Silencing 50 million Women

What Does it Take to Silence 50 Million Women?
By Charlotte Taft, Director, Abortion Care Network

           What does it take to silence 50 million women? As you may have surmised, 50 million is a conservative estimate of the number of American women who have had abortions since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. 50 million---that’s about the combined populations of Texas and New York. If you add 50 million men, you have more Americans than the populations of California, Texas, New York, and Florida put together. Just imagine where we would be if each one of those people felt a responsibility to speak out for the rights of others to make the choice they made.

            Unfortunately, as we all know, we don’t have 100 million voices.

            Abortion is an experience that combines two of our greatest cultural taboos---sex and death. Add a dash of one of humanity’s most complex and contradictory archetypes---motherhood--and throw in two heaping cups of a forty year long religious and political campaign to shame women, and you have a surefire recipe for conflict, confusion, and silence.

            In the early 1970’s, attorney Flo Kennedy was famous for her quote, “If Men Could Get Pregnant, Abortion Would be a Sacrament.”. The Federal funding available for the sacramental miracle of Viagra is witness to the continuing truth of that statement. The truth hasn’t changed, but our culture has so deeply absorbed the no-choices message that I’d be surprised if anyone would speak with such moxie for fear of seeming to trivialize abortion. And as much as I appreciate the humor in her statement, I also think it represents an approach that still makes it hard for men to have any idea how to be part of this discussion beyond promising to support whatever a woman wants. We have to find more nuanced ways of inviting men into this conversation so that their hopes and dreams can be heard as well.

            I recently heard a talk by two women who had written a book about the decades before Roe v. Wade. The authors had shared some pre-Roe documents extolling the moral virtues of abortion with their associates who were in their mid twenties. The young readers had never been exposed to anything that associated ethics and morality with the pro-choices perspective! I believe that providers have a lot to share here.  We have thousands of stories of women seeking to do the best they can and choosing abortion. These don’t have to be dramatic stories--just stories of real life--and we can tell them.

            We all know that there is stigma attached to abortion, but a wonderful colleague, Dr. Jeannie Ludlow, has pointed out that much of the stigma is not accidental or inevitable.  She suggests that we use the word ‘stigmatization’ to remind ourselves that there has been an active, nearly forty year long crusade to instill shame and guilt in women who have dared to make profound life and death choices.  She wants us to remember that much of the stigmatization of abortion is methodical, deliberate, well-funded--and not even secret. Yet in the past 37 years it has become such a part of our culture that we almost don’t even see it, let alone know how to challenge it.

    Jeannie also suggests that we use the word choices to describe what we believe in. The word conveys our commitment to, and respect for, the right of a woman to make whatever reproductive choices she decides are best for her. Besides, the opposite of pro-choice may be pro-life---but what’s the opposite of pro-choices? No-choices. We win!