I have never thought of myself as a political activist. It is true that growing up in the Vietnam war era I signed up against the war as millions of American did at that time and I protested against it. However, as I grew up beyond that era, I thought of myself as a busy, progressive, professional woman who struggled to integrate work with family life. I was too busy raising two children and building a career to become an activist around the issues that mattered to me the most.
Yet, now, being a 62-year-old woman who is looking to her grandchildren more than to her career, I have found myself really anxious about the future of my children and their children. Providing women with the same liberties as men, is the foundation on which the new administration could "Make America Great". However, the rhetoric does not much the actions taken early in the transition of the new administration, or the actions this President-elect intends to take.
The right of women to choose should not be a political, religious, racial or cultural issue. The right of women to enjoy the same freedoms as men should be the foundation of a democracy we all aspire to in our country. Saying no to the right of women to choose, is not very different from the 1916-1919 efforts to block the right of women to vote.
Saying that overturning Row vs. Wade or relinquishing the constitutionality of the right-to-choose to the political establishment of the states will prevent late term abortions is not different from calling women irresponsible or unable to act ethically. It also shows a complete ignorance of the facts or complete corruption of thought. Complete ignorance, because according to the facts only 1% of the total abortions are near term and they happen for medical reasons, and complete corruption of thought, because the argument implies that women have to be prevented from willingly killing their children. There are more children who are killed because of the illegal use of guns than late term abortions, yet the politically corrupt mind speaks of one but not the other.
The right of women to choose is as fundamental as any other human right and those, who differentiate between the freedom-to-choose and other freedoms of our constitution, view women as inferior, ignorant or irresponsible members of our society. An America that does not recognize women as equals can never become great. This is the reason I, along with my colleagues and my family, will join thousands of others to remind the incoming president and government that "Women's Rights Matter"