May 1, 2008
Thank You Jessica!
I want to reiterate what fabulous work Jessica has done - not only for NARAL Pro-Choice America, but for the reproductive rights movement as a whole. I know I have learned so much in my short time working with her, and I look forward to following her around Feministing and her book tour for her new book, "He's a Stud, She's a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know."
I put this ask out in the comments section of her 'goodbye' post from yesterday, and I can see a number of you have left some comments (which is awesome), but I want to reiterate here: I encourage everyone to share their favorite "memory" of Jessica's blogging for NARAL Pro-Choice America in the comments below! Have a favorite entry? Favorite article? Please share!
Thanks Jess!
Posted by Molly at 1:06 PM | Comments (1)
April 25, 2008
Happy Anniversary March for Women's Lives! xoxo, Amber
Amber Wobschall is Assistant Director of Affiliate and National Programs for NARAL Pro-Choice America
Amber looks back on her experience at the 2004 March for Women's Lives.
Posted by blogforchoice at 9:29 AM | Comments (2)
April 24, 2008
A Face in the Crowd
Kirsten Suhr is Assistant Director of Online Strategies for NARAL Pro-Choice America
Living in Washington DC, you get used to seeing rallies and marches - there's always someone protesting something, somewhere. Occasionally the rallies are inconvenient and mess up your morning commute, but for the most part they become part of the background noise of living in a city driven by politics.
I've always been politically active, and have attended a number of marches and rallies, but since it's all around, all the time, it's never been a big deal to me. So when I heard about the March for Women's Lives, I thought, "I'm pro-choice. Why not?"
On the day of the March, my then-boyfriend and I walked the 10 blocks from my apartment to The Mall. I wasn't at all prepared for what I encountered. I'd never seen so many people in one place at one time before, and I don't know that I ever will again.
We saw clusters of people from all over the country holding signs from their local pro-choice groups, people who must have been planning to come to the march for weeks and spent hours getting there. There were marchers of every imaginable description. I saw grandmothers who remembered the terrifying years before Roe v. Wade, pregnant women with "My choice" written across their bare bellies, and women in homemade tee-shirts that told the world that they had an abortion. There were moms, dads, teenagers, college students, gay couples, straight couples, and people of every race, ethnicity, and religion.
When I so casually decided to attend the March, I didn't expect to be moved by the experience. It was overwhelming to see so many people out there, unified behind a cause that they felt so passionately about... it was incredibly powerful to be a part of something so big.
I started working for NARAL Pro-Choice America last year, in the online communications department. Every week we have thousands of visitors to our website, and send out hundreds of thousands of emails. It's easy to get wrapped up in the data and the day to day tasks, and forget about who these numbers represent. But then I think back to The March, and I'm reminded of what this job is really about. It's about all of you - everyone who marched, and everyone who wished they could but weren't able to - and about doing everything I can for something bigger and more important than myself.
Posted by blogforchoice at 2:41 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2008
Power behind that push
Sam Sewell is the Executive Coordinator for the President for NARAL Pro-Choice America
"Ow! That little woman had some power behind that push!" I yelled out as I acted as a peacekeeper during the last stretch of the March for Women's Lives. Other peacekeepers and I created a wall, elbows intertwined and locked, around Madeleine Albright, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Kate Michelman, and other leaders of the pro-choice movement. Women and men were taking turns ramming into us with nothing more than their own bodies, trying to get through to those we were guarding. Others were on the sidelines "praying" for us. My arms were aching, but my excitement overruled the pain.
A few months prior, I didn't think I would be there. I was 21 years old and president of the University of North Texas's Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance. Our group didn't have much money, but our fund raising efforts had paid off and 30 of our members were headed to Washington, D.C. When we arrived, the city was buzzing with thousands of pro-choice Americans. People who were too excited to wait until the day of the march were holding up their signs as they walked the streets: Keep Your Laws Off My Body! and my favorite, Post Menopausal Women Nostalgic for Choice!
The day of the march, we rushed to the National Mall and soon enough, large crowds began pouring in, everyone with a massive smile plastered on their face. The FMLA at the University of North Texas is one of the most active and largest in the country, so we were in the honors delegation towards the front of the crowd. About 45 minutes prior to start, an FMF staffer pulled me aside and asked if I would like to march at the front with other student leaders as an honored guest. Obviously I said yes!
So, I left my friends and put on the yellow sash she handed me and followed her to the front. When the march began the other student leaders and I walked directly behind Whoopi Goldberg, Ashley Judd, and other celebrities. The whole thing seemed like a dream. The air was bustling with chants, and the crowd was a patchwork pile of pink, purple, and yellow shirts. A while later one of the march organizers grabbed me and said she needed more peacekeepers at the front.
"Whatever you do, don't let go of the people next to you, and don't let the antis in," she said to me.
I locked arms with the two women on either side of me, and looked back at Madeleine Albright in awe. Once the marching portion was over and everyone gathered around the stages, I was reunited with my group. The Indigo Girls began to play, and my best-friend Sommer and I put our arms around each other and cried... we were exhausted and overwhelmed, but felt like we were on top of the world.
Photo submitted by Sam Sewell.
Posted by blogforchoice at 2:05 PM | Comments (1)
April 22, 2008
Behind the Scenes: An Unforgettable Woman
Donna Crane is Policy Director for NARAL Pro-Choice America
I have many amazing memories from the March for Women's Lives, but in the four years since, one in particular has taken on special significance for me.
As a volunteer at the March, I was assigned to work the backstage VIP area. In general, this meant that I helped staff the speakers as their times to appear onstage approached, and generally tried to keep folks corralled. A number of amazing and fabulous women and men were there - Moby, Julianne Moore, Candice Bergen, etc. - but a friend introduced me to someone particularly special that day: Dana Reeve.
The wife of Christopher Reeve, and an accomplished woman in her own right, Dana, our mutual friend, and I ended up spending several hours together in that backstage area, enjoying the speakers and the celebratory atmosphere of the march, and getting to know one another. She was young and beautiful, totally lacking pretense, kind, and funny. Over the course of the day we talked about the state of Chris' health, their children, and her and Chris' work together on behalf of stem-cell research. It was very clear to me that she saw through an intensely personal lens the danger of letting anti-abortion politics derail ethical and important research in the United States - and was determined to do all she could to stop that from happening. I was amazed by her quiet strength and dignity, and took that as a lesson.
As the world knows, five months later, Christopher Reeve died of complications from his earlier horse-accident injuries. But then fate dealt a second blow: less than two years after the march, Dana Reeve passed away at a tragically young age, from cancer.
I can't say I knew her well by any stretch of the imagination, but I'll never forget having spent that day with her at the March for Women's Lives. She was utterly committed to women's health and rights, to science, and to progress - and I'm honored to have had the chance to meet her, however briefly, that day.
Posted by blogforchoice at 10:55 AM | Comments (1)
This Week: A Look Back at the March for Women's Lives
The fourth anniversary of the March for Women's Lives is this Friday (can you believe it? The fourth anniversary!!!) and to honor this seminal event, we here at NARAL Pro-Choice America thought - wouldn't it be great to get some NARAL Pro-Choice America staff members to talk about where they were during - or what they remember about - this special event?
So for the rest of this week, in honor of the March for Women's Lives, you will get the chance to read some really unique and interesting stories from various staff members. If you have a memory you'd like to share, I definitely urge you to share it in the comments below.
The first one will go up soon, so be sure to check back often!
Posted by Molly at 9:32 AM | Comments (2)
March 11, 2008
New blog alert: Warrior Prose
The National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF), has just launched their new blog: Warrior Prose in celebration of International Women’s Day:
Drum roll please….welcome to NAPAWF’s new blog, “Warrior Prose!” Through our blog, we hope to inform, inspire, provoke, and energize our members & allies. Building community has always been and will always be an important goal for NAPAWF so please share with us your stories and your knowledge as we enter the blogosphere.
Be sure to check it out!
P.S. Regular BushvChoice readers should remember Priscilla Huang, Policy and Programs Director for NAPAWF, and her guest blogpost on the one-year anniversary of Plan B.
Posted by Blog for Choice at 2:36 PM | Comments (0)
June 7, 2007
Easy as A-B-C
By Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America
Have you heard about pharmacists refusing to fill women’s birth control prescriptions, and wondered whether lawmakers were paying attention? I have an answer for you. They are.
I just got back to the office after attending a press conference on Capitol Hill to announce the introduction of the Access to Birth Control (ABC) Act. This bill would guarantee women access to birth control at national pharmacy chains.
I was proud to join Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) and a brave and outstanding woman: Carrie Baker.
Do you remember Carrie?
She’s the mother of two from Rome, Georgia who was unable to obtain the emergency contraceptive Plan B® at her local Kroger pharmacy. Fortunately for all of us pro-choice activists out there, Carrie turned her anger into action, and contacted NARAL Pro-Choice America and NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia to fight back.
Carrie spoke passionately about the need for the ABC Act, which would prevent other women from experiencing the humiliating and degrading situation that Carrie endured at a pharmacy counter. Carrie even took time away from a family vacation to join us in Washington.
So please, join Carrie and me in thanking Reps. Maloney and Shays, along with Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who introduced the Senate version of the bill, for addressing this serious issue with thoughtful, commonsense legislation.
Posted by Blog for Choice at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)
August 2, 2005
New bilingual zine on abortion
Our Truths, Nuestras Verdades is a new quarterly online and print bilingual zine dedicated to bringing to light women’s (and men’s) abortion experiences.
I’m looking forward to getting my print copy of the zine, but I have to say the online version is pretty cool.
The magazine seeks to reduce the stigma surrounding abortion in order to improve the physical, emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing of all people and strengthen their capacity to reach their highest potential.The theme of the first issue is Stigma, or Estigma in Spanish. You can read the entire issue online, but I’d really push for folks to support this great project by buying a hard copy.While we welcome all voices we strive to focus on the experiences of young people and people of color, since we know that in many cases they are the most marginalized from the mainstream pro-choice movement and that they often have fewer opportunities to see their abortion experiences reflected in public spaces.
Posted by Jessica at 5:25 PM | Comments (0)