by Anita Saville
In the late 1980s, before cellphones and texting, my wife and I helped with clinic defense at two abortion clinics in Brookline. On most Saturdays, we’d get a call around 5 AM asking us to phone 10 activists and give them 10 names to call. Around 6, we’d hop in the car and drive 45 minutes to whichever clinic Operation Rescue had targeted that day.
Like many activists, I’m furious, sad, terrified — and really, really tired. But we MUST go back to the streets.
Others from Boston’s chapter of the National Organization for Women had their own phone trees. So by the time we arrived our activists usually well outnumbered the OR thugs who rode in on buses, largely from out of state. Some of us escorted women through the jeering crowd into the clinic, often for procedures that had nothing to do with abortion. The rest of us held signs, chanted, and sang — trying to ignore the truly vile things shouted in our direction. Our job was to show those entering the clinic, and members of the press who showed up, that Boston was pro-choice.
My wife and I have also marched on Washington for abortion rights multiple times and intentionally sought pro-choice candidates to support. We’ve rallied with like-minded activists as court decisions and legislation eroded the reproductive self-determination set forth in Roe. We’ve wept when doctors and staff were shot in cold blood at the clinics we defended and elsewhere around the country. We’ve donated to groups like Planned Parenthood that fight like hell to protect whatever access to safe abortions is left.
Abortion rights are human rights.
I’m a long-time lesbian, have never been pregnant, and will never need an abortion. But I believe in my core that the right to control my body — and my life — is as crucial as my right to free speech or my right to vote. Born a feminist, I know this control is key to gender equality. No one should be forced to bear a child. That never ends well, as we saw with the high rates of death from back-alley abortions and suicide before Roe.
Of course those who can travel to states where abortion remains legal will continue to control their bodies and their lives. The worst burdens will fall on those with limited means, people of color, immigrants, and teens — from poor mental and economic health to dangerous medical risks, higher risk of domestic violence, and an increase in child poverty.
We all expected this ultra-conservative court to support the 15-week cut-off for abortions in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Many of us knew the entire Roe decision could be trashed. Still shocking, though, is Judge Alito’s belief that there’s no right to abortion since it’s not mentioned in the Constitution. This, legal experts say, opens the door to a national ban on abortions — including self-managed (medication) abortions. We could next see bans on contraception, equal marriage, interracial marriage, and so much more.
Fight like it’s 1973
Like many activists, I’m furious, sad, terrified — and really, really tired. But we MUST go back to the streets and urge our elected officials, the last backstop to abortion rights, to enact state and national protections for reproductive freedom immediately. With renewed vigor, we must vote out representatives at all levels of government who do not support reproductive justice, marriage equality, contraception, and a fundamental right to privacy in its many other forms. We must donate what we can to organizations that protect abortion where it remains legal.
The battle is again engaged. See you on the front lines.
Watch our Action Springboard for ways to support pro-choice candidates in state and federal races.
Banner image CC by 2.0, Fibonacci Blue
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