{"id":25334,"date":"2019-07-16T11:15:12","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T16:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=25334"},"modified":"2019-07-15T22:16:45","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T03:16:45","slug":"anti-choice-laws-and-the-community-of-women-fighting-against-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2019\/07\/16\/anti-choice-laws-and-the-community-of-women-fighting-against-them\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAnti-Choice Laws\u201d and the Community of Women Fighting Against Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On June 22, Voices United for Women, an organization that is designed to help women, femmes and their allies, held a demonstration that started at McFerson\u2019s Commons in the Arena District in Columbus, Ohio and ended at the statehouse steps, a reaction to April\u2019s \u201cheartbeat bill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tSince the \u201cheartbeat bill\u2019s\u201d inception back in April, when Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed it into law, the bill\u2019s been riddled by a bevy of backlash from pro-choice and women\u2019s rights groups across Ohio and the rest of the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\t\u201cI think that this is a longtime coming attack on women because of the lies that have been spread around this,\u201d said Emily Parris, Co-Founder and President of Voices United for Women, a women\u2019s rights group. \u201cI think that it\u2019s pretty clear that this isn\u2019t just an attack on wanting unborn fetuses to have a \u2018chance to live.\u2019 This is a way to control a woman\u2019s right to her body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/4aCs1-9ZZ6Y?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tThe law is another in a long line of bills introduced over the past year throughout the United States, the strictest of which lies in Alabama\u2019s law, which bans all forms of abortion, even in cases of rape or incest, and carries up to 99 year sentences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\t\u201cThat turns back the clock to pre-1970s,\u201d said Parris of the laws proposed in Alabama and across the country. \u201cThat turns back the clock to all that we\u2019ve been able to accomplish in the fight for reproductive justice, that the women whose shoulders we stand on in this fight have worked so hard to accomplish, and I think that, you know, the big fear is that this would end up with the re-examination of Roe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\t&#8220;The heartbeat bill has the potential to be the vehicle that overturns Roe v. Wade,&#8221; said Mike Gonidakis, President of Ohio Right to Life, the state&#8217;s oldest and largest pro-life group. &#8220;We know that this temporary restraining order is just a step in the process to finally seeing Roe reconsidered.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The essential function of government is to protect the most vulnerable among us, those who don&#8217;t have a voice,&#8221; said DeWine at the time of the bill\u2019s signing. &#8220;Government&#8217;s role should be to protect life from the beginning to the end.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"616\" data-attachment-id=\"25347\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2019\/07\/16\/anti-choice-laws-and-the-community-of-women-fighting-against-them\/attachment\/vuw-1\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-1.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"960,616\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"VUW-1\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-1.jpg\" src=\"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-1.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-1-300x193.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-1-768x493.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption>Voices United for Women on the courthouse steps. (Photo by: Paul Becker)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\tU.S. District Judge Michael Barrett blocked Ohio\u2019s \u201cheartbeat bill\u201d the first week of July, so named because a fetal heartbeat can be heard at six weeks, the proposed barrier for abortions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThese abortion bans are unconstitutional and strip away a woman\u2019s timely right&#8211;cause I think that that\u2019s the big thing, right?\u201d said Parris. \u201cIt\u2019s that six weeks ban. While technically it doesn\u2019t \u2018ban abortion,\u2019 many women don\u2019t know that they\u2019re pregnant at six weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\t\u201cLet\u2019s say you\u2019re in a long-term relationship,\u201d said Parris. \u201cA cisgender woman is married to a cisgender male. You know, she gets pregnant and she wants an abortion. Is it her husband\u2019s right to oppose that? Of course. It\u2019s his right to oppose that. Right? He can have his opinion all he wants. Or our legislators can have their opinion all they want. At the end of the day, we have to recognize what I don\u2019t think a lot of people are talking about which is bodily autonomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s the same thing as giving blood. Let\u2019s say myself and another person are the only people with AB+ blood type in the entire world. And I\u2019m the only person that can save their life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou cannot force me to give blood to them. Of course I would, personally, but you cannot force me if I don\u2019t want to. So, you cannot force me to sustain life. Just in the same way that you cannot force me to be an organ donor and you cannot force me to be a human incubator. And so at the end of the day, I think it is 100% a person&#8217;s right to choose what happens to their body.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1367\" data-attachment-id=\"25348\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2019\/07\/16\/anti-choice-laws-and-the-community-of-women-fighting-against-them\/attachment\/vuw-4\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-4.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"2048,1367\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Ralph Orr&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;\\u00a9 2019 Ralph Orr&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"VUW-4\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-4-1024x684.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-4.jpg?fit=1024%2C684\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25348\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-4.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-4-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-4-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-4-1024x684.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><figcaption>Voices United at the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio (Photo by: Paul Becker)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At the Voices United event, Columbus City Council President Pro Tempore Elizabeth Brown spoke about the bill and about legislators around the country and their intent with the heartbeat bill and others like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf you look around the country and you look at states that have the most restrictions on abortion care, you will see that correspond to the worst health outcomes and for babies,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSo let\u2019s be clear about what restricting abortion does: It makes babies less healthy and it makes women less healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\t\u201cIf you are really concerned with protecting life from beginning to end, I think that maybe [DeWine] should care about life post-birth,\u201d said Parris. \u201cI think that maybe you protect having access to healthcare, protect having access to education, and drug pricing that\u2019s affordable, and career opportunities that pay men and women equally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI don\u2019t think that then we have an issue on abortion, we have an issue on which lives and which people should be protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen I see Christianity taking over the government of my country, even as a Christian, I have to pause and say, no that\u2019s not what we are as a country. We came here to escape religious oppression and how dare we pass laws that are based in religious truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo be completely transparent,\u201d said Parris on the formation of Voices United, \u201cWe were not really looking to start an organization, but as we talked to people, both people who have been in women\u2019s rights fields for decades and people like us who were in college and we came to the realization that a rally or a protest or whatever terminology you want to use for this type of event really means nothing if it\u2019s not tied to a larger strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1184\" data-attachment-id=\"25350\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2019\/07\/16\/anti-choice-laws-and-the-community-of-women-fighting-against-them\/attachment\/vuw-3\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-3.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1500,1184\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;PAUL BECKER&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"VUW-3\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-3-1024x808.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-3.jpg?fit=1024%2C808\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-3.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-3-300x237.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-3-768x606.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-3-1024x808.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1500px) 100vw, 1500px\" \/><figcaption>Emily Parris (on the left) and Voices United marching through Columbus. (Photo by Paul Becker.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo put it bluntly, no legislator looks at a protest and says, you know what they\u2019re right. I was gonna vote for this but now that I see all of these young women, I think I\u2019m going to change my mind. That\u2019s not the reality of it. And as much as we would love for that to be the case, it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo, what we recognized that we were able to tap into a group of people who had never been politically involved before but wanted to now. And we said, okay, so what are these people missing? Why have they not gotten involved before? And it was simply because they didn\u2019t feel like they had a place to belong. And so we all kinda looked at each other in a team meeting one day, pretty early on in the planning process and said we gotta give them a place where they feel like they have a voice that is valued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSo, we brought other organizations in like Fight For Her Ohio, Women Have Options, The ACLU, Planned Parenthood&#8230; We connected with organizations that had volunteer opportunities and said let&#8217;s give them the opportunity to speak and then pass out their information.<br> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cTo say, here are the volunteer opportunities you have, here\u2019s where you can donate, here\u2019s what you can tweet to get our message out. Giving people very specific directions of what they can do to help. I think that makes people walking away from a protest a little more fulfilled and then gives them something to do afterwards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N7rLxbzlSl0?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Richard Foltz<\/strong><br>Managing Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 22, Voices United for Women, an organization that is designed to help women, femmes and their allies, held a demonstration that started at McFerson\u2019s Commons in the Arena District in Columbus, Ohio and ended at the statehouse steps, a reaction to April\u2019s \u201cheartbeat bill.\u201d Since the \u201cheartbeat bill\u2019s\u201d inception back in April, when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":25346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3328,3,3393],"tags":[3317,3319,3323,2877,1789],"class_list":["post-25334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-tartan-news","category-u-s-news","tag-abortion","tag-heartbeat-bill","tag-pro-choice","tag-richard-foltz","tag-womens-rights"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/VUW-5.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-6AC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25334"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25351,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25334\/revisions\/25351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}