Nothing to apologize for

[dcsmart]

THERE IS a great deal to be hopeful about as the 36th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion passed this week.

Finally, George W. Bush is out of office. Alaska Gov. and former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin remains a punch line (at least for now). In the 2008 elections, anti-choice ballot measures were voted down in highly conservative places such as South Dakota. Barack Obama is expected to sign an executive order to reverse the global "gag rule" that bars international family planning groups funded by the U.S. from providing information about abortion.

But questions about the direction of the abortion rights movement are as pressing as ever. The Washington Post reported that 16,000 anti-abortion protesters were in Washington, D.C., for their annual anti-abortion march on January 22. This is smaller than recent years, but stands in stark contrast to the lack of mobilization by pro-choice forces. And while Obama has said he would sign the Freedom of Choice Act if it were passed by Congress, there is no indication that he will advocate for the legislation.

This is a time for the pro-choice movement, like many other struggles, to revisit central questions about how we should organize. And on first glance, Jennifer Baumgarder's Abortion & Life is a welcome addition to the discussion.

The book by the "third wave" feminist and pro-choice activist features at its center the "I Had An Abortion" theme around which Baumgarder, along with journalist and documentarian Gillian Aldrich, crafted their 2005 documentary of the same name.

One of the reasons Baumgardner and Aldrich created the film was to build on the conversation sparked by the overwhelming response to her "I Had An Abortion" T-shirts--Baumgarder herself marched wearing one at the April 2004 March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C.

For scores of women, this slogan--along with Web sites like I'mnotsorry.net--was an unapologetic, visual affirmation of abortion, and represented a rejection of the silence, stigma and unwarranted shame surrounding abortion in our society.

Abortion & Life replicates the film in its honest and open chronicling of individual women's experiences of abortion. As in the film, 15 women of different ages, races and class backgrounds--including noted feminist Gloria Steinem, reproductive health activist Loretta Ross, writer Barbara Ehrenreich and musician Ani DiFranco--are photographed wearing the shirts as they tell their "abortion stories."
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FULL ARTICLE
http://socialistworker.org/2009/01/23/nothing-to-apologize-for