#cecile richards
Trump just signed an executive order calling for a reinstatement of the Global Gag Rule. This video is a simple breakdown of what the Global Gag Rule is and its implications.
Article about Global Gag Rule: The Guardian
If the United States coughs, the rest of the world is going to catch the flu.
“At Planned Parenthood, we believe sexual and reproductive health care IS health care—and that health care is a human right. That includes safe, legal abortion. Everyone deserves health care that’s free of shame, stigma, or judgment.” —@plannedparenthood.
Unless you’ve been completely avoiding the news, you too know that over the past few weeks, hyper-restrictive, medically illiterate abortion laws have been passed in Georgia, Alabama, and several other states. As my generation’s parents witnessed in their time, women will have abortions whether they are safe and legal or not. Women will die if these laws are allowed to stand. Here’s my broad sweeping generalization: misogyny runs deep in this country. (Update: shoutout to the man who messaged me: “Then go back to your fucking country!” As a proud immigrant, I find statements like such both old and laughable. As James Baldwin wrote in his 1955 book, Notes of a Native Son, “I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”)
All of this merda reminds me of a particularly memorable “What I’ve Learned” from Esquire’s February 2016 issue. Cecile Richards, then-president of Planned Parenthood, said: “The same woman who is picketing your clinic one day finds out that she needs Planned Parenthood the very next day.” I remember reading this three years ago and finding it supremely profound. It still resonates.
I fluctuated with my feels when I was a naïve adolescent. I’ll always express gratitude for those fourteen years of Catholic school but I’ve come to realize through lived experiences: no one needs to “believe” in abortion. Abortion is health care, not religion. Pro-choice is pro-life—respect for the sanctity of women’s lives, not every fertilized egg in an ovary. Choice is non-negotiable, health care is a human right, and I have a difficult time these days supporting those in my life who support politicians obsessed with controlling my physiology.
Women everywhere should have the right to choose and access to reproductive health clinics where they will be treated with expert care and compassion. As I expand my work with organizations dedicated to furthering inclusive sexual and reproductive health care around the world, I always remember my chosen home because God I do sincerely love America and feel an innate lifelong link to helping minorities receive the expert compassionate care I’ve been blessed with in my lifetime. The threat of bodily autonomy being removed here is terrifying and we should all be on the frontlines advocating to ensure safe and legal health care for all women in America.
