Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan: Defending besieged abortion rights

Pro-choice activists are trying to scare us.

Oh yes, they want us shaking in our boots, organizing rallies and writing angry letters to Congress. They want us riding down to D.C. to participate in the March for Women's Lives, preferably with giant banners reading, "Keep your laws off my uterus," in tow. They want us truly believing that reproductive rights are eroding, that women's health is in jeopardy and that Roe v. Wade itself could be overturned.

It's working. I'm scared, and you should be, too.

The facts in themselves should be frightening enough, but NARAL Pro-Choice America President Kate Michelman put them all together in a persuasive argument when she spoke on campus last Wednesday. And while I was a concerned pro-choicer before her appearance, the chilling picture she presented really hit me: Our rights are being eroded. Women's health is in jeopardy.

This is a rude wake-up call for our generation, born as we were into a country where a woman's right to choose the circumstances in which she will -- or won't -- have children was protected. We didn't know what it was like before Roe v. Wade, we didn't have to fight for the right to have safe and legal abortions, and many of us grew complacent in the belief that we'd always be the masters of our reproductive destinies.

But, as recent legislative maneuverings have revealed and as Michelman so compellingly pointed out, abortion rights are being chipped away. You've probably heard of the disturbing developments of the last few months, but perhaps their implications weren't immediately clear.

The first is the recent federal ban on "partial-birth abortion," actually a blanket term for a group of procedures performed in the second and third trimester -- doctors call it intact dilation and extraction. Not only does the law lack any provision for exceptions when the mother's health is in danger, it is also the first ban on a specific abortion procedure since Roe v. Wade.

The second is what the Bush administration calls the Unborn Victims of Violence Act. Passed by the Senate in late March, this law makes harming a pregnant woman's fetus a separate federal offense and defines a child in utero as "a member of the species homo sapiens." California Senator Dianne Feinstein's proposed amendment that would have made harming a fetus a second offense without giving it legal status was voted down.

Laws like these take away our choices, one step at a time. The thought that abortion could be outlawed seems outrageous at first, until you notice how these measures creep closer and closer to that very move. Every restriction on abortion, every legal redefinition of the point at which a fetus becomes a person, is a crucial rollback of rights. It's not hard to see how the recent laws could be applied to attack choice in general.

And on another level, every restriction represents a profound lack of respect for women. Outlawing an entire group of medical procedures or enacting (as some states have done) constraints like mandatory waiting periods and pre-abortion lectures tells women, "You cannot be trusted to make decisions about the most private aspects of life. You cannot be trusted to seriously weigh the consequences of your actions. A collection of cells in your uterus is more important than your own right to live as you wish. You are not worthy to make these choices, so we will make them for you."

It's insulting. It's demeaning. And it's happening. It could get worse.

Abortion is an easy thing to criticize when you consider it in the abstract. I ask you to take it out of the abstract and make it personal. Really believe for a moment that you or your partner is facing an unplanned pregnancy. Maybe you have life plans that don't include a baby, maybe you don't have enough money, maybe you're alone or your health is threatened -- you know your own life and your own situation better than anyone else could. Now you have to decide what to do, and how precious do these choices appear when you imagine yourself actually confronted with them? How angry would you be if someone took those choices from you?

Understanding that threats to our reproductive rights exist is the first step; making it personal and taking action is the next. People like Kate Michelman help with the first one -- the April 25 march on Washington D.C. is a great place to start with the second. The good people with the Penn Coalition for the March can help you find transportation and give you all the details: E-mail PennCoalitionfortheMarchhotmail.com to find out more.

I'm afraid. You should be, too. But fear isn't so terrible when it motivates you to fight.

Elisabeth Kwak-Hefferan is a senior communications major from Wheaton, Ill. Six Feet One appears on Tuesdays.

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