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October, 1979

Harrisburg Area. Women's News Varen's love

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WOMEN MARCH IN HONOR OF WOMEN WHO SUFFERED

by Christine Savage

On Tuesday, September 18, 1979, approximately one hundred members of the National Organization for Women took the day off work and traveled to Harrisburg from all parts of the state to march and lobby on behalf of reproductive rights. In honor of women who have "suffered needlessly and died prematurely" due to barbaric birth control practices of the past, the participants dressed in black and walked slowly around the Capitol Building following a mournfully tolling brass bell. The

dramatic presentation stopped traffic and was observed by the many employees at the Capitol complex who were on their lunch hours. The marchers rallied on the Capitol steps where talks were given by Pennsylvania NOW President Dixie. White, National NOW Board Member Jane Wells-Schooley, former Pennsylvania NOW President, Gloria Sackman-Reed, and others. A moving personal testimony was given by Becky Bode, Pennsylvania NOW Executive Committee member, who told the assembly how doctors had gambled with her life by giving her a Dalkon Shield intra-uterine device without completely informing her of the risks, and subsequently having to undergo an abortion and hysterectomy when the device became implanted in her womb. After the rally the marchers became lobbyists and entered the Capitol Building to speak with their legislators on this issue.

The march was organized by Carol Block of Lehigh Valley NOW, and it was modeled after a smaller march successfully conducted by that Chapter last year. Other NOW Chapters across the country held similar marches last spring, but Pennsylvania NOW decided to hold theirs when the Pennsylvania legislature reconvened after their summer recess and to coincide with the birthday of Margaret Sanger, an early pioneer in reproductive rights for women and founder of Planned Parenthood. Most of the members of the Pennsylvania legislature are on record as being against, or at least seem to be uneducated about reproductive rights, largely due to the strength of the Catholic lobby on Capitol Hill. The NOW lobbyists wanted to make it clear to the legislators that surveys and impartial studies show that most women in Pennsylvania want the right to control their own bodies and enjoy the basic human rights to limit one's own reproduction, in-. cluding the right to all forms of birth control, recognizing the dual responsibility of both sexes. It was pointed out to the elected officials that on January 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that abortion is an integral part of a wide range of reproductive

hts subject to the privacy of

individuals and families. These rights include sex education in the schools, contraception, sterilization, abortion, infertility services, and prenatal and childbirth care. No single reproductive right can be excluded without seriously undermining the essential right of people to make their own decisions regarding their reprodutive lives without government interference.

Pennsylvania NOW President Dixie White stressed that the organization has made reprodutive rights a priority issue for 1979. She made it clear that a wide range of reproductive rights and services often taken for granted are threatened by a vocal, well-funded minority. Through inflammatory rhetoric, violence against family planning clinics, political witch-hunting and election campaigns, the opponents of reproductive freedom are attacking the essential right of people to make their own decisions regarding their reproductive lives without government interference. NOW prefers the term "pro-choice" to illustrate this concept instead of the "pro-abortion" term often used by the media. White stated some facts that NOW feels are intolerable. 1. Contraceptives have been available nationally to all, regardless of marital status, only since 1972.

2. Contraceptive research is woefully underfunded and inadequate. 3. Family planning services are reaching only about one third of financially needy women in Pennsylvania.

4. Reproductive education is practically nonexistent.

5. Teenage pregnancy has reached epidemic levels.

6. Venereal disease is also at epidemic level.

7. Many men and women cannot obtain voluntary sterilizations. Others are forced to undergo them unwillingly.

8. Many women are denied quality health care during pregnancy and childbirth.

9. Poor women are denied their constitutional right to choice in abortion.

"Yet, 11

stated White, "opponents of reproductive freedom refuse to work out realistic solutions to these very real problems. They call instead for punishment and denial of vital services."

During their speeches at the rally, Jane Wells-Schooley and Gloria Sackman-Reed gave some statistics to the marchers and the assembled reporters. About 1,000,000 have legal abortions each year; this figure becomes more revealing when it is known that before abortion became legal, about the same number of women had abortions each year-thus refuting the "pro-life" groups'

charges that the abortion rate increased after legality. In many areas of the state, hospitals refuse to do abortions. Recently, "pro-life" groups have begun introducing ordinances, usually on the city level, that are so restrictive that most clinics would be forced to shut down. Only seven of Pennsylvania's 45 counties provide unrestricted abortion facilities that completely meet the area's needs. Nationally, 33-40% of women seeking abortions have to travel to another

community to get one. The national NOW organization is working with the National Abortion Rights Action, League (NARAL) among other groups to promote the pro-choice ethic and lobby and educate Congress as well as the public on the reproductive rights issue.

Any earnest inquiry into the ethical nature of abortion is thick with unanswerable questions and moral ambiguity. At the present time, much of the debate has centered on determining when human life begins and on the dilemma presented when a pregnancy places potential life in conflict with a fully existing life. Sincere people come to diverse conclusions as individuals, and various religions differ because of their particular creeds and interpretations. Scientists and members of the medical profession also have diverse views on critical questions regarding abortion. The Supreme Court clarified the legal context, but their decision increased the responsibility of voters and legislators to understand the circumstances in which the need for abortion arises; to make serious efforts to find solutions to the problems which have created this need; to struggle with the conflicting.

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