Category: Women’s Rights

On Sunday, January 22, 2012, the Radical Feminists of Occupy San Diego are hosting the Roe v. Wade Anniversary Abortion and Reproductive Rights Rally, March, and Speak-Out.

A rally with speakers will be held from 1-1:30 in the Civic Center Plaza (or Freedom Plaza – nicknamed by Occupy San Diego), followed by a march downtown and an open-mic speakout.

The event is to commemorate the 38th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion on a federal level in 1973, and to protest the many restrictions on abortion rights and access.

2011 marked a banner year in the Republican war on women’s health.

By Tanya Somanader / ThinkProgress / December 27, 2011

2011 marked a banner year in the Republican war on woman’s health. Close to 1,000 anti-abortion bills sped through state legislatures as the GOP-led House led a “comprehensive and radical assault” on a federal level. But in surveying their arsenal this year, 10 bills stood out as particularly perturbing and far-reaching efforts to stymie women’s access to abortion services, birth control, and vital health services like breast cancer screenings. Here are ThinkProgress’s nominations for the most extreme attacks on a woman’s right to choose:

• Redefining Rape: Last May, every House Republican and 16 anti-choice Democrats passed H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act. Anti-choice activists Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) tried to narrow the definition of rape to “forcible rape,” which meant that women who say no but do not physically fight off the assault; women who are drugged or verbally threatened and raped;
  

by Medea Benjamin / Common Dreams / December 27, 2011

I had the privilege of starting out the year witnessing, firsthand, the unfolding of the Egyptian revolution in Tahrir Square. I saw people who had been muzzled their entire lives, especially women, suddenly discovering their collective voice. Singing, chanting, demanding, creating. And that became the hallmark of the entire year–people the world over becoming empowered and emboldened simply by watching each other. Courage, we learned in 2011, is contagious!

1. The Arab Spring protests were so astounding that even Time magazine recognized “The Protester” as Person of the Year. Sparked by Tunisian vendor Mohamed Bouazizi’sself-immolation to cry out against police corruption in December 2010, the protests swept across the Middle East and North Africa—including Egypt,Libya, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, Algeria, Iraq, and Jordan.

By Nadin Abbott / December 23, 2011

During the early morning hours of December 23rd the Occupy San Diego encampment was raided by San Diego Police, and three people were arrested, at least two of them seemingly without cause.

Later that day, the American flag that’s been guarded by Occupiers at Civic Center Plaza (dubbed “Freedom Plaza” by occupiers) was confiscated from a Marine Corp veteran of the Gulf War, John Canter. Carter stated “I was guarding the flag during the raid. They took anything not held.”

In the Tea Party’s America, families must mortgage their home to pay for their mother’s end-of-life care. Higher education is a luxury reserved almost exclusively to the very rich. Rotten meat ships to supermarkets nationwide without a national agency to inspect it. Fathers compete with their adolescent children for sub-minimum wage jobs. And our national leaders are utterly powerless to do a thing.

By Kit-Bacon Gressit / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / September 19, 2011

I vaguely recall the first time someone asked me what it means to be a feminist. I was still a kid, freshly baptized in the blaze of radical feminism.

Or so it seemed, as our consciousness-raising group met in Anita’s living room. She was into her middle years, a professional woman returned to college, and the group was a school project.

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / August 28, 2011

Friday, August 26, was Women’s Equality Day. Sadly, it’s a bit of a misnomer. Besides, how many people actually know what it is that the day celebrates? It surely is not equality. Women don’t have equality. Even I don’t have equality, and I am no pantywaist — but the same rights, responsibilities and opportunities as men? Oh my goodness, no. Women, as a class, have not yet achieved any of that.

By Jennifer Dreyer / Guest Columnist Voice of San Diego / August 22, 2011

Recently I’ve been asked why San Diego should elect a pro-choice mayor. After all, mayors run city departments, manage the municipal budget, and (hopefully) set a clear vision for our city’s future. They do not run any health services or enact heath care policy. So why should it matter whether San Diego’s next mayor is pro-choice?

The answer is that it matters greatly. During the past decade, anti-abortion rights groups have expanded their agenda to oppose contraception programs and women’s health services.

While the sturm und drang of the debt ceiling debate drowns out the howls of distress of the American public going down with the ship, we are being treated to an equally diversionary coverage of the significant women’s issue of the day. Did someone say douche? I didn’t say douche but someone said douche.

By R. Erickson / Special to the OB Rag / July 27, 2011

PARIS, FRANCE: Americans who manage to avoid «American Idol» and see some films from France, see some photos or commercials of Paris, or even travel there, might have the image of women in flowing spring skirts or dresses, or in professional skirt suits.

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing

You know that thing we used to have to do at the end of summer, the thing that whopped you upside the head with the brutal inevitability that vacation was over, that tar-bubble popping adventures and rhubarb-sucking loll-abouts were done, done and gone with the finality of a bee between your naked foot and the clover that enticed the insect to its death and you, to your hopping pain?

Dan Rottenberg
A few days before hundreds of people took to the streets for the event SlutWalk San Diego, Dan Rottenberg, editor of the Broad Street Review, posted a column titled “Male sex abuse and female naiveté“. In the lead-in to the column he advises us,

“Earth to liberated women: When you display legs, thighs or cleavage, some liberated men will see it as a sign that you feel good about yourself and your sexuality. But most men will see it as a sign that you want to get laid. Forewarned is forearmed.”