This week we visited CHOICES. Where I revisited the site of some great personal pain. Visiting CHOICES made me think about a woman’s right to choose and the fight for reproductive justice, specifically in New York (where abortion was legal a full two years before Roe v Wade). The experiences I had with abortion in North Carolina and California were nothing like New York’s CHOICES. At CHOICES they ensured from the moment of entrance to the medical center that this was a woman’s choice, that she was not being coerced by anyone to take her power over her own body away.

In North Carolina they presented the state legislated stump speech and gave me two hours to think about my decision and in California they saw me the same day. Both of these experiences without counseling. That was the most impressive part about the operations at CHOICES, that a woman’s physical, emotional, and spiritual well being was being cared for and considered. There is something truly inspiring about the way they do things but they are also led by a charismatic leader- Merle. Merle (having had an abortion herself) will and has always defended a woman’s right to choose, no matter the circumstance or frequency of abortions, a woman will always have rights over her body. There is empowerment to taking back one’s body, especially after society and policy has policed women and women’s bodies.

Meeting Merle was like meeting a pillar of female strength. A true superwoman fighting for women HOWEVER she felt like a problematic fav. As much as I admired her tenacity (which few men can match), the articles we read this week rung loudly through me. Was there something inherently wrong about providing poor women and women of color with reproductive medicine? Whose responsibility is it to decide? I felt that yes, it was a woman’s right and always her right; however, the state and others involve themselves to startling degrees. Beyond the restrictions (worst in states like Texas) and the freedoms in states like California and New York, there remains the moral and ethical boundaries and barriers to women accessing and controlling their own bodies. Moreover there is an issue when it comes to whom exercises their rights (as there usually is). Women with money will always have access and opportunity to deal with unwanted pregnancies, but poor women wont (this is the class dilemma). In terms of where race and class intersect it’s a question of need versus ability.  More women of color and poor women need or want reproductive care and abortions but do not have the money or access to get them, but CHOICES offers them a CHOICE. It is again the right to choose that women like Merle fight for and have been fighting for for forty years.

No matter what I am pro-CHOICES, because it is quintessentially progressive. It gives me a sense of security to know that there are people out there doing the work Merle does, and even more to know they’re a train ride away.