told me the stories of their own abortions, adding, “Dr. Tiller gave me my life back.”

While Dr. Tiller was assassinated by one man, his death was the result of a whole nationwide campaign over many years to demonize, isolate, criminalize and stop—by any means—abortion providers from giving women the ability to terminate a pregnancy. Every time someone—whether a Christian fascist, a “pro-choice” Democrat, or a television drama—refers to abortion as “killing a baby” they are contributing to an atmosphere where providers are seen as people with “blood on their hands” who “deserve” violence and retribution. In reality, fetuses are NOT babies and abortion is NOT murder!

Further, every time lawmakers restrict abortion access, they commit an act every bit as illegitimate, immoral, and violent towards women as the assassination of George Tiller was. The question is not whether these attacks are carried out “by individuals” acting “outside the law” or by a fascist movement acting through the power of the state. Forcing women to have children against their will is enslavement. It is an act of violence against women every bit as damaging as rape.

This is something that many providers understand, and this is why they risk so much to provide abortion services to women.

In the three years since George Tiller’s assassination, lawmakers have passed an unprecedented level of restrictions to abortion nationwide and violence against clinics and threats to providers have continued unabated.

On this anniversary, let us never forget the life of commitment to women lived by Dr. George Tiller. Let us never forgive the movement which took his life and which threatens the lives and futures of the half of the population who have been born female. Finally, let us redouble our determination to protect and defend those who risk everything to provide abortions to women and let us fight for a world where providing abortions no longer requires such risk and abortion and birth control are available to all women all the time on demand and without apology!

To get involved in the fight for Abortion on Demand & Without Apology as well as the fight to End Patriarchy and Pornography: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women altogether, contact:stoppatriarchy@gmail.com.

Come to a discussion inspired by the themes in the new HBO series “Girls”!

Thursday - May 3 - 7-9 pm
at
Book Culture Bookstore
536 West 112th Street, NYC
[btw Broadway & Amsterdam, #1 to 110th St.]

*  Is there such a thing as “good sex”? If so, what makes it “good”?
*  Must abortion be an agonizing decision?
*  What makes for a “meaningful life”? A career… friends…sex…or something more?

NOTE: You do not have to have seen the show to participate!

Discussion hosted by Sunsara Taylor and the project to End Pornography and Patriarchy: The Enslavement and Degradation of Women

“It is long past time that this new generation stand up, reject, and RESIST this culture of rape and pornography; this culture that labels women  “selfish” if they choose not to become mothers; this culture that reduces women  and girls to sexualized objects while denying their full multi-dimensional  humanity (including their right-as one essential part of this-to explore their  sexuality without shame or stigma); this culture that demonizes and bullies LGBT  people….”

“Women are not objects. Women are not things to  be used for the sexual pleasure of men NOR are they breeders of children. WOMEN ARE HUMAN BEINGS CAPABLE OF FULL EQUALITY IN EVERY REALM!”

stoppatriarchy@gmail.com

THURS.  *  FEB. 9TH   *  7:00

ORGANIZING MEETING FOR
March 10th – NYC - In the streets to mark
International Women’s Day!

at Revolution Books - 146 W. 26th St. NYC
212-691-3345 – Btw 6-7th Aves.

End Pornography and Patriarchy:
The Enslavement and Degradation of Women!

Abortion On Demand and Without Apology!

Fight for the Emancipation of Women All Over the World!

Women are not objects. Women are not things to be used for the sexual pleasure of men NOR are they breeders of children. WOMEN ARE HUMAN BEINGS CAPABLE OF FULL EQUALITY IN EVERY REALM!

Be part of making plans for IWD march in NYC.

contact: stoppatriarchy@gmail.com

We are told that “equality for women has been won” and that “there are no limits to what girls can achieve.” BULLSHIT!

Every 15 seconds a woman is beaten. Every day three to four women are killed by their partners. One in four female college students will be raped or sexually assaulted while in college.

Pornography has become increasingly violent, cruel, degrading towards women even as it has become more mainstream. Millions of women are trafficked as literal chattel in the international sex industry.

This is NOT society becoming more comfortable with sex. This is society becoming saturated with the sexualized degradation of women. If you can’t imagine sex without porn, you’re fucked.

At the same time, the right to abortion and even birth control are under escalating assault. Being forced to bear a child against your will is a form of enslavement.

THIS MUST BE STOPPED!

Women are not objects. Women are not things to be used for the sexual pleasure of men NOR are they breeders of children. WOMEN ARE HUMAN BEINGS CAPABLE OF FULL EQUALITY IN EVERY REALM!

Initiated by the movement to End Pornography and Patriarchy; the Enslavement and Degradation of Women

There is absolutely nothing wrong, tragic, unfortunate, or sad about a woman choosing to get an abortion. Nothing.

Why?

Because being forced to have a child against your will is enslavement. Period.

Why else?

Because fetuses are NOT babies. Fetuses have the potential to become babies, but until they are born they have no independent social or biological existence. They are a subordinate part of a woman’s body. Any state, religious, or family intervention which forces – or even pressures – a woman into subordinating her life, dreams and health to incubating that fetus against her will is completely unjust and illegitimate. It is immoral and it is enslaving.

But what about her responsibility? If she didn’t want a baby, shouldn’t she have thought of that before she “opened her legs”?

This argument is wrong on at least four levels. First, this suggests that it is wrong for women to have sex and that they must be punished for doing so (while applying a totally different standard to men). Second, this approach treats children – who should be wanted and well cared for – like nothing more than a punishment to women. Third, this ignores the fact that getting an abortion when one is not ready or eager to have a child is taking responsibility. Finally, this ignores the fact that it is the very Christian fascists who are criminalizing abortion who are responsible for denying increasing numbers of women access to birth control and sex education (which makes it enormously harder for them to protect themselves from pregnancy during sex in the first place).

But what about when a woman is raped? Or if she really wanted to have a baby but there is something wrong with the fetus or a danger to her own life? Doesn’t that make the abortion sad?

Again, fuck no!

If a woman is impregnated because of being raped, it is the rape that is the horrific crime – the abortion which prevents her from being forced to bear the child of her rapist is positive and liberating.

If a woman really wants a child but something goes wrong with the pregnancy, it is the medical problems that are the tragedy – the abortion that eliminates those dangers is positive and liberating.

*************************

Women are human beings, not incubators. A woman who cannot decide for herself when and whether she will have a child has no more freedom than a slave. Abortion is not something to apologize for, it is something to celebrate and defend. 1 in 3 women will have an abortion in her life, she is not wrong for doing so. It is time to declare loudly and boldly:

ABORTION ON DEMAND AND WITHOUT APOLOGY!!!

Sunsara Taylor writes for Revolution newspaper and is on the Advisory Board of World Can’t Wait. Follow her on twitter @sunsarataylor, friend her on facebook and add sunsarataylor.blogspot.com to your blogroll

American Family Planning Clinic, Pensacola

On January 1st, by 1:00 in the morning, an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida was engulfed in flames. By all accounts thus far, this was a case of arson.

But chances are you have heard nothing about this.

The fact that there has not been a single politician commenting on this violent assault on an institution that is essential to women’s freedom and that this act of terror has not been picked up on in the national/mainstream media should only serve as a further wake-up call to those who care about women’s rights.

No one will defend women’s right to abortion and birth control but the millions of us who refuse to see women enslaved. We must rely on ourselves, not on the Democrats or electoral politics. We must take to the streets and not go back home. We must reseize the moral high-ground, declaring: Abortion on Demand and Without Apology. We must be in the streets in DC on January 22nd & 23rd to stand up for abortion rights!

While no one was hurt in the fire, this fire will cripple the ability of an already overstretched community of abortion providers to meet the very real and urgent needs of women in western Florida, Alabama and Mississippi for abortion care. This will cause tremendous suffering and unnecessary burdens on women who seek abortions. This will cause great financial strain on those who seek to provide abortions.   And, this will – as it was undoubtedly intended to do – strike fear in the hearts of those most courageous individuals who knowingly risk their lives every day to provide women with this absolutely essential, completely moral, remarkably common, and medically safe procedure all across this country.
 

To be clear, this is NOT the first time an abortion clinic, its staff, or its patients have been the victims of extreme violence and it will not be the last.

In Pensacola alone, several clinics were fire-bombed on Christmas day back in 1984 in what those convicted described as a “a gift for Jesus on his birthday.” It was there that the first abortion doctor, Dr. David Gunn,was assassinated outside his clinic in 1993. In 1994, John Britton, along with his security escort James Barrett, were also gunned down.  In Wichita, Kansas, as recently as 2009, abortion doctor George Tiller was murdered as he attended his church on a Sunday morning.

Already, people are rationalizing this violence and issuing threats in online forums: “Anyone that performs, supports, or participates in abortions should be given the death penalty. And lets nuke Iran while we’re at it.” “These clinics, are going to be the target of ridicule as long as they are in operation. This clinic, should not be rebuilt, and any other abortion clinic should be shut down. Abortion is legal in the State of Florida but it is not a good idea for one to be operating in a town that obviously does not want it.” “At least some little lives will be saved since the clinic is out of commission.”

But that is not the worst of it.

It is time we stop allowing the mainstream of the anti-abortion movement, and the mainstream of American politics (Republican and Democrat) to distance themselves from these kinds of acts and this kind of hatred of women.

The truth is, whether the restriction of women’s right to abortion is carried out through legal changes – such as “personhood” amendments, late-term restrictions, funding of fake clinics, etc. – or whether this is carried out through extra-legal terror, they are all violence against women.

Being expected by all of society to subordinate one’s life, ambitions, dreams and intellect to one’s biological ability to bear children – and having this expectation legislated through the most powerful and repressive state in the world – is enslavement. Whether this is done “legally” or through extra-legal terror doesn’t make one shred of difference in the lives of real women and of future generations.

 
In fact, these two different tactics – the legal and the extra-legal – work together. This is true whether those carrying out these different tactics recognize this or not. The kind of violence and terror that has been aimed at abortion doctors and clinics is fueled and unleashed by those in the “mainstream” who equate fetuses with babies and abortion with murder (which, again, both Republicans and Democrats routinely do – think most recently of the Democratic support for the amendment in Mississippi which almost granted full “personhood” rights to all fertilized eggs!). And when clinics are burned or doctors are killed, these “mainstream” opponents of abortion can appear “reasonable” and less extreme in pushing forward measures which will have a much more lasting and horrendous impact on even greater numbers of women. 

The charred structure of the clinic in Pensacola, the shattered body of Emily Lyons (the nurse who was torn apart in the bombing of a clinic in Alabama), the assassinations of Dr. Gunn, Dr. Britton, Dr. Slepian and Dr. Tiller, the hatred and venom spewed at women who enter these clinics nation-wide is not different in any fundamental way from the violence that will be done and the oppressive terror that is being locked in place with every legal restriction on abortion.

 
Being forced to bear a child against your will is the enslavement of women. Bleeding to death from a perforated uterus because you cannot find access to a safe and legal abortion is just one result of this enslavement. Being arrested and held in jail for providing abortions to women in need – as has already happened now to several doctors legally – is the enforcement of this enslavement. Being arrested for self-inducing your own abortion – as has happened to women in several states, including very recently in New York City! – is more enforcement of this enslavement.

 
All of this is state-sponsored violence and it is just as damaging as any extra-legal violence against women and women’s clinics has been. The only difference is that it is viewed as “legitimate” by millions and it happens on a much grander scale!

Let the fire in Pensacola be a wake up call to us all. That, along with the countless other incidents of violence and terror against clinics and providers, is the true face of the anti-abortion movement.
 

Let the silence of both major ruling-class political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, about this terror – along with their continuous chipping away at this most fundamental right – confirm the need to rely on ourselves!

 
Without the right to decide for themselves when and whether to have a child, women cannot be free. If women are not free then no one is free.

There are millions of us. It’s time to stand up.

Join us and World Can’t Wait in DC on January 22nd for a program at Busboys & Poets for a panel, discussion and dinner on the anniversary of Roe V. Wade and join us on the steps of the Supreme Court to Stand Up For Abortion Rights in the face of the so-called “March 4 Life.” on January 23rd!!

Sunsara Taylor writes for Revolution Newspaper and is on the Advisory Board of World Can’t Wait.  follow Sunsara Taylor on twitter @sunsarataylor, friend her on facebook and add sunsara.blogspot.com to your blogroll

There is absolutely nothing wrong, tragic, unfortunate, or sad about a woman choosing to get an abortion. Nothing.

Why?

Because being forced to have a child against your will is enslavement. Period.

Why else?

Because fetuses are NOT babies. Fetuses have the potential to become babies, but until they are born they have no independent social or biological existence. They are a subordinate part of a woman’s body. Any state, religious, or family intervention which forces – or even pressures – a woman into subordinating her life, dreams and health to incubating that fetus against her will is completely unjust and illegitimate. It is immoral and it is enslaving.

But what about her responsibility? If she didn’t want a baby, shouldn’t she have thought of that before she “opened her legs”?

This argument is wrong on at least four levels. First, this suggests that it is wrong for women to have sex and that they must be punished for doing so (while applying a totally different standard to men). Second, this approach treats children – who should be wanted and well cared for – like nothing more than a punishment to women. Third, this ignores the fact that getting an abortion when one is not ready or eager to have a child is taking responsibility. Finally, this ignores the fact that it is the very Christian fascists who are criminalizing abortion who are responsible for denying increasing numbers of women access to birth control and sex education (which makes it enormously harder for them to protect themselves from pregnancy during sex in the first place).

But what about when a woman is raped? Or if she really wanted to have a baby but there is something wrong with the fetus or a danger to her own life? Doesn’t that make the abortion sad?

If a woman is impregnated because of being raped, it is the rape that is the horrific crime – the abortion which prevents her from being forced to bear the child of her rapist is positive and liberating.

If a woman really wants a child but something goes wrong with the pregnancy, it is the medical problems that are the tragedy – the abortion that eliminates those dangers is positive and liberating.

*************************

Women are human beings, not incubators. A woman who cannot decide for herself when and whether she will have a child has no more freedom than a slave. Abortion is not something to apologize for, it is something to celebrate and defend. 1 in 3 women will have an abortion in her life, she is not wrong for doing so. It is time to declare loudly and boldly:

ABORTION ON DEMAND AND WITHOUT APOLOGY!!!

Sunsara Taylor writes for Revolution Newspaper, is on the Advisory Board of World Can’t Wait, and is a co-host on Equal Time for Freethought on WBAI 99.5 in NYC. Follow her on Twitter @sunsarataylor, friend her on facebook, and add sunsara.blogspot.com to your blogroll. 

Join us in Washington DC
in front of the Supreme Court
on January 23rd
(to counter the “March for Life”)
starting at 11am

IT IS TIME!
January 22 and 23, on the 39th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision which legalized abortion, come to DC to:

Stand up for Abortion and Birth Control

39 years after women won the right to abortion, this fundamental right is hanging by a thread.

• Nearly 90% of U.S. counties have no abortion provider.
• 2011 saw the greatest number of restrictions passed at the state level – parental notification laws, mandatory waiting periods, gestational bans, etc. – restricting this access even further.
• Doctors who provide abortions are hunted, terrorized and killed.
• And the stigma and shame cast on women who get abortions is greater than ever.

But that is not all.

Read More

The second in a series of talks by Sunsara Taylor for the new movement of resistance to End Pornography and Patriarchy; the Enslavement and Degradation of Women.

A huge wave of extremely dangerous, utterly heartless, and profoundly anti-woman legislation has swept through state legislatures this year and there have been new threats to abortion providers. 

• What is behind this assault on women’s lives? 
• What’s wrong with seeking “common ground” with anti-abortionists?
• What’s wrong with the notion that abortion should be “legal, but rare”?  

Sunsara will bring out the positive morality of the right to abortion, the immorality of those who oppose this right and the need for stepped-up resistance!  

at Revolution Books, 146 West 26th Street, NYC  212-691-3345

Between 6th-7th Aves, NYC

$5-10 donation requested at the door

Upcoming on Wed. Nov. 30, Sunsara Taylor on
“Why and How the Future Revolutionary Society Will End Pornography, Prostitution, and Patriarchy”