Women's rights still under attack as 'Roe' turns 40

I recently attended an event honoring the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision. Most of us have little memory of the long battle for women's rights in this country. We have grown accustomed to thinking that women have a voice in their own defense, be it personal or political. We forget that not long ago women's status here resembled that in nations we now criticize for the lack of women's rights. It wasn't until 1920 that women earned the right to vote in the United States. For most of our history, women could not own property after marriage, because it automatically became their husband's.

Violence against women has dominated our headlines recently, from the shooting of a young woman in Pakistan for the crime of wanting an education for herself and other women, to the rape and murder of a physical therapy student in India for the crime of, I guess, being a woman. In Saudi Arabia, women are finally being granted some voting rights and representation on advisory councils. They still can't operate a vehicle legally or be visible in public. In this country, domestic violence and abuse against women continues to be a major problem.

At the 31st annual gathering of Six Rivers' Planned Parenthood, Carol Scher was honored with the Maggie award, named for the founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger. Carol has served women in this area for many years, volunteering as a board member and on several committees as well as donating a van which is now used to provide medical outreach all over the community.

Margaret Sanger helped introduce women's reproductive rights into the language of United States justice. Sanger defied the state and federal "Comstock" laws, named after a notorious "anti-smut" crusader of the time that made it illegal to send birth-control information or supplies through the mails or to import any contraceptive device. Sanger published articles about sex education and women's health and spent time in jail as a result until public outcry caused authorities to drop all charges.

Carol's grandmother, inspired by Sanger's work, helped to found the Motherhood Protection League in Minnesota. Minnesota had a loophole in its state statute regarding birth-control. It allowed doctors to prescribe contraceptives "for the cure or prevention of disease." Only wealthy women with a private doctor could obtain birth control. The "Motherhood Protection League" was formed to help poor women gain access to birth control. In 1931 they quietly opened a clinic and renamed it the Minnesota Birth Control League. Carol Scher's grandmother, operating as the league's secretary, records that they provided "under proper medical supervision and by means not contrary to the law, the best contraceptive information ... . Most clients were young mothers who have already borne as many children as their health and income can justify." (Carol Scher "Comments," 2013 SRPP banquet.)

As we enter 2013, 29 states are controlled by legislatures that are opposed to both abortion and contraception. As has been the case historically, the people most impacted by their decisions will be poor women. Forty years ago this week the Supreme Court ruled, in a 7-2 decision, that a woman's right to privacy under the 14th Amendment's "due process" clause permitted abortion. A concerted battle has been waged ever since to take this right of privacy and self-determination away from women, and give it back, I suppose, to men.

So what can a man say at this historic time as women battle for the basic right to contraception and health care, education, safety from violence, the right to vote or even the right to drive a vehicle in some nations? It helps if we stand with them. One anecdote shared during the gathering was the response of women in Pakistan to a movie by Emmy award winning director Dorothy Fadiman's documentary, "From the Back Alleys to the Supreme Court and Beyond." They had assumed that women in this country had always enjoyed the rights preserved in Roe v. Wade. "It gives us hope," one Pakistani woman commented, "that maybe someday we can have these rights as well." (Other films by Fadiman can be viewed at www.concentric.org.)


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