Roe, 35 years later

Jennifer Baumgardner: "We start by telling the truth about what has happened to us"

To me, the most surprising thing 35 years after Roe is the shame and isolation both women and men still feel while going through common (though complex and often life-changing) reproductive experiences. Whether deciding to end a pregnancy, having difficulty getting pregnant, suffering a miscarriage, or being a birth mother who places a child in adoption, the things that happen to us in that sphere are hotly debated as issues but too rarely heard about as personal stories. That's why I'm so impressed by films like Penny Lane's "Abortion Diaries" or Faith Pennick's "Silent Choices," Ann Fessler's book "The Girls Who Went Away," and the spate of after-abortion resources activists are creating, like the talk line Exhale.

I'm happy that current work by many feminists is loosening up the way we can approach abortion. We can admit it, for instance, if our abortion was an easy decision with no moral quandaries, and we can admit if the abortion we chose still makes us cry. I hope and believe that 35 years from now, reproductive rights and justice will not be reduced to whether abortion is legal (though it will be legal) but will encompass all of the issues identified in the late-'60s by pro-woman activists and the issues spearheaded by the young activists today. Thus, the movement of the future will secure access to contraceptives and abortion, sex education, patient empowerment, birth practices that view the well-being of the mother as interdependent with the well-being of the baby, to name a few! And this movement will also support the rights of gay, bisexual and trans-people to adopt, create and raise children.

How are we going to get from here to there? We'll start by telling the truth about what has happened to us -- which, to be honest, is where feminist revolutions usually start.

Jennifer Baumgardner is the creator of the I Had an Abortion project and the author of "Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics."

Kate Michelman: "There is no shame in being responsible. Roe offered a spark of hope"

I remember vividly the day, 35 years ago, that Roe v. Wade was handed down. I was a mother of three. Just four years before, I had been abandoned by my husband and forced onto welfare. I had made the agonizing decision to terminate an unplanned pregnancy, which in 1969 involved convincing a hospital review board that I would be an unfit mother to a fourth child. That degrading experience -- on top of the humiliation of losing my husband, my economic security and my social status -- had felt like society's final message to me that I was not a person of worth and value.

Seeing the headline that morning validated for me that there is no shame in being responsible. Roe offered a spark of hope, took me another step along my own personal journey to a greater sense of self, and sharpened my determination to dedicate my life to women's reproductive rights. That was my personal experience. But, writ large, that was the experience of a generation of women. Roe offered a tantalizing and galvanizing signal that attitudes about women could change, and that the sense of shame that society imposed on women could lift.

Looking back, we can remember and honor that moment as consequential. But today's movement needs to understand that the post-Roe generations have a different life experience. They believe that women have an assured place, and assured rights, and expect society to reflect that back to them. To be sure, sexism is still alive and with us -- but today's women expect to overcome it. As a movement, we need to harness that energy and experience.

Yet millions of women are still marginalized. For them, the gains of the women's and reproductive rights movements remain a distant reality. We need to see reproductive rights in the broader context of achieving, at last, a full complement of women's rights for all women. These include a commitment to paid family and medical leave; a revocation of those aspects of welfare reform that penalize women with children and those who become pregnant while on public assistance; inclusion of abortion, family planning and emergency contraception for all women in all national healthcare schemes and for women on Medicaid; and comprehensive, confidential high-quality sexuality education and reproductive healthcare for adolescents.

Kate Michelman is the former president of NARAL Pro-Choice America and the author of "Protecting the Right to Choose." She currently serves as a senior advisor to Sen. John Edwards.

Shelby Knox: "This isn't the legacy the women who fought for reproductive rights had in mind"

It's a perilous time to be a young woman: Your abstinence teacher says you aren't responsible enough to take the pill, emergency contraception is available only if your pharmacist deems you morally fit, and even if you are lucky enough to live in one of the 13 percent of counties that have an abortion provider, you may still have to take a letter home to daddy and ask him to sign off on your choice.

This isn't the legacy the women who fought for reproductive rights had in mind. In fact, the vanguard of this movement supported the repeal of any and all laws regarding abortion. They were fighting to have this medical procedure treated like any other -- without the interference of the law, the state, and most importantly, family members. Roe v. Wade was supposed to be the first step to a more generalized change of consciousness, one that saw women as completely equal.

Celebrating the anniversary of that momentous decision should be a time to think about the steps we can take to build upon the legacy of the women before us.

Shelby Knox is a speaker, activist and organizer working with progressive organizations to promote sex education, women's rights and youth empowerment. She is the subject of the documentary "The Education of Shelby Knox."

Pamela Merritt (aka Shark-Fu): "What would a world united by choice look like?"

I was born one month after Roe and have lived my entire life in a nation at war with itself. As an activist in my local community, I can see that the battle is not academic but alive and hot and hard-fought on all sides. So today, on the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to live in a nation united in support of choice.

I imagine young people being taught comprehensive sex education and growing up empowered to make decisions about their sexual health. I see a reduction in the infection rates for sexually transmitted diseases and an increase in the understanding of risk and the demonstration of responsibility. I envision my fellow women of color talking openly about HIV/AIDS prevention, testing and treatment within our communities. I see women and men embracing the philosophy of family planning, and I see children, families and communities benefiting from that.

In the pro-choice world of my imagining I see positive outcomes and healthy communities, but in the world of my reality I see the ramifications of anti-knowledge policies, misinformation and legalized dogma: medical treatment denied, communities limited by fear and lives at risk.

So the struggle continues even as I pause to imagine what I'm fighting for, which is the world that will result from a commitment to choice. Until that dream is realized, may we all find inspiration in the spirit of Roe.

Pamela Merritt publishes as Shark-Fu at AngryBlackBitch.com; she is also a contributing member of Shakespeare's Sister (an award-winning group blog) and a regular contributor to NPR's "Tell Me More" with Michel Martin.

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