I知 Fighting Anti-Abortion Extremism in Alabama
I’m Fighting Anti-Abortion Extremism in Alabama
This week, Operation Save America (OSA) is hosting its annual “National Event” in Alabama’s capitol city, Montgomery. Several hundred of the nation’s most extreme anti-abortion extremists will be taking siege of not only Montgomery, but also Birmingham, Huntsville (where the clinic is already having a tough time), and possibly Tuscaloosa and Mobile. I’ll be there, too, fighting for access.
Being involved in the fight for reproductive justice has historically been dangerous, but it’s necessary work that we, as young feminists, must be involved with. We cannot allow organizations like OSA and politicians like Mary Sue McClurkin speak for us. We cannot be silent. Feminists and activists from across the Deep South have come together this week and join organizations like Alabama Reproductive Rights Advocates, the Feminist Majority Foundation Choices Campus Leadership Program, the University of Montevallo Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, and the Feminist Caucus at The University of Alabama to oppose this attack.
About two years ago I began escorting patients at the reproductive healthcare clinic in my city, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I was just beginning to become involved with activism and I had only recently begun paying attention to politics, social issues, and current events. Because clinic escorting and activism was all so new to me and because I didn’t fully understand the historical implications of what I was getting into, I couldn’t appreciate the gravity of my mom urging me to “please be careful out there” every time I would talk to her about what I was doing.
I was only a baby when clinics were most at-risk for arson, bombings, and violence. Similarly, I was too young to remember the murders of Dr. David Gunn (1993), Dr. John Britton (1994), clinic escort James Barrett (1994), and clinic receptionists Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols (1994). Though I was much older, I was blissfully ignorant of the 2009 murder of Dr. George Tiller as well. My mom remembered all that, though, and she was afraid for me.
The fight to ensure Alabamians have access to reproductive healthcare has been especially fraught over the last few years. We’ve seen TRAP laws and fetal personhood legislation (including fetal heartbeat bills) that have had the potential to close all four of our state’s reproductive healthcare clinics and make almost all abortions illegal throughout the state. People seeking reproductive healthcare services now have to endure a 48 hour waiting period, intravaginal ultrasounds (to detect heartbeats), and coercive anti-abortion counseling before being allowed to exercise their right to an abortion, and minors have to seek parental permission before having the procedure. In Alabama, a fetus can even obtain a court appointed lawyer. Yes, a fetus.
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