Powerful words from MN NOW’s Vice President

By popular demand, we’re reprinting the remarks made by Minnesota NOW’s Vice President at the Rally Stop the Abortion Ban at the Minnesota State Capitol on December 2, 2009.  That’s Barbra in the back row, holding the “OMG DEMS WTF?” sign!

My name is Barbra Peterson, Vice-President of MN NOW, a Mother, Aunt, GrandMother, proud Clinic Escort, and a Pro-Choice activist for 33 years. This button I wear today, “NO WOMB FOR COMPROMISE”, is from 1979, my 1st lobbying visit to DC as a NOW member. So I guess that makes me what’s called “The Menopausal Militia”!

I stand with you all today, to protest the Stupak is the Pitts Amendment, an act that will send thousands of Women back–back to wire hangers and knitting needles, back to back-alley abortions. Yes my friends, we’re moving backwards, and we’re here to say NO MORE!

They’re calling this a Health Care Reform Bill, but the very fact that it excludes Women’s reproductive health, that it discriminates against 52% of the population, well, I call it Health Care Deform, and we’re here to say  NO!

We’re being fed the main talking points, that in opposing the Stupak is the Pitts amendment, that it can’t be a line in the sand, and guess what? I agree. Taking a stand for Women’s lives should never be a line in the sand, it should be a line in CONCRETE, unmoving, unwavering, unequivocally, a NO WOMB FOR COMPROMISE line in concrete.

To those elected officials who give us this “line in the sand” jargon, I ask you these 3 questions:

Are you implying that Women’s health isn’t a good enough reason to take a strong stand?

Are you suggesting that Women’s rights aren’t important enough to take a strong stand?

Then am I to assume, by your unwillingness to draw that line, that Women’s lives aren’t important enough to take that strong stand?

Make no mistake, Stupak and his anti-Choice cohorts know that for now, they can’t make abortion illegal, so they’ve set their sights on making it inaccessible with their draconian, insulting restrictions. And now with this amendment, they’ll be making it unaffordable as well. We’re here to say NO!

So, I ask all of you here today, Raise your Voice for Choice, say NO to the Stupak is the Pitts amendment, say NO to any language in the bill that would discriminate against Women, say NO more wire hangers. Then, and only then, will we say yes to the Health Care Bill.