I started this week with the intention to write a vitriolic column about NU Right to Life and the Catholic Student Association’s Respect Life week. I wanted to call them anti-feminist, and say that they want to enslave and emotionally torture women. I wanted to hate them.
Then I actually spoke with them. And it’s tough to be so bitter.
Let me put this clearly, up front, so we know where everybody stands here. I’m pro-choice. I believe that every woman has a right to control her body, and the decision to have an abortion or not is one that should be made with a doctor, not a government lobbyist or an interest group.
NU Right to Life believes that abortion should only be allowed in instances where the mother’s health is at risk and the fetus is not viable outside of the womb. They do not believe in allowing abortion for instances of rape or incest, saying that “violence should not beget violence.”
I think they’re wrong. I think that their position diminishes women to no more than their reproductive system, and that they assume they know better than a woman about her body and her life. I think that their imposition of their belief system, however faithfully held, is a violation of women’s rights.
On the other hand, they think I’m wrong as well. They are steadfast in their beliefs, and they find the views of pro-choice advocates reprehensible. That’s fair. But to go back and forth, and to attack each other with fiery rhetoric and verbal barbs, is going to get us nowhere. It cheapens us.
Today, NU Right to Life is having the “Memorial of the Innocents” display, which will be 1,200 pink and blue flags representing the 1.2 million abortions that occurred in 2008. (Their figures are from the Guttmacher Institute, a non-profit research organization investigating sexual and reproductive health. Centers for Disease Control figures peg the number of abortions in 2007 at about 800,000, but don’t include data from several regions, including California, the most populous state.) Alongside the display, they will be distributing information about various resources pregnant women can turn to for support, including information and education about pregnancy.
The display is a bit childish. Most displays are. They’re designed to get your attention, get you to want more information about the topic. The imagery is designed to invoke that of a graveyard, as the group considers abortion to be the taking of a life. To get into this debate, whether a zygote is a life, whether a fetus is a life, will cause us to spin round and round in a religious, moral, legal and ethical quandary. We will get nowhere.
They will be handing out information today. Not included in that information – understandably, considering their views – are resources on abortion services for those who wish to seek them. I feel I have a responsibility to provide this information myself in a public forum for those who need it and are dissatisfied with the options the groups running Respect Life week are providing.
Planned Parenthood is an organization that provides information about reproductive health, including free or low-cost birth control, pregnancy and STD tests, information for pregnant women about programs and services to help new mothers, gynecological exams, counseling and aid in the adoption process and, yes, information about and services involving abortion. The group is non-profit, non-religious and places patient health and confidentiality as its utmost concern. Most services are on a sliding scale based on one’s ability to afford them, and none are turned away for inability to pay.
The Planned Parenthood that services Boston is the Greater Boston Health Center on 1055 Commonwealth Avenue. For more information about their services, their walk-in hours, or how to support them, visit pplm.org.
Regrettably, the center is frequently targeted by protesters, who have taken to harassing those working and visiting the clinic. They call the women murderers. They hold up signs with grotesque, manipulated images of what they claim are aborted fetuses. They urge the workers to repent and cease their ways lest they go to hell.
We can’t tolerate this kind of behavior. We are an educated citizenry that is capable of having a reasonable discussion about this matter and coming to a reasonable consensus.
We should be better than this. We can be better than this. We are better than this.
