By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / Jan. 22, 2011
January 22 was my birthday, which interests me greatly, being that I love birthdays — still. But, understandably, few folks noticed it.
January 22 was also the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that resulted in legalized abortion in the United States. But, unfortunately, few folks noticed it.
But I did, I noticed it, as I do every year. Every year I make note of the decision that has affected my life multiple times. And, as much as I love birthdays, if I had my druthers, I’d give up my flowering plant and chocolates and unabashedly early adult beverage; I’d forego the caviar dip and dinner and cake; I’d decline the ribald cards and presents and familial adoration; I’d chuck it all, if I could feel confident that the pro-choice population is aware of the Roe v Wade decision, it’s significance, and the persistent efforts to deny the constitutional right it confirmed for women.
And with the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives, those efforts are already picking up. Just last Thursday, House Pro-Life Caucus Chairman Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) announced the introduction of the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act .” If passed, the act would permanently encode the prohibition on federal abortion funding that heretofore required a vote each year since former Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) first succeeded in denying access to affordable abortions for women on Medicaid in 1976.
That was three years after the Roe v. Wade decision. Today, thirty-eight years after the decision that gave all women the right to choose an abortion, the majority of women do not have ready geographic or financial access to providers.
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I am grateful for my reproductive freedom. I have exercised that right, and I’m ok with it.