Created by: EngineeringDegree.net
Monday, May 7, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
UNITE AGAINST THE WAR ON WOMEN
What's the right wing's real agenda? Rick Santorum says it so well...
by Carol DownerWhat's the right wing's real agenda? Rick Santorum says it so well...
MAKING BIRTH CONTROL AVAILABLE "IS A LICENSE TO DO THINGS IN A SEXUAL REALM THAT IS COUNTER TO HOW THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE."
What is the women's agenda? Let's tell it to Rick Santorum and all his buddies.
We have the right to sex with the partner or partners of our choice -- or not to have sex at all -- even if we're married.
We have the right to marry whomever we wish.
We have the right to have children or not to have children -- and if we do have children we have a right to expect our whole society to help in the raising of our children.
We have the right to birth control if we want to use it, or we have the right to an abortion if we become pregnant without wanting to be.
If we have a child, we have the right to choose the manner of our birthing, including home, birth center or hospital, and we have the right to choose who will be at our birthing.
THIS IS OUR AGENDA; AND RICK...THAT'S HOW "THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE!!
STOP WAR AGAINST WOMEN
by Carol Downer
First, they arrested the prostitutes and took them "off the streets". We did nothing, because we were not prostitutes.
Next, they took away federal funds to pay for poor women's abortion. We did nothing, because we were able to pay for our abortions.
Next, they bombed the abortion providers. We did nothing, because we didn't like them anyway, and talking about the whole issue made us uncomfortable.
Next, they outlawed birth control. We could do nothing, because --
We had not defended each woman's right to control her own body, including charging for sex if she wants to.
We had not stuck up for those of us who couldn't afford an abortion.
We didn't honor and protect the abortion provider's who make "choice" a reality
We had not stuck up for those of us who couldn't afford an abortion.
We didn't honor and protect the abortion provider's who make "choice" a reality
Los Angeles, CA
Downtown: Pershing Square, North side
532 Olive Street
Los Angeles, CA
10:00 a.m to 3:30 p.m. (includes March around Pershing)
More info/locations: unitewomen.org
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
RESPONSE TO Darby Mangen's article "End Birth Control? Not if We Can Help It!"
(Response by Carol Downer follows Darby Mangen's article)
End Birth Control? Not if We Can Help It! ... Darby Mangen
Nineteen-year-old Lori looked at me incredulously. “What do you mean, make birth control illegal?” Yet it has become abundantly clear in the fast-moving developments of recent weeks that Republicans would like to do exactly that.
Unthinkable? Until recently, only the lunatic fringe talked seriously about it. Suddenly it has become a legitimate topic of debate — a right women are being forced to defend once again.
Next Front in the War on Women: “No” to Prenatal Testing
Rick Santorum has long opposed contraception and has pledged to preach about “the dangers of contraception in this country,” if elected president. “It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be,” he has said. The former Pennsylvania senator has also claimed that states should have the right to outlaw birth control. At the February convention of CPAC, Santorum took the position that insurance shouldn’t cover birth control because it “only costs a few dollars.”
Republicans have taken up the cause, under the guise of “religious freedom.” Leader of the Senate, vowed to not to let the birth control issue drop until they (the anti-birth control faction) wins.
Now Santorum has added prenatal testing to his list of unacceptable practices. “The government shouldn’t make health care providers fully cover prenatal tests like amniocentesis, which can determine the possibility of Down syndrome or other fetal problems,” said Santorum, who contends the law is intended to increase abortions and reduce health costs — totally brushing off the benefits to women and fetuses offered by prenatal testing and care.
Republican Fight to Control Women Approaching the Orwellian
Women Must Submit to State-Mandated Rape
The Virginia state legislature has passed a law, which Governor McDonnell is expected to sign, requiring women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound before being allowed to terminate a pregnancy. The woman must undergo a medically unnecessary procedure, which penetrates her vagina, without her consent and against her will.
Rape, as redefined by the FBI just last month, is “the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
The legislature made it clear that this requirement is a purely punitive measure when it voted down, by a huge majority, an amendment proposed by a Democrat that would have provided the option, in some cases, of a non-invasive ultrasound. A similar law in Texas has been upheld by its State Supreme Court. The Iowa House is likely to pass a forced ultrasound bill, though the Democratically-controlled Senate will prevent its passage there.
A similar law in Texas has been upheld by its State Supreme Court. The Iowa House is likely to pass a forced ultrasound bill, though the Democratically-controlled Senate will prevent its passage there.
Response by Carol Downer
Hi Darby: I have a comment about your lead article re attacks on birth control. It's good, but I think 19-year-old Lori's reaction to hearing that the right wing wants to make birth control illegal shows me that our "pro-choice" movement has let them set the terms of the debate.
The attack on birth control should not have surprised anyone if they had a clear understanding of the basis for the attack on abortion. It shows me how effective the right wing anti-choice movement has succeeded in making people think that they are concerned about "the sanctity of life" or repelled by the regrettable necessity in the small percentage of later abortion of macerating the fetus. In fact, their strategy is, and always has been, to undermine women's ability to control their own sexuality and their own reproductive lives. The attack on abortion is an opportunistic tactical move to hide their real agenda by exploiting the uneasiness that many people feel about abortion, especially later abortion.
We who are fighting for women's rights to control their sexual and reproductive lives must constantly expose the real agenda of the right wing. Santorum states it in unmistakable language, "it's a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." It's that simple and that profound.
Once you understand their agenda, it's clear that our agenda has to include women's rights to have sex with the partner of her choice, or not to have sex, even if she is married. If a woman chooses to marry, she has to right to marry the partner of her choice; if a woman chooses to have a child, it is her right to dictate the manner of her birthing, including birth center or home birth. If a woman of any age who has passed puberty, chooses to use birth control, it is her right to have access to all methods of birth control. If she chooses not to use birth control or her method of birth control fails, she has a right to an abortion. Just as the patriarchy's broad aim is to subject women to their rule, our aim must be to liberate women, and frame our political strategy in equally broad terms.
End Birth Control? Not if We Can Help It! ... Darby Mangen
Nineteen-year-old Lori looked at me incredulously. “What do you mean, make birth control illegal?” Yet it has become abundantly clear in the fast-moving developments of recent weeks that Republicans would like to do exactly that.
Unthinkable? Until recently, only the lunatic fringe talked seriously about it. Suddenly it has become a legitimate topic of debate — a right women are being forced to defend once again.
Next Front in the War on Women: “No” to Prenatal Testing
Rick Santorum has long opposed contraception and has pledged to preach about “the dangers of contraception in this country,” if elected president. “It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be,” he has said. The former Pennsylvania senator has also claimed that states should have the right to outlaw birth control. At the February convention of CPAC, Santorum took the position that insurance shouldn’t cover birth control because it “only costs a few dollars.”
Republicans have taken up the cause, under the guise of “religious freedom.” Leader of the Senate, vowed to not to let the birth control issue drop until they (the anti-birth control faction) wins.
Now Santorum has added prenatal testing to his list of unacceptable practices. “The government shouldn’t make health care providers fully cover prenatal tests like amniocentesis, which can determine the possibility of Down syndrome or other fetal problems,” said Santorum, who contends the law is intended to increase abortions and reduce health costs — totally brushing off the benefits to women and fetuses offered by prenatal testing and care.
Republican Fight to Control Women Approaching the Orwellian
Women Must Submit to State-Mandated Rape
The Virginia state legislature has passed a law, which Governor McDonnell is expected to sign, requiring women to undergo a transvaginal ultrasound before being allowed to terminate a pregnancy. The woman must undergo a medically unnecessary procedure, which penetrates her vagina, without her consent and against her will.
Rape, as redefined by the FBI just last month, is “the penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.”
The legislature made it clear that this requirement is a purely punitive measure when it voted down, by a huge majority, an amendment proposed by a Democrat that would have provided the option, in some cases, of a non-invasive ultrasound. A similar law in Texas has been upheld by its State Supreme Court. The Iowa House is likely to pass a forced ultrasound bill, though the Democratically-controlled Senate will prevent its passage there.
A similar law in Texas has been upheld by its State Supreme Court. The Iowa House is likely to pass a forced ultrasound bill, though the Democratically-controlled Senate will prevent its passage there.
Response by Carol Downer
Hi Darby: I have a comment about your lead article re attacks on birth control. It's good, but I think 19-year-old Lori's reaction to hearing that the right wing wants to make birth control illegal shows me that our "pro-choice" movement has let them set the terms of the debate.
The attack on birth control should not have surprised anyone if they had a clear understanding of the basis for the attack on abortion. It shows me how effective the right wing anti-choice movement has succeeded in making people think that they are concerned about "the sanctity of life" or repelled by the regrettable necessity in the small percentage of later abortion of macerating the fetus. In fact, their strategy is, and always has been, to undermine women's ability to control their own sexuality and their own reproductive lives. The attack on abortion is an opportunistic tactical move to hide their real agenda by exploiting the uneasiness that many people feel about abortion, especially later abortion.
We who are fighting for women's rights to control their sexual and reproductive lives must constantly expose the real agenda of the right wing. Santorum states it in unmistakable language, "it's a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be." It's that simple and that profound.
Once you understand their agenda, it's clear that our agenda has to include women's rights to have sex with the partner of her choice, or not to have sex, even if she is married. If a woman chooses to marry, she has to right to marry the partner of her choice; if a woman chooses to have a child, it is her right to dictate the manner of her birthing, including birth center or home birth. If a woman of any age who has passed puberty, chooses to use birth control, it is her right to have access to all methods of birth control. If she chooses not to use birth control or her method of birth control fails, she has a right to an abortion. Just as the patriarchy's broad aim is to subject women to their rule, our aim must be to liberate women, and frame our political strategy in equally broad terms.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Abortion Speak Out Campaign
January 22nd marks the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. As it stands now, women seeking abortion care must walk through crowds of protestors; abortion providers fear for their safety; states are passing laws to make women seeking abortions go through waiting periods, obtain parental or judicial permission, or view photos of aborted fetuses; politicians vote against women's reproductive rights.
We can turn this situation around if we talk to each other, privately and publicly about our experience with abortion – removing the secrecy and stigma and replacing it with sisterhood and collective action.
This year, if you are planning a campus event, discussion group, fundraiser, or sharing a meal with friends and/or family share your abortion story. Or if this post inspires you to have a Roe v. Wade ‘event’ – plan to share abortion stories. Sharing our stories not only helps us to integrate our abortion experience into our lives, but also informs others of the reality of abortion and lets other women know they're not alone.
When hundreds of thousands of us start sharing our stories with friends and relatives, the cumulative effect of our honesty will be like the sun coming out of the clouds
Take a moment to read WHWH Abortion Speak Out Kit; look through the material. Its intent is to be a guide for organizations or individuals who express interest to create a 'safe-space' where people can share their abortion stories.
Encouraging Suggestions:
(1) Host an Abortion Speak Out - Over the past year, organizations held over six different Abortion Speak Outs throughout the country; from the 2010 N.O.W. Conference (Boston, MA) to “Open Mic Speak Outs" in Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan.
(2) Post the Abortion Speak Out Palm Card (at school, work, etc.) - A prescreened list of pro choice websites, where women can share their stories and read other women's stories (i.e. 45 Million Voices, I’mNotSorry, Project Voice, etc); to prevent people from going onto FAKE clinics websites. For copies print p. 7 of the speak out kit.
(3) Host an “Abortion Speak Out” Conversation Night – invite friends and family for a potluck dinner and share frank and honest opinions surrounding abortion. References: Abortion Diaries by Penny Lane and My Abortion, My Life Conversation Night.
(4) Your Suggestions and Ideas - As emphasized before, the kit is only a guideline (don't let it hinder your creativity). Please keep us informed of any creative outlet this kit provides.
- Women’s Health in Women’s Hands
Recommended Read: As Access Slides, Feminists Need to "Extract" From Our Self-Help Past by Carol Downer
We can turn this situation around if we talk to each other, privately and publicly about our experience with abortion – removing the secrecy and stigma and replacing it with sisterhood and collective action.
This year, if you are planning a campus event, discussion group, fundraiser, or sharing a meal with friends and/or family share your abortion story. Or if this post inspires you to have a Roe v. Wade ‘event’ – plan to share abortion stories. Sharing our stories not only helps us to integrate our abortion experience into our lives, but also informs others of the reality of abortion and lets other women know they're not alone. When hundreds of thousands of us start sharing our stories with friends and relatives, the cumulative effect of our honesty will be like the sun coming out of the clouds
Take a moment to read WHWH Abortion Speak Out Kit; look through the material. Its intent is to be a guide for organizations or individuals who express interest to create a 'safe-space' where people can share their abortion stories.
Encouraging Suggestions:
(1) Host an Abortion Speak Out - Over the past year, organizations held over six different Abortion Speak Outs throughout the country; from the 2010 N.O.W. Conference (Boston, MA) to “Open Mic Speak Outs" in Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan.
(2) Post the Abortion Speak Out Palm Card (at school, work, etc.) - A prescreened list of pro choice websites, where women can share their stories and read other women's stories (i.e. 45 Million Voices, I’mNotSorry, Project Voice, etc); to prevent people from going onto FAKE clinics websites. For copies print p. 7 of the speak out kit.(3) Host an “Abortion Speak Out” Conversation Night – invite friends and family for a potluck dinner and share frank and honest opinions surrounding abortion. References: Abortion Diaries by Penny Lane and My Abortion, My Life Conversation Night.
(4) Your Suggestions and Ideas - As emphasized before, the kit is only a guideline (don't let it hinder your creativity). Please keep us informed of any creative outlet this kit provides.
- Women’s Health in Women’s Hands
Recommended Read: As Access Slides, Feminists Need to "Extract" From Our Self-Help Past by Carol Downer
Thursday, January 12, 2012
As Access Slides, Feminists Need to "Extract" From Our Self-Help Past
[Originally published in On The Issues Magazine]
by Carol Downer
If working in the abortion movement for over 40 years qualifies me to gaze into my crystal ball to see the future for abortion rights in the United States, here goes.
Prediction Number One: I see the Supreme Court continuing to interpret Roe v. Wade in a way that will make abortion, especially later abortion, more expensive, less convenient to access and more humiliating, but I do not see the court reversing Roe v. Wade outright. I see clinics closing down due to restrictive regulations and lack of doctors, especially in areas far from an urban center. This lack of access will mostly affect young women and poor women of color. But, as was the case before the decision in Roe v. Wade, the majority of unwillingly pregnant women will continue to get abortions, no matter how far they have to travel or no matter how great the cost or risk.
Why? The hypocritical leaders of this country, both right and left, recognize that the U.S. industrialized economy is built on the small nuclear family with both parents working, so large families are out. This lowers the birth rate, which satisfies the leaders, who, rather than creating a more just, sustainable society, think reducing women's fertility solves social problems such as pollution and poverty. Immigration, legal and illegal, produces the influx of workers and soldiers so desired by the conservatives who have created an unjust society where one percent possess the wealth and resources, further enabling them to keep the 99 percent low-paid and politically powerless.
Prediction Number Two. I see successive generations of young U.S. women accepting new restrictions. I also see some radical feminist actions, such as the formation of an underground movement of menstrual extraction groups. This will keep the technology alive, but will not change the trend that makes abortion less available, more expensive and more stigmatized.
Why? Once Roe v. Wade became the law in 1973, all organized efforts to educate the public and to seize the technology of abortion came to an abrupt halt. The leadership, by default, fell to a few political advocacy groups, such as NARAL Pro-Choice America in Washington D.C. and Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York and D.C. They keep a vigilant eye on how Congressional members vote on legislation affecting birth control and abortion. They, and NOW, have organized a couple of mammoth abortion rights marches on Washington over the years. But Washington D.C. ignores the masses who come in on Saturday, march through the streets, then board the busses and go home on Sunday.
In 1976, the first, most devastating blow to Roe v. Wade came through Congress, not the Supreme Court. Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, an addendum to an appropriations bill, to stop any federal funding of abortion for low-income women. Every year, Congress re-passes this amendment. Every year, Congress exploits the racist and classist bias of the women's movement. We were ignominiously defeated by the passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, 35 years ago.
Even though the vast majority of American women are pro-choice, even feminists are complacent and do nothing other than voting for pro-choice elected officials and sending a check to their favorite national pro-choice organization.
Turning Back the Attack
In my opinion, the factors keeping abortion "safe and legal" are: (1) the continuing broad public support for the decriminalization of abortion; (2) the stalwart daily work of hundreds of doctors and abortion clinics around the country in the face of anti-abortion harassment and violence, and (3) the policymakers' need to keep women in the workforce.
To regain the ground the women won in the past, we have to learn how we won it and apply those lessons to today. We must revive the spirit of the second wave of the feminist movement, which came out of the anti-war movement and the civil rights movement. The Women's Liberation Movement started out to liberate women by challenging the whole "system," but, unfortunately, changed its focus to raising women's status in that system.
Most American women today were not born then or were children, and have not experienced being part of a major social movement for women's liberation, as I experienced in the 1960s and 1970s. I joined the Los Angeles chapter of NOW in 1969, and was part of that huge wave of women who came forward to demand women's liberation, including repeal or reform of anti-abortion laws. Through the decade before that, I read frequent newspaper articles announcing that a respected community or professional organization had passed some resolution recommending the decriminalization of abortion. In 1962, I saw the television coverage of Sherri Finkbine's trip to Scandanavia to get an abortion.
This coverage was part of a powerful campaign to stop back-alley abortions. It was led by white religious leaders, mostly men, and professionals, mostly men, who educated the public and roused public outrage against these unjust laws. By the end of the decade, the women's movement started. Many women's groups set up "women's nights" at the local free clinic to provide birth control; they were referring women to New York and California to get abortions. One group, "Jane", in Chicago, set up an abortion service. The women at Harvard were delving into the medical library to write a newsprint booklet, "Women and Their Bodies," which was so popular that Simon and Schuster published it as Our Bodies Ourselves in 1970.
On the West Coast, our group worked with Lana Clark Phelan and Patricia Maginnis, the founders of NARAL (which stood for the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws). We learned to do abortions with a new hand-held device that used suction to remove the contents of an early pregnancy; Lorraine Rothman modified that device so that groups of us who were minimally trained could extract either our menstrual period or an early pregnancy. We called this procedure "menstrual extraction." In 1971, Lorraine and I toured the country, teaching vaginal self-examination; self help and menstrual extraction groups sprung up at most of the places we visited. Rebecca Chalker described the process of menstrual extraction in On The Issues Magazine in 1993.
It was the cumulative effect of all these years of mainstream efforts, topped off by the massive numbers of women coming forward to protest, to march and to start projects to circumvent the law that laid the foundation for Roe v. Wade. The seizing of the means of reproduction by the women of the self-help movement did not escape the notice of Justice Harry Blackmun, the Supreme Court justice who authored Roe v. Wade and referred to it in his opinion (see section IX, Letter B) among a list of new medical techniques. I believe that in another couple of years, one way or another, abortion laws would have become irrelevant because women in the U.S. were taking the matter into our own hands.
The Women's Liberation Movement saw the right to an abortion as part of the right of a woman to control her own body and her own reproduction and sexuality, which, in turn, is part of women's full participation in society and their power to assert their values.
Through the years, women have been somewhat successful in raising women's status, but in a militaristic, environmentally destructive society. U.S. women may come closer to earning as much as their male counterparts and getting as much education, but the system has become more entrenched and women's education and work only makes it more so.
Women are losing ground every day in the control of our sexual and reproductive lives. Women seek genital surgery to make their vulva and clitoris look like some non-existent ideal; the medical profession dictates that women submit to radical intervention in their births, and, women face multiple physical and social barriers to nursing babies.
Even the movement pushing for liberation from the tyranny of heterosexual roles doesn't challenge the patriarchal nature of society, but rather seems to be challenging the legitimacy of women's pride in our women's bodies, our ability to bear and raise children and to fight together, as women, for social and economic equality and a humane stewardship of the environment.
Rebuilding the Future
There are powerful stirrings of people around the world challenging non-democratic structures; even in the U.S., we see the Occupy Wall Street protests. Perhaps the forces are shaping up that will promote a new wave of feminist activism.
Whether this is so or not, there are women's health groups building a sound base for a broader women's movement, doing radical feminist health and sex education with a holistic self-help foundation. Some midwives and full-spectrum doulas are rebuilding the network of menstrual extraction groups. In short, we will be ready.
Carol Downer is the author of "A New View of a Woman's Body," "How to Stay Out of the Gynecologist's Office," "Women Centered Pregnancy and Birth," and "A Book of Women's Choices."
by Carol Downer
If working in the abortion movement for over 40 years qualifies me to gaze into my crystal ball to see the future for abortion rights in the United States, here goes.
Prediction Number One: I see the Supreme Court continuing to interpret Roe v. Wade in a way that will make abortion, especially later abortion, more expensive, less convenient to access and more humiliating, but I do not see the court reversing Roe v. Wade outright. I see clinics closing down due to restrictive regulations and lack of doctors, especially in areas far from an urban center. This lack of access will mostly affect young women and poor women of color. But, as was the case before the decision in Roe v. Wade, the majority of unwillingly pregnant women will continue to get abortions, no matter how far they have to travel or no matter how great the cost or risk.
Why? The hypocritical leaders of this country, both right and left, recognize that the U.S. industrialized economy is built on the small nuclear family with both parents working, so large families are out. This lowers the birth rate, which satisfies the leaders, who, rather than creating a more just, sustainable society, think reducing women's fertility solves social problems such as pollution and poverty. Immigration, legal and illegal, produces the influx of workers and soldiers so desired by the conservatives who have created an unjust society where one percent possess the wealth and resources, further enabling them to keep the 99 percent low-paid and politically powerless.Prediction Number Two. I see successive generations of young U.S. women accepting new restrictions. I also see some radical feminist actions, such as the formation of an underground movement of menstrual extraction groups. This will keep the technology alive, but will not change the trend that makes abortion less available, more expensive and more stigmatized.
Why? Once Roe v. Wade became the law in 1973, all organized efforts to educate the public and to seize the technology of abortion came to an abrupt halt. The leadership, by default, fell to a few political advocacy groups, such as NARAL Pro-Choice America in Washington D.C. and Planned Parenthood Federation of America in New York and D.C. They keep a vigilant eye on how Congressional members vote on legislation affecting birth control and abortion. They, and NOW, have organized a couple of mammoth abortion rights marches on Washington over the years. But Washington D.C. ignores the masses who come in on Saturday, march through the streets, then board the busses and go home on Sunday.
In 1976, the first, most devastating blow to Roe v. Wade came through Congress, not the Supreme Court. Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, an addendum to an appropriations bill, to stop any federal funding of abortion for low-income women. Every year, Congress re-passes this amendment. Every year, Congress exploits the racist and classist bias of the women's movement. We were ignominiously defeated by the passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, 35 years ago.
Even though the vast majority of American women are pro-choice, even feminists are complacent and do nothing other than voting for pro-choice elected officials and sending a check to their favorite national pro-choice organization.
Turning Back the Attack
In my opinion, the factors keeping abortion "safe and legal" are: (1) the continuing broad public support for the decriminalization of abortion; (2) the stalwart daily work of hundreds of doctors and abortion clinics around the country in the face of anti-abortion harassment and violence, and (3) the policymakers' need to keep women in the workforce.
To regain the ground the women won in the past, we have to learn how we won it and apply those lessons to today. We must revive the spirit of the second wave of the feminist movement, which came out of the anti-war movement and the civil rights movement. The Women's Liberation Movement started out to liberate women by challenging the whole "system," but, unfortunately, changed its focus to raising women's status in that system.
Most American women today were not born then or were children, and have not experienced being part of a major social movement for women's liberation, as I experienced in the 1960s and 1970s. I joined the Los Angeles chapter of NOW in 1969, and was part of that huge wave of women who came forward to demand women's liberation, including repeal or reform of anti-abortion laws. Through the decade before that, I read frequent newspaper articles announcing that a respected community or professional organization had passed some resolution recommending the decriminalization of abortion. In 1962, I saw the television coverage of Sherri Finkbine's trip to Scandanavia to get an abortion.
This coverage was part of a powerful campaign to stop back-alley abortions. It was led by white religious leaders, mostly men, and professionals, mostly men, who educated the public and roused public outrage against these unjust laws. By the end of the decade, the women's movement started. Many women's groups set up "women's nights" at the local free clinic to provide birth control; they were referring women to New York and California to get abortions. One group, "Jane", in Chicago, set up an abortion service. The women at Harvard were delving into the medical library to write a newsprint booklet, "Women and Their Bodies," which was so popular that Simon and Schuster published it as Our Bodies Ourselves in 1970.
On the West Coast, our group worked with Lana Clark Phelan and Patricia Maginnis, the founders of NARAL (which stood for the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws). We learned to do abortions with a new hand-held device that used suction to remove the contents of an early pregnancy; Lorraine Rothman modified that device so that groups of us who were minimally trained could extract either our menstrual period or an early pregnancy. We called this procedure "menstrual extraction." In 1971, Lorraine and I toured the country, teaching vaginal self-examination; self help and menstrual extraction groups sprung up at most of the places we visited. Rebecca Chalker described the process of menstrual extraction in On The Issues Magazine in 1993.
It was the cumulative effect of all these years of mainstream efforts, topped off by the massive numbers of women coming forward to protest, to march and to start projects to circumvent the law that laid the foundation for Roe v. Wade. The seizing of the means of reproduction by the women of the self-help movement did not escape the notice of Justice Harry Blackmun, the Supreme Court justice who authored Roe v. Wade and referred to it in his opinion (see section IX, Letter B) among a list of new medical techniques. I believe that in another couple of years, one way or another, abortion laws would have become irrelevant because women in the U.S. were taking the matter into our own hands.
The Women's Liberation Movement saw the right to an abortion as part of the right of a woman to control her own body and her own reproduction and sexuality, which, in turn, is part of women's full participation in society and their power to assert their values.
Through the years, women have been somewhat successful in raising women's status, but in a militaristic, environmentally destructive society. U.S. women may come closer to earning as much as their male counterparts and getting as much education, but the system has become more entrenched and women's education and work only makes it more so.
Women are losing ground every day in the control of our sexual and reproductive lives. Women seek genital surgery to make their vulva and clitoris look like some non-existent ideal; the medical profession dictates that women submit to radical intervention in their births, and, women face multiple physical and social barriers to nursing babies.
Even the movement pushing for liberation from the tyranny of heterosexual roles doesn't challenge the patriarchal nature of society, but rather seems to be challenging the legitimacy of women's pride in our women's bodies, our ability to bear and raise children and to fight together, as women, for social and economic equality and a humane stewardship of the environment.
Rebuilding the Future
There are powerful stirrings of people around the world challenging non-democratic structures; even in the U.S., we see the Occupy Wall Street protests. Perhaps the forces are shaping up that will promote a new wave of feminist activism.
Whether this is so or not, there are women's health groups building a sound base for a broader women's movement, doing radical feminist health and sex education with a holistic self-help foundation. Some midwives and full-spectrum doulas are rebuilding the network of menstrual extraction groups. In short, we will be ready.
Carol Downer is the author of "A New View of a Woman's Body," "How to Stay Out of the Gynecologist's Office," "Women Centered Pregnancy and Birth," and "A Book of Women's Choices."
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Self-Help: Key to Understanding the Changes Our Bodies Go Through During Pregnancy
Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Woman-Centered Pregnancy and Birth by Ginny Cassidy-Brinn, R.N., Francie Hornstein, and Carol Downer
Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers
Illustrations by Suzann Gage
Limited USED copies available online - Amazon.com
Now Available in its ENTIRETY online
To actually see your cervix and the opening to the uterus-the opening that will dilate to allow the baby's head to come out-can be one of the most exciting moments in your pregnancy. Suddenly, all of the diagrams and drawings that you have been looking at to try to understand what is happening, make perfect sense. And, just as when a woman is not pregnant, being able to look at the cervix makes it easier to ward off or alleviate common problems such as vaginal infections or urinary tract infections.
It is not essential to do vaginal self-examination in order to understand the processes of pregnancy and birth or in order to stay healthy. Any woman can carry out all of the suggestions in this book without ever seeing her cervix. Self-examination of the vagina and cervix using a plastic vaginal speculum is, however, very simple to learn, requires a minimum of equipment and is a common-sense health routine equivalent to standing in front of a mirror, opening your mouth and saying, "Ah."
Self-examination can be done by yourself or in a self-help group. The Self-Help Clinic started out in April, 1971, as a type of consciousness-raising group. The Self-Help Clinic is a meeting where women learn to do self-examination of the vagina, the cervix and discuss their health experiences. Depending on the age, sexual orientation, and wishes of the participants, the topic may be birth control, menopause, sexuality, childbirth, vaginal infections or feelings about our bodies.
The equipment needed for self-examination is a vaginal speculum, a light and mirror. Most women prefer a semi-sitting position on a bed, table or the floor, usually with a pillow behind them. Water soluble jelly can be used to moisten the bills of the speculum. The speculum is inserted with the bills closed, handle up. Many women are pleasantly surprised to find that, since they are in control, the procedure is not painful. You open the speculum by pushing down the front of the handle while simultaneously pulling up on the back. As the speculum opens, you will hear three clicks. You can lock the speculum into place at whichever notch is comfortable. Speculum's come in three sizes, narrow, medium and long. Most women use a medium. Many women who usually used a narrow speculum found it was easier to insert a medium size speculum during pregnancy. Many women have noticed that their cervixes moved further back in the vagina during pregnancy and found it necessary to switch from their usual medium size speculum to a long one.
The light, generally a flashlight or a high-intensity lamp, is reflected off the mirror so that the vaginal walls and cervix are illuminated. Magnifying mirrors can help you to see details.
Often, women need several attempts to bring the cervix into view. But, with practice it becomes much easier. No one who has tried persistently has failed to use the speculum successfully. As your abdomen gets larger with pregnancy it becomes more difficult to see your cervix. By lying flat, self-examination can be made easier with the help of one other person holding a large mirror over your cervix. As pregnancy progresses, the cervix grows along with the rest of the uterus. Some women's cervices get so large that it is possible to see only a portion of the cervix at any one time. By pointing the speculum in different directions, you can eventually see the entire cervix.
You can safely do vaginal self-examination throughout pregnancy as long as the bag of waters hasn't broken and you are having no signs of miscarriage. These guidelines are the same as the guidelines for deciding when it is safe to have coitus (see p. 61)
Two customs are observed in the Self-Help Clinic. A woman does self-examination if and when she feels comfortable doing so, and she gets to look at her cervix fist. Many women want to do self-examination at the first meeting; others take their speculum's home to have their first look in privacy. Initially, a woman may feel reluctant to do self-examination if she is menstruating of has a bad-smelling vaginal infection. When she finds out that the other women are eager to learn about menstruation or vaginal infections, she is generally happy to give them a chance to learn. Embarrassment is replaced by curiosity; some have called it "show and tell time."
The distinctive sounds of a Self-Help Clinic are the clicking of speculums, the buzzing of several conversations and intermittent choruses of laughter. An air of discovery and adventure exhilarate most women in the Self-Help Clinic.
Another important part of the Self-Help Clinic is the uterine size check. A member of the group can feel your uterus by inserting two fingers of a gloved hand into the vagina pressing with the flat of the fingers of the other hand just above the pubic mound. After the first three months of pregnancy it is not necessary to insert the fingers into the vagina. While lying flat, the uterus can be felt by pressing down under the ribs, with the flat of the fingers, and gradually moving the fingers down toward the pelvis until a hard muscular ball is felt. This is the top of the uterus which get approximately one inch higher per month during pregnancy. The purpose of the uterine size check is to learn the size, shape and position of the uterus. Its growth can be recorded by periodically measuring the distance from the top of the uterus to the pubic bone with a tape measure laid flat on the uterus. A uterine size check can also be done to see if the uterus is larger or softer than usual, indicating pregnancy.
At the first Self-Help Clinic we learned to do self-examination of the cervix and vagina. As woman after woman inserted her speculum, looked at her cervix, then passed around the flashlight so that others could look, we exclaimed over the different characteristics of each women. It soon became obvious that the so-called "disease" of yeast overgrowth is a common and generally harmless condition. In an era of tight jeans, nylon pantyhose, the Pill, and high sugar diets, we have varying amounts of yeast in our vaginas. We were struck by the absurdity of having made numerous trips to the doctor to deal with this everyday common problem. All but one of us had "tipped uterus," which merely means that is was angled wither toward the back or front instead of the classic, textbook angle. One women recalled that her doctor said her tipped uterus accounted for her problems in getting pregnant. Another said that her doctor had blamed her tipped uterus for her many pregnancies. Just by talking to each other and comparing notes, we could see how we had been made to feel like there was something wrong when, in fact, we were quite healthy.
That very first evening of self-help, like all those that have followed, liberated us from many of the myths and notions that had driven us to the gynecologist. We found that irregular menstrual cycles are not uncommon; very few of us fit the 28-day cycle model. Our normal secretions varied throughout our cycle, becoming very heavy around the time of ovulation. This "discharge" had caused many of us great concern.
Menstrual Extraction is an early accomplishment of the Self-Help movement. Lorraine Rothman invented the Del-Em, a device used by groups of women to suction out the uterine contents on or near to the time of the expected menstrual period. This technique, which shortens the menstrual period, lightens the flow, or terminates an early pregnancy, has been used by women for ten years with outstanding safety and success. If this technology were widely available to women, the dark ages of state control of women's reproduction would be over. We would cease to worry about what the predominately male Supreme Court or legislature dictate.
The concepts of Self-Help have had a tremendous impact on the women's health movement. Lorraine Rothman and Carol Downer, members of the first Self-Help Clinic, travelled around the country in the fall of 1971, visiting women's groups to lecture on abortion and to hold Self-Help Clinics. Many women's health groups had reached an impasse at that time. They were counseling and referring women to abortion facilities on the East and West coasts and they had read Women and Their Bodies, the predecessor to Our Bodies, Ourselves. But they felt unable to proceed further due to lack of funds and the lack of cooperation of the medical profession in their communities. Self-Help gave them the ability to directly learn well-woman health care. They were able to do independent research, to compile information and finally, to set up women-controlled clinics.
The women in a Self-Help group in Santa Cruz, California taught themselves to be midwives and later formed the United States' first birth center, the Santa Cruz Birth Center. The concept of a community center where women having home births could come for prenatal care and meet other pregnant women has since become very popular. One of the midwives in this group, Raven Lang, wrote the first and for several years the only book on home birth, The Birth Book. This book inspired many mothers to have home births and many women to become midwives.
Woman-Centered Pregnancy and Birth focuses on information that enables you to make important decisions about your pregnancy and birth. Learning self-examination is an important first step, and a self-help group is the best setting in which to learn it.
You can order a plastic speculum from the Feminist Women's Health Center or the Women's Health Specialists
Also, visit "Our Anatomy" webpage for further information.
Limited USED copies of Woman-Centered Pregnancy and Birth, available online - Amazon.com
Now Available in its ENTIRETY online
Woman-Centered Pregnancy and Birth published in 1984 - we encourage comments, insights and suggestions; please write whwh@womenshealthinwomenshands.org
Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers
Illustrations by Suzann Gage
Now Available in its ENTIRETY online
To actually see your cervix and the opening to the uterus-the opening that will dilate to allow the baby's head to come out-can be one of the most exciting moments in your pregnancy. Suddenly, all of the diagrams and drawings that you have been looking at to try to understand what is happening, make perfect sense. And, just as when a woman is not pregnant, being able to look at the cervix makes it easier to ward off or alleviate common problems such as vaginal infections or urinary tract infections.
It is not essential to do vaginal self-examination in order to understand the processes of pregnancy and birth or in order to stay healthy. Any woman can carry out all of the suggestions in this book without ever seeing her cervix. Self-examination of the vagina and cervix using a plastic vaginal speculum is, however, very simple to learn, requires a minimum of equipment and is a common-sense health routine equivalent to standing in front of a mirror, opening your mouth and saying, "Ah."
Self-examination can be done by yourself or in a self-help group. The Self-Help Clinic started out in April, 1971, as a type of consciousness-raising group. The Self-Help Clinic is a meeting where women learn to do self-examination of the vagina, the cervix and discuss their health experiences. Depending on the age, sexual orientation, and wishes of the participants, the topic may be birth control, menopause, sexuality, childbirth, vaginal infections or feelings about our bodies.
The equipment needed for self-examination is a vaginal speculum, a light and mirror. Most women prefer a semi-sitting position on a bed, table or the floor, usually with a pillow behind them. Water soluble jelly can be used to moisten the bills of the speculum. The speculum is inserted with the bills closed, handle up. Many women are pleasantly surprised to find that, since they are in control, the procedure is not painful. You open the speculum by pushing down the front of the handle while simultaneously pulling up on the back. As the speculum opens, you will hear three clicks. You can lock the speculum into place at whichever notch is comfortable. Speculum's come in three sizes, narrow, medium and long. Most women use a medium. Many women who usually used a narrow speculum found it was easier to insert a medium size speculum during pregnancy. Many women have noticed that their cervixes moved further back in the vagina during pregnancy and found it necessary to switch from their usual medium size speculum to a long one.The light, generally a flashlight or a high-intensity lamp, is reflected off the mirror so that the vaginal walls and cervix are illuminated. Magnifying mirrors can help you to see details.
Often, women need several attempts to bring the cervix into view. But, with practice it becomes much easier. No one who has tried persistently has failed to use the speculum successfully. As your abdomen gets larger with pregnancy it becomes more difficult to see your cervix. By lying flat, self-examination can be made easier with the help of one other person holding a large mirror over your cervix. As pregnancy progresses, the cervix grows along with the rest of the uterus. Some women's cervices get so large that it is possible to see only a portion of the cervix at any one time. By pointing the speculum in different directions, you can eventually see the entire cervix.
You can safely do vaginal self-examination throughout pregnancy as long as the bag of waters hasn't broken and you are having no signs of miscarriage. These guidelines are the same as the guidelines for deciding when it is safe to have coitus (see p. 61)
Two customs are observed in the Self-Help Clinic. A woman does self-examination if and when she feels comfortable doing so, and she gets to look at her cervix fist. Many women want to do self-examination at the first meeting; others take their speculum's home to have their first look in privacy. Initially, a woman may feel reluctant to do self-examination if she is menstruating of has a bad-smelling vaginal infection. When she finds out that the other women are eager to learn about menstruation or vaginal infections, she is generally happy to give them a chance to learn. Embarrassment is replaced by curiosity; some have called it "show and tell time."
The distinctive sounds of a Self-Help Clinic are the clicking of speculums, the buzzing of several conversations and intermittent choruses of laughter. An air of discovery and adventure exhilarate most women in the Self-Help Clinic.
Another important part of the Self-Help Clinic is the uterine size check. A member of the group can feel your uterus by inserting two fingers of a gloved hand into the vagina pressing with the flat of the fingers of the other hand just above the pubic mound. After the first three months of pregnancy it is not necessary to insert the fingers into the vagina. While lying flat, the uterus can be felt by pressing down under the ribs, with the flat of the fingers, and gradually moving the fingers down toward the pelvis until a hard muscular ball is felt. This is the top of the uterus which get approximately one inch higher per month during pregnancy. The purpose of the uterine size check is to learn the size, shape and position of the uterus. Its growth can be recorded by periodically measuring the distance from the top of the uterus to the pubic bone with a tape measure laid flat on the uterus. A uterine size check can also be done to see if the uterus is larger or softer than usual, indicating pregnancy.
At the first Self-Help Clinic we learned to do self-examination of the cervix and vagina. As woman after woman inserted her speculum, looked at her cervix, then passed around the flashlight so that others could look, we exclaimed over the different characteristics of each women. It soon became obvious that the so-called "disease" of yeast overgrowth is a common and generally harmless condition. In an era of tight jeans, nylon pantyhose, the Pill, and high sugar diets, we have varying amounts of yeast in our vaginas. We were struck by the absurdity of having made numerous trips to the doctor to deal with this everyday common problem. All but one of us had "tipped uterus," which merely means that is was angled wither toward the back or front instead of the classic, textbook angle. One women recalled that her doctor said her tipped uterus accounted for her problems in getting pregnant. Another said that her doctor had blamed her tipped uterus for her many pregnancies. Just by talking to each other and comparing notes, we could see how we had been made to feel like there was something wrong when, in fact, we were quite healthy.
That very first evening of self-help, like all those that have followed, liberated us from many of the myths and notions that had driven us to the gynecologist. We found that irregular menstrual cycles are not uncommon; very few of us fit the 28-day cycle model. Our normal secretions varied throughout our cycle, becoming very heavy around the time of ovulation. This "discharge" had caused many of us great concern.
Menstrual Extraction is an early accomplishment of the Self-Help movement. Lorraine Rothman invented the Del-Em, a device used by groups of women to suction out the uterine contents on or near to the time of the expected menstrual period. This technique, which shortens the menstrual period, lightens the flow, or terminates an early pregnancy, has been used by women for ten years with outstanding safety and success. If this technology were widely available to women, the dark ages of state control of women's reproduction would be over. We would cease to worry about what the predominately male Supreme Court or legislature dictate.
The concepts of Self-Help have had a tremendous impact on the women's health movement. Lorraine Rothman and Carol Downer, members of the first Self-Help Clinic, travelled around the country in the fall of 1971, visiting women's groups to lecture on abortion and to hold Self-Help Clinics. Many women's health groups had reached an impasse at that time. They were counseling and referring women to abortion facilities on the East and West coasts and they had read Women and Their Bodies, the predecessor to Our Bodies, Ourselves. But they felt unable to proceed further due to lack of funds and the lack of cooperation of the medical profession in their communities. Self-Help gave them the ability to directly learn well-woman health care. They were able to do independent research, to compile information and finally, to set up women-controlled clinics.
The women in a Self-Help group in Santa Cruz, California taught themselves to be midwives and later formed the United States' first birth center, the Santa Cruz Birth Center. The concept of a community center where women having home births could come for prenatal care and meet other pregnant women has since become very popular. One of the midwives in this group, Raven Lang, wrote the first and for several years the only book on home birth, The Birth Book. This book inspired many mothers to have home births and many women to become midwives.
Woman-Centered Pregnancy and Birth focuses on information that enables you to make important decisions about your pregnancy and birth. Learning self-examination is an important first step, and a self-help group is the best setting in which to learn it.
You can order a plastic speculum from the Feminist Women's Health Center or the Women's Health Specialists
Also, visit "Our Anatomy" webpage for further information.
Now Available in its ENTIRETY online
Woman-Centered Pregnancy and Birth published in 1984 - we encourage comments, insights and suggestions; please write whwh@womenshealthinwomenshands.org
Monday, October 10, 2011
No Stopping: From Pom-Poms to Saving Women's Bodies
By Carol Downer
[Originally published in On The Issues Magazine]
In the 1970s, I got involved in the women's self-help movement in California, traveling the countryside to introduce women to vaginal self-examination and pioneering the use of menstrual extraction. I got there, and from there to here, because one action simply led to the next. And to the next. And the next. In fact, my own progression seems to have been to "Think Locally, Act Globally" – exactly the opposite of the popular activist slogan.
I have always been an active participator. I marched and waved pom-poms on the drill team in high school. I led a Girl Scout troop when my daughters were in elementary school in the late 50s and 60s. But my activities gradually changed from "brightening the corner where you are" to humanitarian, such as volunteering as a leader in a girl's club at a high school in a poor neighborhood in the mid-60s. Then I became involved in electoral-type activities through MAPA (Mexican-American Political Association), as did my Chicano husband.
My involvement mirrored the turbulent times. Everyone was getting more politically aware. I helped write a throwaway paper with other activists who were against U.S. military involvement in the Southeast; I headed a committee to recall the local councilman who was pushing an urban renewal program that would kick old people out of their homes, and my circle of mothers in my neighborhood enlarged to include activists in the northeast part of Los Angeles. When the "Watts riot" exploded in south central Los Angeles, I learned to call it "the Watts rebellion." Then, in 1969, along with thousands of others, I marched with my husband and my 16-year-old daughter, Laura Brown, in the Chicano Moratorium. At the march's end, we sat on the grass lawn of Laguna Park and listened to music and speakers until all of us were attacked by hundreds of Los Angeles sheriffs, clad in riot gear, who came across the field swinging billy clubs and shooting tear gas canisters.
With my moratorium experience, I "graduated" from the naive white liberal school. I saw the faces of my oppressors through their plexiglas masks. Afterward, when I complained loudly to one of my friends in Eagle Rock, the white working-class area where we lived, she asked me, "What were you doing there?" My disillusionment with community volunteer activities and electoral level projects was complete.
Stepping Into A New Women's Movement
I started my "post-graduate" work.
I answered the widely publicized call to work for women's rights and specifically abortion rights. In 1969, I attended a National Organization for Women (NOW) meeting. I had little in common with most of the members, white career women who apparently had not had the radicalizing experiences that I had. I was invited to join a committee. I had had an illegal abortion, so I joined the Abortion Committee, headed up by Lana Clark Phelan.
Lana, along with Patricia Maginnis, wrote The Abortion Handbook. I understudied her for a few months. Listening to Lana's devastatingly sarcastic speeches and reading her book demystified abortion laws for me. I learned that abortion had never been criminalized until the rise of the modern, industrialized nation-state. In nineteenth century France, women had figured out how to block the sperm and the egg, and the birth rate was declining. Napoleon Bonaparte needed more Frenchmen to serve as soldiers to fight wars of conquest for the French Empire; therefore, abortion was outlawed.
French peasants were encouraged in every way possible to have as many children as they could. The French peasant father received tax incentives, forms of "social security" to be paid in his old age and increased personal status based on the number of children he had sired. Under the "Code Napoleon," the status of women sank to an all-time low. French women were given in marriage at the earliest possible age. Young women were to be kept pregnant and at home for their own "fulfillment" as women.
Our three-woman committee -- Lana, Mary Petrinovich and me -- was small, but in 1969 and early 1970s, we were in demand. Progressive people wanted to hear about abortion reform and the need to end the estimated 5,000 deaths each year from illegal abortion. Mary traveled in from Riverside to bring women to an illegal clinic on Santa Monica Boulevard, and she introduced me to the abortionist, Harvey Karman, who was posing as a doctor and had been arrested for performing abortions, along with Dr. John Gwynne. Several demonstrations were held to support him and other Northern California doctors who had been arrested. Under the auspices of our committee, I organized a demonstration at Hancock Park of 500 people, the largest abortion demonstration in Los Angeles at that time.
A small, very loosely organized group of women coalesced around Karman's defense and some volunteered at his notorious clinic, which was under constant police surveillance. In the estimation of some of us, both Karman and Gwynne were "male chauvinist pigs." Also, we had a growing suspicion that we could learn how to do the abortions. Karman used an early abortion device that he claimed to have invented which suctioned the contents of the uterus out without the use of metal instruments to scrape its walls. He called it a "non-traumatic" abortion.
Mary invited me to visit the clinic. I accompanied her into the very small procedure room where Karman was inserting an IUD in a woman's uterus. I found myself looking into the woman's vagina, which was held open by a plastic speculum, and I saw her beautiful pink cervix, the opening to the uterus, which was well lit by the gooseneck lamp.
Following the Path of the Cervix
I was transfixed, looking at her rosy, knob-like cervix with a tiny opening. I thought of Lana's brilliant political analysis and I felt the frustration of our century-long suffering from these unjust laws. I had six children at this time, and I had never looked carefully at my genitals (except to look at my raw, bleeding episiotomy incision in the hospital to see where all that pain was coming from). I marveled at how close the cervix is; how simple it is and how accessible it is with the use of an inexpensive, plastic speculum.
A few weeks later, in April 1971, our small group called a meeting at a local women's bookstore, where we showed women the hand-held device that Karman used, and then we demonstrated vaginal self-exam. The women's skepticism about our learning to do abortion vanished upon seeing my cervix, and by the end of the meeting, we had seen several cervixes and had plans to learn to provide abortions underground. We held weekly "Self-Help Clinics" at the Los Angeles Women's Center. Lorraine Rothman was part of that group and she invented a modification of Karman's device, which we used in minimally-trained women's self-help groups to extract our menstrual periods, whether they were on time or late. We traveled up the West Coast and then across the country, demonstrating vaginal self-exam and talking about menstrual extraction, attracting many women to come to L.A. to work with us.
Our plans to open an illegal clinic were shelved because legal abortion was becoming available in Los Angeles just at that time. We believed that it was more important for us to give women the encouragement and the tools to learn about their bodies so that we would cease to be at the mercy of those who wanted to control us, whether to outlaw abortion or to manipulate birthing American women to consent to c-sections. And, we started WARS, a women's abortion referral service, where we counseled and physically examined women at the Women's Center and then accompanied them to the hospital for their abortion.
Our self-help movement grew; we wrote books, set up clinics around the nation after Roe v. Wade and we traveled to Europe, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico, among other places. Many of us became health professionals in traditional and alternative medical practices (and my marching daughter, Laura, began in self-help and then started the Oakland Women's Choice Clinic.) We attended national and international conferences. I witnessed the efforts of the anti-natalists who force birth control on women and want to limit the number of babies they have, such as in China. And I witnessed the pro-natalists, who want to force women to have more babies, such as the Catholic Church, but are also bankrolled by reactionary wealthy upper class people. I knew activism was needed to stop these forces, as well.
My actions have been rooted in my personal experiences, but as I expanded my worldview and became exposed to other ways of thinking and doing things, I was able to take new actions and develop new solutions, too. This is the power of activism on women's rights – constantly learning, constantly growing and constantly pushing the boundaries of activism in new and creative ways. I think I'll continue to be busy for many years to come.
[Originally published in On The Issues Magazine]
In the 1970s, I got involved in the women's self-help movement in California, traveling the countryside to introduce women to vaginal self-examination and pioneering the use of menstrual extraction. I got there, and from there to here, because one action simply led to the next. And to the next. And the next. In fact, my own progression seems to have been to "Think Locally, Act Globally" – exactly the opposite of the popular activist slogan.
I have always been an active participator. I marched and waved pom-poms on the drill team in high school. I led a Girl Scout troop when my daughters were in elementary school in the late 50s and 60s. But my activities gradually changed from "brightening the corner where you are" to humanitarian, such as volunteering as a leader in a girl's club at a high school in a poor neighborhood in the mid-60s. Then I became involved in electoral-type activities through MAPA (Mexican-American Political Association), as did my Chicano husband.
My involvement mirrored the turbulent times. Everyone was getting more politically aware. I helped write a throwaway paper with other activists who were against U.S. military involvement in the Southeast; I headed a committee to recall the local councilman who was pushing an urban renewal program that would kick old people out of their homes, and my circle of mothers in my neighborhood enlarged to include activists in the northeast part of Los Angeles. When the "Watts riot" exploded in south central Los Angeles, I learned to call it "the Watts rebellion." Then, in 1969, along with thousands of others, I marched with my husband and my 16-year-old daughter, Laura Brown, in the Chicano Moratorium. At the march's end, we sat on the grass lawn of Laguna Park and listened to music and speakers until all of us were attacked by hundreds of Los Angeles sheriffs, clad in riot gear, who came across the field swinging billy clubs and shooting tear gas canisters.
With my moratorium experience, I "graduated" from the naive white liberal school. I saw the faces of my oppressors through their plexiglas masks. Afterward, when I complained loudly to one of my friends in Eagle Rock, the white working-class area where we lived, she asked me, "What were you doing there?" My disillusionment with community volunteer activities and electoral level projects was complete.
Stepping Into A New Women's Movement
I started my "post-graduate" work.
I answered the widely publicized call to work for women's rights and specifically abortion rights. In 1969, I attended a National Organization for Women (NOW) meeting. I had little in common with most of the members, white career women who apparently had not had the radicalizing experiences that I had. I was invited to join a committee. I had had an illegal abortion, so I joined the Abortion Committee, headed up by Lana Clark Phelan.
Lana, along with Patricia Maginnis, wrote The Abortion Handbook. I understudied her for a few months. Listening to Lana's devastatingly sarcastic speeches and reading her book demystified abortion laws for me. I learned that abortion had never been criminalized until the rise of the modern, industrialized nation-state. In nineteenth century France, women had figured out how to block the sperm and the egg, and the birth rate was declining. Napoleon Bonaparte needed more Frenchmen to serve as soldiers to fight wars of conquest for the French Empire; therefore, abortion was outlawed.
French peasants were encouraged in every way possible to have as many children as they could. The French peasant father received tax incentives, forms of "social security" to be paid in his old age and increased personal status based on the number of children he had sired. Under the "Code Napoleon," the status of women sank to an all-time low. French women were given in marriage at the earliest possible age. Young women were to be kept pregnant and at home for their own "fulfillment" as women.
Our three-woman committee -- Lana, Mary Petrinovich and me -- was small, but in 1969 and early 1970s, we were in demand. Progressive people wanted to hear about abortion reform and the need to end the estimated 5,000 deaths each year from illegal abortion. Mary traveled in from Riverside to bring women to an illegal clinic on Santa Monica Boulevard, and she introduced me to the abortionist, Harvey Karman, who was posing as a doctor and had been arrested for performing abortions, along with Dr. John Gwynne. Several demonstrations were held to support him and other Northern California doctors who had been arrested. Under the auspices of our committee, I organized a demonstration at Hancock Park of 500 people, the largest abortion demonstration in Los Angeles at that time.
A small, very loosely organized group of women coalesced around Karman's defense and some volunteered at his notorious clinic, which was under constant police surveillance. In the estimation of some of us, both Karman and Gwynne were "male chauvinist pigs." Also, we had a growing suspicion that we could learn how to do the abortions. Karman used an early abortion device that he claimed to have invented which suctioned the contents of the uterus out without the use of metal instruments to scrape its walls. He called it a "non-traumatic" abortion.
Mary invited me to visit the clinic. I accompanied her into the very small procedure room where Karman was inserting an IUD in a woman's uterus. I found myself looking into the woman's vagina, which was held open by a plastic speculum, and I saw her beautiful pink cervix, the opening to the uterus, which was well lit by the gooseneck lamp.
Following the Path of the Cervix
I was transfixed, looking at her rosy, knob-like cervix with a tiny opening. I thought of Lana's brilliant political analysis and I felt the frustration of our century-long suffering from these unjust laws. I had six children at this time, and I had never looked carefully at my genitals (except to look at my raw, bleeding episiotomy incision in the hospital to see where all that pain was coming from). I marveled at how close the cervix is; how simple it is and how accessible it is with the use of an inexpensive, plastic speculum.
A few weeks later, in April 1971, our small group called a meeting at a local women's bookstore, where we showed women the hand-held device that Karman used, and then we demonstrated vaginal self-exam. The women's skepticism about our learning to do abortion vanished upon seeing my cervix, and by the end of the meeting, we had seen several cervixes and had plans to learn to provide abortions underground. We held weekly "Self-Help Clinics" at the Los Angeles Women's Center. Lorraine Rothman was part of that group and she invented a modification of Karman's device, which we used in minimally-trained women's self-help groups to extract our menstrual periods, whether they were on time or late. We traveled up the West Coast and then across the country, demonstrating vaginal self-exam and talking about menstrual extraction, attracting many women to come to L.A. to work with us.
Our plans to open an illegal clinic were shelved because legal abortion was becoming available in Los Angeles just at that time. We believed that it was more important for us to give women the encouragement and the tools to learn about their bodies so that we would cease to be at the mercy of those who wanted to control us, whether to outlaw abortion or to manipulate birthing American women to consent to c-sections. And, we started WARS, a women's abortion referral service, where we counseled and physically examined women at the Women's Center and then accompanied them to the hospital for their abortion.
Our self-help movement grew; we wrote books, set up clinics around the nation after Roe v. Wade and we traveled to Europe, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico, among other places. Many of us became health professionals in traditional and alternative medical practices (and my marching daughter, Laura, began in self-help and then started the Oakland Women's Choice Clinic.) We attended national and international conferences. I witnessed the efforts of the anti-natalists who force birth control on women and want to limit the number of babies they have, such as in China. And I witnessed the pro-natalists, who want to force women to have more babies, such as the Catholic Church, but are also bankrolled by reactionary wealthy upper class people. I knew activism was needed to stop these forces, as well.
My actions have been rooted in my personal experiences, but as I expanded my worldview and became exposed to other ways of thinking and doing things, I was able to take new actions and develop new solutions, too. This is the power of activism on women's rights – constantly learning, constantly growing and constantly pushing the boundaries of activism in new and creative ways. I think I'll continue to be busy for many years to come.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Ina May Gaskin, US Midwife, founder of “The Farm” receives “Right Livelihood Award” for 2011
By Carol Downer
Hooray!
Everyone in the “natural childbirth” movement celebrates this award. The Swedish charity is giving formal recognition to the fact that birthing women in the U.S., their babies and their families face an urgent threat to their safety and their ability to have home birth or birth center without the social isolation and medical interference that comes with hospital birth.
The “natural childbirth movement” has been seeking to restore access to midwives and home birth for over a half-century, but its struggles and accomplishments are usually not publicized beyond its immediate circles, except for an occasional newspaper article that as a thinly disguised promotion of hospital birth which contains alarming quotes about the dangers of home birth.
Almost 40 years ago, Gaskin founded the Farm Midwifery Center, an intentional community in Tennessee, to take childbirth out of the firm grasp of the medical profession who have medicalized this normal physiological function. She joined a small but growing number of parents that were seeking “natural childbirth” and lay midwives that were risking arrest (or were actually arrested) for assisting women who gave birth at home.
At the time Gaskin founded The Farm, virtually all births in the U.S. took place in hospitals where birthing women were kept in isolation from their families, drugged and cut. With the invention of the fetal heart monitor, in which an electrode is placed in the fetus’ scalp, cesarean rates rose from 5% to 15% in most hospitals, because in its experimental stages, no one yet knew the significance of every blip on the screen, and so a cesarean was performed whenever anything unusual was seen, because no doctor wanted to risk a malpractice suit for ignoring an unusual blip that might indicate a serious complication.
Due to Gaskins’ and others’ pioneering work, today most states offer some form of licensure for midwives and highly motivated and well-situated parents are able to seek out and obtain the services of a midwife for their home, or birth center birth.
Sadly, the rate progress of the natural childbirth movement has been outspaced by that of the medical profession. Today, physicians (with the assistance of hospital certified nurse midwives which they control) routinely use drugs and surgery in a hospital setting. Over a third of babies are now delivered by cesarean section in the United States.
Perhaps the awarding of this well-deserved honor will highlight the need for all of us who see a U.S. woman’s right to have a un-interfered-with natural birth in a home or birth center setting as foundational to all other women’s rights, including other sexual and reproductive rights such as access to birth control and abortion.
Read Seven Stories Press Release
Read about leading organizations for Midwives
- Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA)
- Midwifery Education and Accreditation Council (MEAC)
- North American Registry of Midwives (NARM)
- The Big Push for Midwives
Hooray!
Everyone in the “natural childbirth” movement celebrates this award. The Swedish charity is giving formal recognition to the fact that birthing women in the U.S., their babies and their families face an urgent threat to their safety and their ability to have home birth or birth center without the social isolation and medical interference that comes with hospital birth.
The “natural childbirth movement” has been seeking to restore access to midwives and home birth for over a half-century, but its struggles and accomplishments are usually not publicized beyond its immediate circles, except for an occasional newspaper article that as a thinly disguised promotion of hospital birth which contains alarming quotes about the dangers of home birth.
Almost 40 years ago, Gaskin founded the Farm Midwifery Center, an intentional community in Tennessee, to take childbirth out of the firm grasp of the medical profession who have medicalized this normal physiological function. She joined a small but growing number of parents that were seeking “natural childbirth” and lay midwives that were risking arrest (or were actually arrested) for assisting women who gave birth at home.
At the time Gaskin founded The Farm, virtually all births in the U.S. took place in hospitals where birthing women were kept in isolation from their families, drugged and cut. With the invention of the fetal heart monitor, in which an electrode is placed in the fetus’ scalp, cesarean rates rose from 5% to 15% in most hospitals, because in its experimental stages, no one yet knew the significance of every blip on the screen, and so a cesarean was performed whenever anything unusual was seen, because no doctor wanted to risk a malpractice suit for ignoring an unusual blip that might indicate a serious complication.
Due to Gaskins’ and others’ pioneering work, today most states offer some form of licensure for midwives and highly motivated and well-situated parents are able to seek out and obtain the services of a midwife for their home, or birth center birth.
Sadly, the rate progress of the natural childbirth movement has been outspaced by that of the medical profession. Today, physicians (with the assistance of hospital certified nurse midwives which they control) routinely use drugs and surgery in a hospital setting. Over a third of babies are now delivered by cesarean section in the United States.
Perhaps the awarding of this well-deserved honor will highlight the need for all of us who see a U.S. woman’s right to have a un-interfered-with natural birth in a home or birth center setting as foundational to all other women’s rights, including other sexual and reproductive rights such as access to birth control and abortion.
Read Seven Stories Press Release
Read about leading organizations for Midwives
- Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA)
- Midwifery Education and Accreditation Council (MEAC)
- North American Registry of Midwives (NARM)
- The Big Push for Midwives
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
39th Anniversary of Gynecology Self-Help Clinics and women controlled health projects
Message from Cathy Courtney: Greetings, thirty-nine years ago, I traveled to Iowa with an amazing group of women from CMU to attend the first women's self help conference. I was never quite the same after learning what I learned and meeting the women who gathered.
Some of us who attended this conference and/or became involved in the self help women's health movement, Our Bodies Ourselves study groups & related activities are gathering at my home (Detroit area) on Sunday, October 2, 2011 to share stories and break bread together. Please feel free to join us. We are especially hopeful that we will have women of all ages gather, those who were involved in this movement and those who weren't even born yet!!! A full spectrum of young and old! Please spread the word to women who might be interested in the US midwest. Housing available overnite :)
Invitation for a Gathering of Women to honor, celebrate and share stories about the early days of the 1970’s women’s health movement. Come celebrate the 39th Anniversary of Gynecology Self-Help Clinics and women controlled health projects. Hear about the first national conferences some of us attended in 1972 and 1974 in Iowa. The 40th anniversary year of Our Bodies Ourselves! Hear about how life changing it was for so many!
Herstoric gathering~ discussion~ reflection~projection: When did you participate in your first GynSelf-Help Clinic? When did you first read the OBOS? How did the feminist health movement influence your health, your life? How are you connected to current struggles for autonomy, health, single payer nat'l health plan, other health related projects & economic justice?
Share food & beverage, materials, photos, GynSHC slide show (courtesy of Chico Feminist Women's Health Center & Ginny Cassidy-Brinn), film, fun & the personal as political self-help stories...
Contact Host- Janice Fialka for more information at ruaw@aol.com or Cathy Courtney at HoustonC3Courtney@gmail.com. RSVP appreciated so we can plan for dinner. Look forward to seeing you!
Some of us who attended this conference and/or became involved in the self help women's health movement, Our Bodies Ourselves study groups & related activities are gathering at my home (Detroit area) on Sunday, October 2, 2011 to share stories and break bread together. Please feel free to join us. We are especially hopeful that we will have women of all ages gather, those who were involved in this movement and those who weren't even born yet!!! A full spectrum of young and old! Please spread the word to women who might be interested in the US midwest. Housing available overnite :)
Invitation for a Gathering of Women to honor, celebrate and share stories about the early days of the 1970’s women’s health movement. Come celebrate the 39th Anniversary of Gynecology Self-Help Clinics and women controlled health projects. Hear about the first national conferences some of us attended in 1972 and 1974 in Iowa. The 40th anniversary year of Our Bodies Ourselves! Hear about how life changing it was for so many!Herstoric gathering~ discussion~ reflection~projection: When did you participate in your first GynSelf-Help Clinic? When did you first read the OBOS? How did the feminist health movement influence your health, your life? How are you connected to current struggles for autonomy, health, single payer nat'l health plan, other health related projects & economic justice?
Share food & beverage, materials, photos, GynSHC slide show (courtesy of Chico Feminist Women's Health Center & Ginny Cassidy-Brinn), film, fun & the personal as political self-help stories...
Contact Host- Janice Fialka for more information at ruaw@aol.com or Cathy Courtney at HoustonC3Courtney@gmail.com. RSVP appreciated so we can plan for dinner. Look forward to seeing you!
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