Clinic Advocates Challenge Protesters to Join Them in "Prevention First" Policies

As Roxann MtJoy has written before, 40 Days for Life could be more accurately be termed 40 Days for Harassment. The event, underway now for the second time this year, is a chance for anti-choicers to gather outside of reproductive health clinics and hurl insults at women who may or may not be going for an abortion. And though some protesters just seem to get off on telling women they're baby-killers going to hell, ostensibly the goal of these 40 days is to prevent abortion.

But if that's really the goal, and if many of these protesters are well-meaning people who just can't stand what they believe to be the deaths of babies, Paula Gianino, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood ADVOCATES, St. Louis and Southwest Missouri, has a few suggestions. In a letter to the editor, "Pray to end abortion — but also for women's health and future," Gianino makes a few suggestion on how anti-abortion advocates can take action to reduce the incidence of abortion: without harassing women, and without violence.

Gianino's suggestions are intended to be practical ways in which we can reduce the need for abortion while still being "pro-women" and supporting their well-being. Her first item encourages people to speak out against Catholic Bishops' attempts to exert undue influence over the U.S. government by attacking birth control coverage. Gianino further calls upon those who are against abortion to vote for candidates that support birth control and comprehensive sex education; by ensuring that all women have knowledge about and access to birth control, we can reduce the rate of unplanned and unwanted pregnancy, in turn impacting the incidence of abortion.

This should be a common ground goal for both defenders of women's choice and people who view abortion as wrong — and stable ground for people who exist in the intersection of those two ideologies. Remember, people can support a woman's right to control her own body while still believing that abortion takes a life, and these kind of measures to reduce abortion without dominating women give them productive means to support both "choice" and "life." If protesters aren't just out there to get their kicks demonizing and shaming women, joining forces with women's rights advocates on tactics that truly lower the abortion rate should be a no-brainer.

This all falls under the concept of "Prevention First." After all, even making abortion illegal does stop it from occurring: it simply forces women to access back-alley or do-it-yourself procedures, risking their own health and lives in the process. The way to reduce abortion that is both effective and respectful of women is to invest in preventative measures.

H/T RH Reality Check

Photo credit: taberandrew