30 Years

Today marks thirty years since Rosaura “Rosie” Jiménez died, she is the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment in the United States.

What is the Hyde Amendment you ask? It was the first real victory for the anti's in cutting off abortion as a health care option to the millions of poor women in this country. The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health is co-sponsor of a year old campaign to end the Hyde Amendement.

The Hyde Amendment particularly affects low-income women and women of color. Abortion is an important option for Latinas, research shows that they represent 17-20% of women having abortions. Approximately 25% of pregnancies among Latinas end in abortion, compared to 18% of white women.

Despite what the opposition may think, Rosie is a prime example that women will seek out abortion services if that is what they want. Keeping legal clinics out will not end abortion, it will only make women drive farther, wait longer, or seek out unsafe abortions.

Rosie Jimenez: A single mother with a 5-year-old daughter, Rosie Jimenez of McAllen, Texas, was a scholarship student six months away from her teaching credential. She was the first known victim of the Hyde Amendment, which cut off Medicaid funding for abortion to women on public assistance — women who by the government's own definition cannot afford health care. Too poor to pay for the procedure at a private clinic, she died in agony from a botched illegal abortion. [link]

HT to Girl With Pen

I'm Not Sorry

A friend emailed this comment to me. Apparently she had technical difficulty posting this as the squiggly letters never were readable.

Perhaps a request at http://www.imnotsorry.net/ might get some women to speak up at the next City Council meeting.Many of us have posted our experience with abortion there. Being alive means making choices, and most of us who have chosen elective termination of our own pregnancy feel relief and we are not sorry we made the choice. I am in California and I hope the women closer to you will be sure to voice their support for our right to determine when and whether we should become a parent. Carrying a pregnancy to term entails physical risks.

Elective termination early inpregnancy is less risky. Girls and women need to know this fact. Our planet is groaning with too many of us already. Please review your reasons (and the dirty air and water your offspring will have to cope with) before you use your vital life energies to produce even one more of us. Millions of children are in desperate need of a home. Please adopt if you need to parent. And do all you can to get the Aurora clinic opened so that othe rwomen and girls will have real healthcare choices that they can afford. Jean Richards

I'mNotSorry.net is a site where women can share their positive experiences with abortion. The stories are moving. They are from women, young and old, some with children, some without, some used birth control, some did not. All are not sorry for having abortions. If you feel that you can not share your story with us here or in a City Council meeting, please submit your story to this website. Please let us know if you want us to read your story at a meeting too.

Join in on the debate

Hi everyone, I'm Veronica, the new blogger for Planned Parenthood Aurora. I'll be doing a lot of posts as I allow the staff to get back to their jobs of providing reproductive health care to the people of the Chicago region.

Are you just as frustrated by the Aurora situation as I am? I know you are! Are you also frustrated by the general animosity towards women's bodies and our reproductive rights? We're in luck! There's a townhall meeting at UIC on October 11th:

The Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health, The Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council, and the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum present...

Understanding Reproductive Justice:
Reclaiming Choice and Broadening the Movement

Thursday, October 11
5:30 to 7:00 p.m.
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum
800 South Halsted Street
Chicago
Free and open to the public.
Reservations are required.

For more information or to reserve your place, contact the Illinois Caucus
for Adolescent Health online,
by e-mail, or by calling 312.427.4460 x233.
Reservations must be made by October 9

To find out more about the event please see the event's webpage.

Abortion and reproductive health care is often not discussed in public and we need to change that. We need to be talking about our own abortions, how clinics like Planned Parenthood saved us in college when we were poor and needed birth control, or how we're thirty and still relying on Planned Parenthood because we don't have health insurance. Our continued silence only allows those who want to control our bodies to hold the mic.

I have heard from friends, read your comments & blogs. Why weren't there more pro-choice voices at recent City Council meetings? Why did supporters leave meetings early? It is my belief that the history of clinic violence keeps some silent. The fact that the anti-choice leaders picket clinic workers homes keeps us silent. I urge all of you to use your voice. "Show your pro-choice face" was a campaign years ago. I now ask Aurora, the Chicago area, Illinois, and the rest of the country to please let us hear your pro-choice voice.

Did you notice the blog stickers on our side bar? Download one and put it on your blog, your MySpace page, or where ever you hang out online. Print them on stickers and put them on your folders, books, etc. Add us as a friend on MySpace and put us on your top friends! The possibilities are endless. But we need you!

I'd like to thank Planned Parenthood Chicago Area for bringing me on board. I've been a pro-choice activist since college, pro-choice my whole life, and even logged some hours as a clinic volunteer in the Near North clinic. "All I did" was check in clients, but it an important job. Greeting clients with a smile made them feel at ease. It's still mind-boggling that even going for birth control can be controversial. But enough about me.

I was listening to Drex in the Morning on KISS FM a few days ago and he took a call from a young woman who thanked Planned Parenthood for her 4-year-old daughter. The caller said that she had gotten pregnant, her boyfriend & her went to their abortion appointment and as with every woman who walks in they counseled her. It was the PP staff person who helped her realize that she really wanted to carry her pregnancy to term.

Do you have a story of how Planned Parenthood helped you? Share it here in this thread! Send a thank you to that nurse practitioner who gently talked you through your first gynecological exam.