Late Night Question: Will they carry the Torch?
Posted: April 26, 2011 Filed under: abortion rights, black women's reproductive health, Reproductive Rights, Women's Rights | Tags: activists for choice, young women's reproductive health 6 Comments
I just read an astounding blog on the early fight for reproductive health rights by Eleanor Hinton Hoytt of Black Women’s Health Imperative at RH Reality Check. Hoytt asks a question that I’ve wondered myself recently. Will young women fight so that all US women will have access to reproductive health and not just those with sympathetic parents and partners or money in the bank? I know that Dr. Daughter is in the middle of the fight as an ob/gyn in a public hospital that serves many of Nebraska’s poorest women. She’s in a state that works hard to prevent access to a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion in the first two trimesters and a state that has eliminated access to prenatal care for women who can’t prove citizenship. Youngest daughter and I live in a state with a whacked legislator that wants to criminalize abortion. How can you “murder” something that’s–at best–on life support and marginally human? I worry that my youngest daughter doesn’t see the issue and the attacks by crazed religionists as completely central to any young woman who seeks to self-determine her life. Hoytt’s story reminds me of the early days when women frequently shared how they came to realize that they were feminists and had a huge system to fight just to be recognized as a complete person. But, again, her central thesis is a significant one and worth sharing.
I see the ‘passing of the torch’ as a common cause from a different perspective. I have heard the fears that some of the leaders of my generation have about the current generation. That they lack intensity; they refuse to listen and follow; they don’t have the urgency of NOW; and they have never lived without the power of their own agency or without control of their own body. When I see the young feminist of today, I see that their values are different, creativity is unlimited, and understanding of innovation amazing and astonishing. And, most of all, they have greater access and are most accepting of different races, ethnicities, socio-economic statuses and sexualities – this adds many more angels to the fight.
I’m happy that young feminists of today have had more opportunities to claim ownership of their bodies. I am happy that they don’t know the dark alleys, and I’m pleased that they are blogging, tweeting, and asking me to be their Facebook friend. And for many of them I meet, they want to share their stories with me and hear mine—they ask, what has kept me involved, passionate and angry for the past 30 years. I tell them my story and listen to theirs. But most of all I ask them to believe that they may achieve what I have not in many ways.
I urge my other pre-Roe or “menopausal militia” leaders to recognize the differences in this generation’s struggles, understandings, desires and dreams. I believe that too often we see a different experience or opinion as a sparring point, but now, more than ever, we must see this as a broadening of our cause. Young feminists are not laser-focused on abortion, and that’s okay. Let’s accept their boarder reproductive justice agenda.
I was fortunate enough to become sexually active post-Roe, way post-birth control pills, and at a University that practically wanted to give you all the birth control pills and reproductive health information you could possibly need. Planned Parenthood was accessible and free where I lived. Still, when the religionists started pushing back, I felt the need to take to the streets, to letter writing, and to volunteer as a clinic escort. I sent my two daughters straight to Planned Parenthood when the questions started and the needs were obvious. I’m not getting the reason that any young woman should be complacent right now about the obvious attack on their rights. But right now, I’m seeing a 50/50 shot in my own sample of 2.
It’s not really a constitutional right if we all can’t access that right equally, is it?
So, how do we in the menopausal militia pass the torch? Are there enough young activists out there to pick it up?
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I wonder about this too Dak, the “meh” attitude of many young women is troublesome.
It is a good question about how to get the young activist out to stand up for their rights, don’t know the answer though.
In my anecdotal experience, most women my age and my sister’s age don’t seem to see this as a real concern or understand that this is part of a longer standing history and that you can’t just degrade what others fought for like that and not expect it to eventually bite you in the present/future and reverse the progress that was made. A lot of them don’t even register an Alice Paul reference, let alone feel that their rights are threatened or being used as a bargaining chip by the legislative wrangling.
A lot of them are also Obamafeminists so they can talk themselves into believing it has all been for the good to help pass a HCR bill that was “otherwise good for American women” (another canard pushed by Obama/Dem enablers).
We grew up in the postfeminist era where I fear these rights have been taken for granted and there’s been a lot of wrinkling at the nose of the feminist generations that came before us to bring us those rights. “Second wave! Ewwww!”
And still yet there are some young women who are trending away from prochoice altogether because they have the luxury of having the right already…they don’t worry about the consequences of navel-gazing and questioning that right.
We’re kind’ve back at the stage of pre-Roe right now though in many ways. As long as you can afford to travel or live some where where it is easier (i.e. in a big city or good state) or you have money, it’s easier to get access to everything from abortions to birth control. I’m afraid that many of the women that don’t have access aren’t in a position to do anything about it and those that do, don’t care about the ones that don’t or don’t think about it. Maybe I’m wrong … hope so.
We are back in the pre-Roe ballpark, but
the powers that be don’t want to trigger enough backlash to actually end their scheme either, so they’ll likely keep the war on women just under the threshold of what it would take for a revolt to happen. Short of overtuning Roe v. Wade, I don’t know what will wake the younger generation of women up.
Realizing that abortion rights would be in danger even in the bluest states as they start storming the legislatures might make a difference.
That’s because the story of the second wave is either not told or it is distorted beyond all recognition by antifeminists and revisionists. The story of the American revolution and the founding fathers is told again and again and with reverence such that it is remembered and they are remembered with reverence. The story of the fighters for women’s rights has to be told in the same way. If the schools and textbooks won’t do it, the hell with them. All women should tell their daughters the story again and again and counter the lies with truth.
An example of revisionist history of the second wave is the canard that second wave white feminists were racist. An excellent discussion of this can be found on on <a href="Reclusive Leftist.