Prayer for the Election-Obama is a Bridge to a Better Time
Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in. —Leonard Cohen, Anthem May we find the right road as a nation; it’s a tense time. Yet, the sun still rises and the earth still turns. All is in place and moving in the heavens. Life below churns on. We confront our suffering and search for what is possible. We look within to find solace, strength, and truth of being. Love prevails no matter what twists and turns it takes. We reach for the honest way. May we find the right road as a nation. May we find the right road as a nation. May we find the right road as a nation. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Obama is a bridge to a better time....
Read MoreAbortion Rights and the Education of Girls
Malala Yousufzai has become a household name around the world. The fifteen year old is an activist for girls’ education in an area of Pakistan that has been besieged by the Taliban. We all know about the Taliban. They are the religious fanatics who are considered the enemy of freedom and democracy. Among its many terrorist aims, the Taliban wants to outlaw all rights for women and impose the strict rule of men over every aspect of women’s lives. Malala has been outspoken for girls and against the Taliban since she was eleven years old. For this she was shot at point blank range by one of them on October 9. The attempt to assassinate her has drawn worldwide protests. Decent minded people agree that what happened to Malala is wrong. We all pray for her full recovery. What does this have to do with abortion rights in the U.S.? A New York Times editorial reminds us of what many of us already know. We do not need to guess about the brutal consequences of overturning Roe. We know from our own country’s pre-Roe history and from the experience around the world. Women desperate to end a pregnancy would find a way to do so… Some women would die. Anyone who makes it illegal or difficult or impossible for women to find safe, legal abortions is potentially or actually contributing to the deaths of some of those women. Neither the New York Times nor I am being overly dramatic. It’s the truth. We will see a palpable increase in the suffering and death of women and their families if abortion becomes difficult or impossible to obtain. That’s the way it was before Roe, and the way it will be if Roe is overturned. It’s also the way it is in many places around the world. More information is here. Domestic terrorists have caused the deaths of several physicians and others who serve the reproductive needs of women. These American zealots are similar to the Taliban in that they inhabit a world of fanatical religious belief and behave as self-appointed saviors. Murder is justified in the name of God. Freedom is only what they say it is, and anyone who veers from their view is considered an infidel. Those who have been murdered here in the U.S. include: March 10, 1993: Dr. David Gunn in Pensacola, Florida July 29, 1994: Dr. John Britton and James Barrett, a clinic escort, also in Pensacola December 30, 1994: Two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, in Brookline, Massachusetts January 29, 1998: Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer who worked as a security guard at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama October 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian in Amherst, New York May 31, 2009: Dr. George Tiller in Wichita, Kansas How do we show those who don’t know or who have forgotten that putting Romney in the white house holds a strong possibility that terrorist activity will increase against women and their health providers, and that some women will die? But not only will some women lose their lives. If the availability of abortion is no longer protected by Roe v. Wade, children will lose their mothers, husbands their wives, boyfriends their girlfriends, brothers their sisters, and mothers and fathers their daughters. Some of you might say, Well, at least we’re not shooting young girls because they want an education like Malala Yousufzai of Pakistan. Okay, but think about it for a minute. What’s the difference? If you put someone in harm’s way, isn’t that the same thing as doing harm to them? If you threaten their well being, are you...
Read MoreNo Choice in the Election
While we have made great strides toward equality, we cannot rest until our mothers, sisters, and daughters assume their rightful place as full participants in a secure, prosperous, and just society. —President Barack Obama As of today, there can be no doubt that women’s well being and reproductive health are at the center of the upcoming presidential election. The Republican party platform is calling for the outlawing of abortion, absolutely and with no exceptions. Nowhere in the platform language is there anything about women, only “unborn children” and “the individual right to life.” What does this mean? As far as I’m concerned, it means that anyone who considers her or himself real life centered who does not vote for Barack Obama will be in collusion with those who want to turn back the clock and put women and their families in danger. There is no wiggle room here. There is no room for debate. There is, my friends, no choice. From the peculiar “legitimate rape” garbling of Todd Akin to the repetitive, sanctimonious “sanctity of life” pontificating, we are being shown over and over again what the stakes are in the upcoming election. You might not like some of the things Barack Obama has done or not done in his first term. You might be angry and disappointed that he is not more forthrightly and aggressively progressive with regard to the economy and other issues, but that is no reason to ignore the truth of current political realities for women in the United States. If you know anyone who needs reminding about how it was when abortion was illegal, you can refer them to The Worst of Times by Patricia G. Miller. A few years ago I didn’t believe it was necessary to focus this way, but the current rise of political ignorance and vicious attacks on the interests of ordinary people in the U.S. has changed my mind. People are terribly confused, and the slick moneyed class is intent on keeping it that way. We mustn’t be fooled and we mustn’t let others be either. There is only one candidate for U.S. president who is in favor of recognizing women as the arbiters of choice in pregnancy. Only one who recognizes the struggle of women for full equality. Only one who is comfortable expressing strong support for women. Let’s make sure we re-elect Barack...
Read MoreHonoring The Work of the Goddesses
There is a new play in the world. It’s by poet Annie Finch and is called Among The Goddesses. Annie was kind enough to send it to me to network about our common cause of bringing abortion healing into its legitimate place in life. What a beautiful work of art! It’s on a par with 4000 Years for Choice, Heather Ault’s exquisite art project. I highly recommend you get a copy and see for yourself. The play is built around an epic poem about the archetypical influences in women’s lives. More than anything it’s a journey of personal healing and transformation. Woven through it is the well known goddess chant—Isis, Astarte, Diana, Hecate, Demeter, Kali… Inanna. A couple of weeks ago, I facilitated a discussion for staff from the four states (Colorado, Wyoming, Nevada, and New Mexico) of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) at their annual regional conference in Denver. There were 24 abortion clinic managers, assistant managers, trainers, and regional managers in the room. The topic (happily for me) was “Honoring The Work We Do In Abortion Services.” I divided the session between talking about the central issues in Life Choices, and working with the thoughts and feelings of the people there about the importance of their work and how they feel about it, themselves, and each other. These are some of the women and men doing the work of the goddesses. They are the ones bringing the wisdom of the feminine—the Divine Feminine— into practice in daily life because they honor the many-sided, complex life and death issues women have to face when they make decisions about reproduction. They take care of women and their families during times of uncertainty. They help women with their doubt, fear, and isolation when they need the help the most. Most of all, they shepherd women into taking full responsibility for their power in life and thus help them to step fully into themselves. Some of these professionals are angry, and rightly so. It’s hard enough to provide good health care services in the current political climate, but on top of the normal challenges of health care they are attacked and vilified on a daily basis. PPRM in Denver is housed in a large, modern, classy looking building that combines their surgical clinic and the administrative offices for the whole region. But you can’t see the building from the street. It is like a fortress, with eight foot high fences surrounding the building at the sidewalk line. Huge black tarps envelope and reinforce the metal barrier so that you can’t see in until you are in front of the double iron gate at the entrance to their spacious parking lot. They are harassed every day and have been for many years by people over-exercising their free speech rights who scream at patients and staff and brandish bloody pictures. Which brings me back to the goddesses. It’s easier to understand the swirl around abortion and why it gives rise to such extraordinary passion if we embrace the divine wisdom realms of insight, power, and love. These realms give us access to a depth of comprehension and courage that crosses the centuries. It allows us to keep on keeping on, through thick and thin, and when all seems lost. The empowerment of women and the feminine is a function of human and planetary evolution. The evolution is a natural movement of universal forces. The rising of the women is everywhere. It shows up in myriad sectors of society—political, religious, and personal, as well as educational, environmental, and social. But the patriarchy is not...
Read MoreThe Book Tour, The Conversation, and Vital Services
We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. These words are from Molly Ivins, quoted today at RH Reality Check from Ivins’s last column before she passed away. They can easily be applied to the current contraception conflicts. Hmm… something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. There’s this week’s Doonesbury cartoon strip, thank you, Gary Trudeau. There’s a bill pending in the Ohio state legislature requiring men to have sex counseling before they can have a prescription for Viagra. And more, I’m sure. The lampooning is great. It’s good to laugh, and it helps people to see more clearly. However, the painful consequences of repressive politics are taking their toll among women and families across the country. The latest is in Texas where 130,000 women are losing their reproductive health services at the hands of the state government. So much for less government intrusion in our lives! I’m not in Texas. I’m in Oregon. I was in California last week. I’ll be in Washington State in a few days. I’m on a book tour for Life Choices. It’s going well. The talks at the bookstores have been attended well. I’ll be at In Other Words in Portland tomorrow at 5 p.m. The whole tour schedule is here. This morning I had breakfast with Shelly, the director of Backline. This indispensable pregnancy options hotline provides non-judgmental counseling at 1-888-493-0092. Shelly and I had a meaningful exchange about the root causes of crisis pregnancies and the terrible bind many women are in with regard to having safe support from society for their reproductive choices whether these are pregnancy, parenting, abortion, or adoption. The stress on the vital volunteers at Backline is more difficult in the current political climate. The same is true for the dedicated volunteers at Exhale, a post-abortion hotline at 1-866-439-4253. While in the Bay Area last week, I met over lunch with Exhale’s founder and director, Aspen Baker, who started the organization ten years ago with the unique mission to build a pro-voice community to change the culture so that it is more supportive and respectful of the experience of abortion. On March 3 in Oakland, I attended a training sponsored by The Abortion Conversation Project, an inspiring group I urge you to know about and support. ACP is in the midst of an in depth re-envisioning process. See their mission and vision here. In Ashland, I enjoyed not one, but three gatherings, the first of which was the monthly meeting of the local chapter of the American Association of University Women, and participated in a good exchange about social policy issues including reproductive choice. Lots of good people in that town. What sort of conversation do we want to have about women’s health issues? Certainly not the one that isolates and stigmatizes the abortion choice or one that demeans and demoralizes women for choosing to be parents when they are poor—double pressures that reflect the judgments and fears that prevail in certain sectors of society. Damned if we do and damned if we don’t. This is the way a patriarchal, class society maintains power over people. Not everyone sees it this way of course, which just shows how important it is to have open discussion if we are to achieve our goals. In Life Choices I talk about how legal abortion and the rise of women’s reproductive freedom is one of the main vehicles that will help society evolve...
Read MorePerspective About Abortion is Important
If Life Choices is about nothing else, it is about perspective, and perspective about abortion is important. Women are caught in the crossfire of the currently overheated abortion wars. An epidemic of distorted legislation is spreading across the country in the form of bills that would give “personhood” to the fertilized egg in pregnancy, and more proposals that violate women’s bodily integrity by requiring ultrasounds for anyone requesting an abortion. The patriarchy is alive and well and still living in America. Forced motherhood has been the way of of patriarchy and dogmatic patriarchal religion for the millennia. It is the main way women have been subordinated to men throughout history. Remember how it was not very long ago. Margaret Sanger and others who spent their lives ensuring the health and safety of women and children had to struggle hard. They were steadfast and courageous. Their work is not yet done. Feminism, too, is alive and well, and growing. If the women’s movement (around the world) stands for nothing else, it stands for the freedom of women to choose whether to have sex, whether to become pregnant, and whether to have a baby, or not. What I’m offering is a deep, earth-oriented perspective. Women have been the arbiters of human life on earth as long as there have been humans. Earth is where we live and what we are, and it is through our bodies, the body of Earth, that life renews itself. Renewal comes through life dying into and giving birth to itself, which includes women’s choices to turn back some pregnancies. Renewal and growth occur on all levels—physical, psychological, mental, and spiritual. Human consciousness is by its nature a consciousness of choice because it is a consciousness of awareness and responsibility. The intrinsic power of women to mediate between life and death is a defining aspect of Earth’s way of balancing life. Abortion helps us learn both individually and collectively how to care consciously for the Earth and All Life. Each of the above ideas is part of a holistic perspective about pregnancy choice making. I will share these concepts and more during the Life Choices west coast tour in March. I’ll be in San Francisco at Modern Times Bookstore, Ukiah for private meetings, Ashland at Bloomsbury Books, Portland at In Other Words, Seattle at Elliot Bay Book Company, and Bellingham at Village Books. Click here for more...
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