Marcy Nighswander/AP Photo
National Rainbow president Jesse Jackson, far left, joins other political activists in a massive abortion rights March for Women’s Lives near the White House in Washington, April 5, 1992.
The Supreme Court decision is outrageous, but not surprising. The Court has taken away the ability of people to control their own bodies and lives and turned that power over to politicians.
It is outrageous because it is against the popular will, against morality, against precedent, against the expansion of freedom.
This is an undermining of the most basic freedom and most intimate decision of a person’s life: when or whether or with whom to have a child.
It is against the popular will. Eighty percent of people in this country believe that no politician should come between a woman and her doctor in this most intimate decision. Seventy-five percent of people do not think Roe should be overturned.
One in five people who can have a child will have an abortion in their lifetime. One in five. This means it could be your friend, your sister, your mother (and the majority of people who have abortions already have one child—and so know what it means to bring a child into this world). It could be you.
It is not surprising because the right-wing/MAGA faction of the Republican Party has been chipping away state by state, rule by rule, law for law for decades. Especially impacting those without financial and family support, women of color, poor and younger women are the ones who will be left with no good alternatives to a forced and unwanted pregnancy.
This ruling will give rise to mob-run enterprises when something that is so needed is made illegal. It will help turn us into the kind of authoritarian country where neighbor reports on neighbor with these bounty laws (as in Texas and Oklahoma) where people are paid money—$10,000 or even $100,000—to report on someone they hear is searching for an abortion.
It may again create the septic abortion wards in hospitals for those who have harmed themselves or were harmed seeking to end an unwanted pregnancy. Many states will not allow exceptions for rape or incest—though it is not for others to determine what those who are pregnant decide, for whatever reason they decide, about their own health.
I have been involved with this issue for many years. In 1965, a friend was pregnant and nearly suicidal—not ready to have a child. Her brother asked if I could help her find someone to provide an abortion. I hadn’t thought about the issue before, but approached this as a good deed—as in the Golden Rule: treat others as we would want to be treated. I did find a doctor for her—Dr. T.R.M. Howard.
I didn’t know it at the time, but he had been a civil rights champion in Mississippi until his name appeared on a Klan death list. The procedure was successful. Then word must have spread, and more women called for help. This led me to set up an underground abortion service before Roe; I told people to ask for “Jane.”
Over time, I recruited others to this Service. After Dr. Howard was not in touch (likely because he had been arrested), I found another provider whose name was Mike. The women of the Jane Collective learned how to do the procedures themselves and provided 11,000 abortions that were safe and accessible before Roe. But they were not legal.
When we organize, we have changed this world—won voting rights, expanded participation in the society, and elected a Senate and president who made Roe the law of the land.
The Service (as we called it) had a Front—where the women came initially and had support and counseling, could bring their partners/support/kids and be welcomed into a caring space (often with food and diversions). A driver took them to the Place (initially a borrowed apartment) where the procedures were performed. After the women recovered, they were brought back to the Front.
There is a recent HBO documentary about this, The Janes. It has about 15 of the women who were in Jane, plus the policeman who was part of the team of homicide detectives who arrested seven of these women, the second provider—Mike—and others. It is a fascinating history and a great movie. There is another film coming out in September with Sigourney Weaver that is a somewhat fictional version of the story: Call Jane.
Reproductive freedom has become a partisan political issue, and that is reflected in this Supreme Court decision. While there are people who may join this from personal belief, there are also the cynical self-serving politicians who made this a partisan issue in a deal between some churches and the right wing of the Republican Party. In spite of public opinion and with enough money and media echoing their message, they are dominating political decisions in many states and much of the U.S. Senate and the Supreme Court.
Now we are on a knife’s edge in this country—not only about reproductive freedom, but about freedom to vote, freedom to marry who we love, freedom itself. But we do have the majority of the country on our side. We do have morality on our side. And now we need to organize to have the power to make these decisions to reflect the popular will.
But just imagine what two more senators and holding the House could do. We could overturn the filibuster and codify Roe—and have sensible gun laws, and expand voting access, and address climate, and more. And the same is true at every level—including in the states and local areas.
We need to use every tool at our disposal.
We need to tell our stories, educate, activate, agitate, elect, and organize.
We need the 4 M’s: Members, Message, Money, Movement.
Members: Will we recruit the people we need to act—will we register, recruit volunteers, volunteer ourselves, vote and engage others to vote? We need to sign up for shifts, make the calls, the texts, go door-to-door and build the operations for those candidates who support our freedom.
Message: Will we tell the story, share the message, speak to the public, engage in language that will motivate people about what this means for their own lives in personal terms? And then send out that message in social media, in personal and group conversation and communication.
Money: Will we raise and give the money that is needed to support these efforts? Will we counter the impact of the dark money with our contributions and the massive grassroots support that we can generate?
Movement: We need to show up. To protest—but the protest is part of a strategy to build long-term power, to build the organizations, dig deep into the state and locals, connect with people, engage them on their concerns. Really listen to people and connect them with others who have shared concerns.
We will need to continue the services—the access to medical abortions and support for providers above and underground. People can go to www.abortionfinder.org or www.ineedana.com for additional help. There are so many organizations in the field—both national and local, large and small. We will need legal defense funds. We will need to protest. We will need a movement. And most of all, we will need political power.
When we organize, we have changed this world—won voting rights, expanded participation in the society, and elected a Senate and president who made Roe the law of the land. And we can do that again … but for that we need to organize.
And if we organize, we can change the world.
