#BlogforChoice Day 2010: What We're Reading

... The thing is, these anti-choicers don't want to trust women.

Trusting women means respecting women and respecting women means acknowledging all of our rights and acknowledging all that would threaten those in power.

And this struggle is all about power...those who have it and intend to keep it and those who need some of it, must struggle to achieve some of it and then struggle more to keep what we get.

Trust Women is not a plea or a request.

Trust Women is what I demand.

To me, being pro-choice means trusting women to make their own decisions about sex, sexuality, pregnancy, and childbearing. I also believe that in order for women to make the best choices, they need honest, accurate information about these issues.

and

...We must trust our sisters, daughters, wives, and girlfriends - rather than our senators and congressmen - to make the personal and private decisions about their own lives.

But in a larger sense, I believe it's time to "Trust Women" across the board. We must trust women to know their own hearts, to act in accordance with their beliefs, no matter what those beliefs might be.

Those who stand in picket lines at abortion clinics (so long as they express themselves appropriately and respect others) have as much right to be trusted as those who walk through them. Those who believe life begins at conception have as much right to be trusted as those who believe life doesn't begin until a child is born. And the same is true for anyone whose beliefs fall somewhere in between those two positions.

"Trust Women" is a reminder that access to abortion shouldn't be limited because of politics or religious ideology. And it's a reminder that no one but the woman seeking an abortion is qualified to decide if it's the right decision. "Trust Women" means recognizing that each individual woman can make her own decisions about what is best for her. For me living these words means judgment has no place in my relationship to a woman's decision about her own medical care. It means doing what I can to share information and increase access so women can make their own decisions without other people's beliefs and judgments getting in the way.

No one should have to say, "Trust Women." It should be obvious. By saying it out loud, over and over, Dr. Tiller made clear the blatant sexism, the sense of moral superiority inherent in anti-choice organizing and policy. No one should have to escort women outside abortion clinics or provide many of the resources we direct women to through the hotline. But as long as access to abortion is under attack we must clearly state that women can make their own decisions and we must fight to break down barriers designed to keep women from being able to act on their choices.