By Jane

I haven’t always had health problems. Growing up I was generally fine and it wasn’t until my late teens I developed chronic and debilitating head pain. The condition continued, and continues, to worsen over time. These were no regular headaches or even migraines, but something much more rare. Thus began several years of being referred to countless specialists, all ordering different diagnostic testing to determine what I had and how to treat it. Thankfully I had health insurance—first under my parents’ coverage and after college I had a great job that covered me.

As life always changes, my partner and I ended up moving to a new city so he could attend graduate school. Even before moving, I started looking for jobs. And I knew getting new health insurance would be a top priority. I enrolled with COBRA to continue my benefits from my last job, but it was very expensive and through a regional carrier who didn’t even have providers in my new state. So while looking for a job and sending in dozens of cover letters, I was also trying to be a good consumer and compared all sorts of different health insurance plans  to find the best one for me.

I decided on a plan offered by Aetna, filled out all the paperwork, and waited for a response. In a letter mailed to me a few weeks later, Aetna stated that considering my pre-existing condition, they wouldn’t let me purchase insurance from them. Disheartened but hopeful I tried for my second choice—Independence Blue Cross. Their letter wasn’t as bad, stating they would let me buy insurance, but nothing related to the pre-existing condition, so basically nothing ‘above the neck’, would be covered for the first year. That wasn’t too helpful since my condition was a major reason why I wanted health insurance.

Thankfully I was offered a job shortly thereafter that offered health insurance coverage starting immediately. But this experience left me extremely nervous. What if the economy takes a turn for the worse and I lose my job? This is why I was so happy when the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed and stipulated that starting in 2014, I cannot be denied individual health insurance because of my condition. But this week, with the fate of the ACA in the hands of the Supreme Court, I am nervous all over again. I just hope the Justices do the right thing and uphold this critical law that will help me and so many others.

Dear Virginia, (CC: outraged left wing media)

Your little legislature was wrong. There is a state more demeaning to women than you. Up here across the Mason Dixon line, we’ve managed to come up with a forced ultrasound bill more cruel and medically unnecessary than yours! (It was tough, I’ll be honest)

If our bill becomes law, women will have to wait at least 24 hours after their ultrasound before an abortion, no matter how far away they live from the provider. And here in Pennsylvania, 113 of the 203 elected state Representatives have signed on to our ultrasound bill. That’s more than your twelve by a long shot!

Our bill FORCES the doctor to turn the ultrasound screen towards the woman’s face. Don’t worry – we avoided constitutional meddling by “allowing her” to look away. I heard you only give ‘the opportunity’ to view the ultrasound image. LAME!

LOVE the “free ultrasound providers” bit! We did that, too, so now we can funnel women to those so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” where they can be fed state-funded, unregulated misinformation. We don’t even require that ultrasound providers have any training!

Oh and you’ll love the part about the printouts – listen to this. We’re going to make the woman take TWO prints with her – one for her scrapbook, and the other one SHE has to bring to the doctor performing the abortion (if she hasn’t been shamed out of it at this point! LOL).

And come on now, only civil penalties? Our bill includes civil and criminal penalties for doctors and patients who dare defy our legislating of medicine.

Nice try, Virginia. But you’ve got nothin’ on Pennsylvania.

Your partner in crime,

Pennsylvania

Virtue, Liberty and Independence (Unless you’re a woman)
___________________________________________________________________________________

You’ve probably heard about the Virginia ultrasound bill recently, but did you realize Pennsylvania has a bill pending that’s even worse? The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is poised to take up HB 1077, the disingenuously titled “Women’s Right to Know Act”. Are you ready to stop the cruel, demeaning attacks on women in Pennsylvania? Sign the petition and urge your representative to vote NO on HB 1077 and stop this demeaning and unnecessary bill from becoming law in Pennsylvania.

By Shana Mihovics

Somewhere along the way we lost our recognition of the color grey. Yet, it's there. Whether life begins at conception, or whether it is when there is a sign of purpose, or consciousness or at birth, these are complex questions on which there is no universal agreement. No one's situation is the same. No one's options are ever the same. Life isn't fair and circumstances are not always equal. 13,000 women become pregnant every year due to rape or incest. One woman dies every seven minutes around the world due to an unsafe abortion. Those facts are black and white. 

Here at Planned Parenthood, we try to help women have as much black and white in their lives as possible in a proactive, positive way. We educate, we support, and we offer services to help them plan their lives and their choices.

But there's always going to be grey in life. Thank you Roe vs. Wade for the compassion and logic that Roe vs. Wade made possible. Not wanting to acknowledge grey won't ever get rid of the color.

Shana is an intern at Planned Parenthood Advocates of PA.

By Jasmine Henderson

_Nationally:
-1 in 3 American women will have had an abortion by the time she reaches age 45.
-58% of women having abortions are in their 20s
-61% have one or more children
-85% are not married
-69% are economically disadvantaged
-73% report a religious affiliation

There is no ethnic majority:
-36% of women obtaining abortions are white non-Hispanic
-30% are black non-Hispanic
-25% are Hispanic
-9% are of other racial backgrounds

Pennsylvania as of 2008:
-Pennsylvania represent 3.4% of all abortions in the United States.
-224,200 of the 2,450,528 women of reproductive age became pregnant
-41,000 women obtained abortions
-17 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age
-There were 50 abortion providers in Pennsylvania.
-82% of Pennsylvania counties had no abortion provider
-46% of Pennsylvania women lived in these counties


Abortions are one of the safest surgical practices,with fewer than 0.5 percent of women experiencing complications when obtaining an abortion.  Roe v. Wade gives all women the right to safe and legal abortions. It is a woman's shield that is constantly trying to be taken away for no good reason at all. Clearly,the numbers show that abortions are needed and IT IS OUR PERSONAL CHOICE. Why should men (who will never know what it's like to be a woman) or women who are against abortions control our bodies?

Cheers to Roe v. Wade forever!

Jasmine is the Public Affairs and Public Policy Intern at Planned Parenthood Advocates of PA in Harrisburg, PA
Facts found at: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/sfaa/pennsylvania.html

Thank you to Jasmine for participating in our Roe v. Wage Blog Carnival.

_By Karen Bojar

Yesterday I forced myself to go downtown on a on a bitterly cold (although thankfully sunny) day to a demonstration in support of abortion rights. When you are 67 you find out which causes matter most to you—these are the demonstrations you go to no matter what the weather. Tomorrow will be the 39th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision. I never, never expected in 1973 when I was a young woman that we would still be fighting to protect abortion rights 39 years later!

Although we have a pro-choice majority, a well-organized, vocal minority has managed to chip away at a women’s right to control her won body. But as I wrote in last year’s anniversary of Roe v. Wade post:

"There is some good news. Fortunately, there is a generation of young feminists out there ready to fight for reproductive rights. I don’t think young women are going to meekly stand by and accept the loss of hard fought rights. But women in my generation thought at one time that we had spared them the necessity of that fight."

Thank you to Karen for participating in our Roe v. Wage Blog Carnival.  Check out her other blog posts at:
www.the-next-stage.com

_By Gwen Emmons

One of the most common questions reproductive justice activists get is why we focus on choice in a time where so many other pressing issues – jobs, poverty, healthcare reform – have yet to be solved.

My answer is simple: they’re all connected. And on the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I think it’s more crucial than ever to reflect on how reproductive autonomy fits in to the bigger question of realizing the American dream.

The ability to determine the timing and spacing of one’s pregnancies (or whether to be pregnant at all) contributes to your ability to enjoy economic security. Unplanned pregnancies can, unfortunately, be costly (particularly if you are un- or under-insured) and can impact your ability to work in some cases. Having the ability to control your reproduction is crucial to controlling your economic destiny.

Access to safe abortion care, contraception, Plan B, medically accurate sex ed, and affordable gynecological screenings and childcare services are at the base of the pyramid that makes up that American dream. Lose Roe – or any of these other pieces – and we risk toppling that pyramid. Unfortunately, for too many women and men, that’s already happening. And it’s shameful.

The flip side of this is that instead of fixing things like poverty, the economy, or our healthcare system, legislators in Pennsylvania and across the country have focused their efforts on chipping away at choice. Spoiler alert: restricting access to Plan B doesn’t create jobs. Draconian restrictions on abortion services won’t fix our economy.

So as we celebrate 39 years of access to safe, legal abortion, let’s reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that reproductive rights – and the American dream – remain attainable to everyone.

Thank you to Gwen for participating in our Roe v. Wage Blog Carnival.  Check out her other blog posts at: www.gwenemmons.com

By Katherine Bisanz

Women who experienced first hand the injustices that made up the daily lives of American women before the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion in the U.S., surround us daily. These women are our mothers, our grandmothers, our neighbors, and our teachers, many of them unassuming and too humble to realize the essential role that they played in the freedoms that we enjoy today. 

My mother is one of these women. Her current life as a suburb-dweller and family therapist combined with her excessive modesty hardly scream abortion activist. But her role in the movement has offered me a much greater connection to the issue of safe abortion.

My mother worked at a free clinic as an abortion counselor in the late 1960s and early 1970s when abortion was illegal. What she most remembers about the experience is how afraid women were and how powerless they felt over their bodies.

“Women were performing abortions on themselves on a daily basis,” she recalls. Many were seriously injured or died because they had no choice but to take matters, literally, into their own hands. She spoke of the difficulty of getting a woman to a legal, out-of-state abortion clinic before 1973. She remembers the anxiety in the air, as the clinic staff called names off of a list of women who would be sent to New York by bus, where abortion was legalized in 1970. This process was complicated and dangerous for the women and the volunteers involved, but they did what they had to do without flinching, because they firmly believed in our right to choose.

Despite my mother’s knowledge and care in the realm of reproductive health, she was totally unprepared for a pregnancy that occurred when the Dalkon Shield,* a form of intrauterine device (IUD), failed her in 1974 one year after Roe was passed.  She has no doubt that the excellent care that she received from the staff at Planned Parenthood while undergoing the procedure may not have been possible just one year earlier.

Today, 39 years after the Roe v. Wade decision, several new and proposed laws in Pennsylvania threaten to send us back to the days of unsafe and unavailable abortion care. Let’s not sit back and let legislators take away the rights that my mother fought so hard for. We owe it to our daughters and granddaughters to fight back. 

*The Dalkon Shield was found to cause severe injury to a disproportionately large percentage of its users which and led to numerous lawsuits and juries awarded millions of dollars in compensatory and punitive damages to thousands of women.                                   

Katherine Bisanz is pursuing a master’s degree in Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania and interning at the ACLU-PA’s Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project.

Thank you to Katherine & the ACLU for participating in our Roe v. Wage Blog Carnival.  Check out more information about them at: http://aclupa.blogspot.com/2012/01/from-generation-to-generation-roe-v.html 
  

By Janna Frieman

“Don't Tread On Me.”

It's a favorite saying of anti-government tea partiers and libertarians alike. Dating back to the Revolutionary War, this motto-- paired with the image of a rattlesnake coiled to strike-- summons along with it a call to defend certain natural rights to privacy and autonomy, a fundamental resistance to the authoritarian impulses of state power. Leave me alone, the snake glares, or else. Though the iconic phrase has been co-opted for many causes over its long existence,  today it seems as though only right-wing small-and anti-government advocates wave the Gadsden flag (as it is historically named) with pride. 

But it’s no secret that tea partiers and the politicians who pander to them don't actually believe in freedom from government regulation -- at least, not without notable exceptions. For all their talk about financial, educational, and environmental deregulation, the glaring inconsistency of smaller-government activists and politicians lies in their fierce opposition to the deregulation of a most fundamental site-- the (female) body. My body. And this isn't just a back-burner issue. This is a priority. In the first six months of 2011, Pennsylvania lawmakers spent 30 percent of their days at the Capitol working to restrict access to safe, legal abortion when they should have been solving real problems.

Actually, that's small-minded of me. For some voters, activists, and lawmakers, my bodily autonomy is a “real problem.” They are so uncomfortable with the idea that I currently can choose whether or not to have a baby that even my right to use birth control is coming under fire in popular discourse. Rick Santorum has infamously said that contraception is “a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.” It's no stretch of the imagination to think that Santorum or any one of his like-minded colleagues will continue to push these paternalistic, religious, anti-sex, anti-liberty agendas.

And to them I say: don't tread on me.  Writing under a pseudonym in 1775, Ben Franklin commented on the appropriateness of the rattle snake as a symbol for the freedom-loving American spirit: She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders... she never wounds till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of stepping on her.—Was I wrong, Sir, in thinking this a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America?

As the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade  approaches and my reproductive rights increasingly come under fire, I think it’s time to re-appropriate the Gadsden flag for its original purpose -- the symbolic defense of civil liberties against the creeping authoritarianism of the state.  Like the Gadsden flag's rattlesnake, American women have generously given notice that these onslaughts against our basic bodily autonomy are unacceptable. So let this year be a year filled with pro-choice visibilities, actions, and activism -- a shot across the bow for opponents of personal liberty and reproductive privacy. Consider this fair warning: don't tread on me.

Janna Frieman is an intern with the ACLU-PA’s Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project and a Master of Social Policy candidate at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice.

Thank you to Janna & the ACLU for participating in our Roe v. Wage Blog Carnival.  Check out more information about them at: http://aclupa.blogspot.com/2012/01/roe-v-wade-anniversary-message-dont.html

By: Lisa Schulter

For the woman who discovered her hormonal birth control had failed.

For the woman who wouldn’t stand a chance of surviving childbirth.

For the woman being physically and emotionally abused by the father of the pregnancy.

For the woman with five children.

For the woman with no job, healthcare, or emotional support.

For the woman who was raped by a stranger.

For the woman who – as she slept – was taken advantage of by her own husband.

For the 14 year old girl.

For the 47 year old woman.
 
Roe is for these women; Roe is for all women. 

I am a patient advocate for a clinic in eastern Pennsylvania, and these are real stories from real women I have met over the course of my work.  They come in all ages, from all walks of life.  Their situations so very different, yet linked by a common thread of needing to end a pregnancy.  There is no “type” of woman who gets an abortion – she looks like me; she looks like you.  She could be me; she could be you. 

Without Roe, what would these women have done?  What would you do? 

We can’t allow our state and federal leaders to push us back to a time when women died attempting to control their fertility – their own bodies.  We are not cattle, nor should we accept being treated as such.  

This post is the first in a series of posts as a part of the We've Had Enough Campaign's Roe v. Wade 3-day Blog Carnival.  Be sure to continually check back for more posts related to Roe v. Wade.