Real Women's Stories: On Video, Actors Tell of Harm from Ban on Abortion

Words of Choice joins with activist and health organizations to tell the Real Stories of Real Women about a pending ban on abortion in federal programs designed to aid people with pre-existing conditions, or high-risk insurance pools. The women who use this program are the ones most likely to have health conditions -- heart conditions, cancer, diabetes, rare diseases -- that make pregnancy dangerous to their health. Terminating an abortion may involve an expensive hospital stay. But now the insurance that is supposed to help them is slapping in an abortion ban, even when a woman's health is at risk!

The groups involved in releasing the video include Raising Women’s Voices, Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health, National Network of Abortion Funds, the Reproductive Health Technologies Project and Words of Choice. They are part of a campaign to let Washington know that it's not okay to backslide and roll back women's health and undermine their health care decisions. A campaign page provides an activist letter.

The YouTube video incorporates the skills of professional actors to speak out and bring alive the actual case histories and stories of women who face serious health problems and could suffer harm because of their pregnancy. The high-risk insurance pool planned by HHS will eliminate the health exception for women needing abortion care, permitting abortions only for women who are survivors of rape or incest, or who a doctor says will die if the pregnancy continues.

As one woman says in the film: "Insurance will cover the pregnancy that could harm me, but won't cover the abortion that could protect my health. I don't get it."

TellWashingtonNow.com and the video urge people to get the message to political leaders that harming women's health is never acceptable.

A collaborative team from Words of Choice, working with friends and allies, created and produced the video to tell the stories of real women who will be harmed by the new regulations from the Department of Health and Human Services. Among those who worked on or helped with the video are: Jessica Carmona, Crista Marie Jackson, Carl H. Jaynes, Claudia Schneider, Cindy Cooper, Kelly Vieau, videographer and editor Diana Whitcroft, and Linda Stein, of Have Art, Will Travel, who loaned her studio.

The campaign is called "TellWashingtonNow.com" and a direct link to the video is here.

Posted by Cindy Cooper
Pic above: Real Women, Real Stories, www.TellWashingtonNow.com

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The Doctor Is In: Susan Wicklund, MD on YouTube

"One of the things that we can do is just talk about abortion. It is not shameful and bad for women to take control of her reproductive life," says Dr. Susan Wicklund.

Dr. Wicklund, an abortion provider in Montana, knows that it's important to speak out, but she redoubled her efforts after the murder of friend and colleague, Dr. George Tiller.

Dr. Wicklund has done a good deal to speak out. In 2007, she released a widely-acclaimed book, This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Doctor (written with Alan Kesselheim), describing her patients, her encounters with anti-abortion harassers, and the life-experiences that made her want to be the best abortion provider possible. Words of Choice includes an excerpt from This Common Secret in theater performances, and it is always a powerful and empowering experience for audiences.

Now, Dr.Wicklund has teamed up with The World Can't Wait to release a DVD in which she speaks her experiences out loud. Called Abortion Morality and the Liberation of Women, the DVD is a series of clips of Dr. Wicklund speaking in New York in an event sponsored by Revolution Books, and with co-speaker Sunsara Taylor, a writer for Revolution Newspaper and a big picture thinker.

The makers of the film -- producers Lina Thorne and Debra Sweet, editor Heather Ault and cameraperson Joe Friendly -- describe the project in this way:

A whole generation of women and men have been kept in the dark from the basic facts around abortion rights, and left disarmed in the face of the anti-abortion, anti-women movement which will not stop nor find common ground with women's right to control the most basic of decisions affecting their lives. This film, Abortion, Morality, and the Liberation of Women, documents an August, 2009 discussion between Susan Wicklund, M.D., author of This Common Secret: My Journey as an Abortion Provider (available at bookstores and on amazon.com) and Sunsara Taylor, writer for Revolution newspaper (find A Declaration: For Women's Liberation and the Emancipation of All Humanity at revcom.us), and aims to bring scientific and moral clarity to the topic of women's right to abortion.

Fifteen clips are posted on line, with three that especially feature Dr. Wicklund, here and here and here.

Dr. Wicklund tells some of the stories in her book, but live (or live-on-tape) they carry extra potency and strength. She cannot help but tear up a bit when she describes the story her grandmother told her about a childhood friend. Dr. Wicklund describes an abortion -- legal -- that she had as a young woman -- "I never regretted it," she says, but she was insulted with the way that the doctor treated her. "I love what I do," she says. "I work in an area of medicine where I am privileged to be with women through one of the most important passages of their lives, one of the few times where they can actually take control of what they are doing."

The film, she explains, is her substitute for a tour. "I have used my voice a lot," she says. "The more I speak out about abortion, the better it is for all of us.... I am trying to do whatever I can to help people find their voice."

One takeaway tip: "Say the word ABORTION out loud. It's not shameful or bad."

Posted by Cindy Cooper
Pic above: Screen shot from Abortion, Morality and the Liberation of Women

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Lemonade: Austin Squeezes Sour Antis

Whole Women's Health in Austin has it exactly right. Faced with the obnoxious anti-abortion types that hound women and abortion clinics during their 40 Days of Harrassment and Obnoxious Behavior Before The Elections campaigns, also known as 40 Days for Life, the clinic at Austin is striking back.

As the saying goes, when you've got lemons, make lemonade. They've certainly added the sweetener. The clinic is having a party inside, with films, the fabulous 4000 Years for Choice program of the brilliant visual artist, Heather Ault, a tour and "sweet treats" to counter the sour protesters outside.

It's explained on the Wwh Austin Facebook Page:

The anti-choice 40 Days For Life campaign is quite the lemon.

Every year, it brings 20-50+ loud, anti-choice protestors to our clinic. And every year, we ask ourselves 'How can we stop this from happening?' The sad truth is, we can't.

What we can do is turn this into a positive situation that brings us, our community, and the women who need us, together.

The anti-choice 40 Days For Life Kick-Off event is happening on Tuesday, September 21st outside of our clinic. (Lucky us!)

...Inside, we will be celebrating 4,000 Years for Choice, with a presentation of what it means to be a clinic escort, a tour of our clinic, a showing of short videos related to clinic protests, and fun!

As always, please do not feed the protestors with your attention on your way in.

We hope you'll join us for this fun evening. Come help us turn a sour situation into a positive one, and get to know some of your fellow pro-choice Austin-ites!

The Lemonade Party happens on Tuesday, September 21st from 7:00pm – 8:00pm at Whole Woman’s Health 8401 N IH 35: on the Northbound access road, just before Rundberg. Private parking lot only open to WWH supporters.

Oh, and the Whole Women's Health in Austin has another great idea -- you don't even have to be in Austin to partake. To honor women's voices and stories, the Wwh website describes 23 amazing women from history with snappy click-on bios. My favorites are Babe Didrikson and Ida B. Wells. (They say they've named examining rooms after them, too!)

Thanks for the innovative ideas, Wwh Austin! Keep a-going.

Posted by Cindy Cooper
Pictured above, poster Whole Women's Health, Austin

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