Many years ago when I was in my early, early 20′s, still a college student, a friend of mine got pregnant and did not want a child.  At the time there were ample clinics where abortions were performed, and you didn’t have to travel very far.  This was Chicago, of course.  But still.  If you wanted or needed an abortion there was no problem accessing this type of medical service — unlike today.  And for a long time, well after I had my own children, I assumed this medical service was readily available.  Then one day, I was shocked to discover that things had dramatically changed. 

I knew it was still a constitutional right for a woman to have an abortion, but gradually fewer and fewer places offered them.  I was shocked to discover that some states had only one clinic and one doctor — who flew in from another state — to perform abortions.  Then that doctor was murdered while he was attending church on Sunday by a PRO LIFER.  But how much of a PRO LIFER can you be when you go around killing other people?  That whole incident rocked my very core.  What had happened in the intervening years, the years where women could without fear, walk into a clinic and have this medical service performed?

Since I had moved to the DC area and heard about a panel sponsored by feminist and socially progressive organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, I decided to attend the event where I would express my horror and ask the question I just posed above.  I rationalized that since I was not a politically active person — meaning I didn’t follow political trends — my ignorance was excused.  But what about the feminist organizations?  How could this happen under their very noses?  What had they been doing to protect this constitutional right?  I was angry at them!

As we become more scientifically aware of our species, there has been a race to define life.  When does it start?  Well that’s not a hard question.  Conception is the start of life.  But nothing is viable outside of the womb at conception, or even at six weeks, and yet there are those who are trying to use this reasoning to restrain women from their right to have an abortion.  And this has exposed women to social violence when they need to be escorted into an abortion clinic because PRO LIFERS are outside protesting and making gruesome statements about viability and life, which frequently are nothing more than opinions, with the intent to terrorize the woman who has decided to have an abortion.

What happened?