After the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, feminists of my generation worried that younger women might take legal abortion for granted. Some did experience legal abortion as simply part of the landscape of their lives, as access to healthcare should be. Others, seeing that legalization did not ensure access or erase stigma, defended abortion clinics and providers against harassment and violent attacks, and opposed the relentless attempts to legislate or regulate legal abortion out of existence. Recent reproductive justice organizing has been creative and intersectional, with Women of Color continuing to lead and stronger alliances forming among a broad swath of social justice groups. Despite these movement gains, we are now experiencing a tremendous backlash to the progress made. 

A strong majority of the U.S. public continues to support legal abortion, yet we do not see this represented at the federal level or in our legislature here in North Carolina. In only one of many consequences of having a virulently anti-abortion White House, states now have federal support to devalue women’s lives to the point of death if a heartbeat can be detected in a nonviable fetus. In what sense does this “Make America Great Again”? Just a few weeks ago, the Raleigh News & Observer reported that “Three state House Republicans are looking to enact further restrictions on abortion in a move that would lead to a near-total ban of the procedure in North Carolina”, with H804 making no exceptions for rape or incest. The resurgent disdain for the lives of women and communities of color reflects a movement to reestablish white supremacist and patriarchal hierarchies devaluing the lives of all considered “other”. In the midst of such brazen attacks on our rights and lives, I have had conversations with several committed young activists who ask “Which was worse – what’s happening now, or what happened in the 60’s?” I have automatically replied that things are much worse now -- in spite of the vicious repression that accompanied the social movements of that time, especially towards activists of color. This reply shocks and upsets my younger friends; and their shock in turn surprises and alarms me.

Perhaps the public discussion of those past movements has focused more on the violent suppression activists faced rather than the high spirits, the heady sense of newfound freedoms, the revolutionary spirit and solidarity, and the certainty of our belief in change and ultimate victory. We were wary of surveillance techniques, but those hardly compare with today’s expanding technological spyware. 

During these previous movements, we had a dawning awareness of the ways that interacting national and global systems were based on inequality and exploitation, and addressing those systemic issues provided a foundation for our organizing.  Now we are seeing the wholesale dismantling of hard-fought gains for civil rights, women’s liberation, LGBTQ+ rights, organized labor, immigrant rights, disability justice, and many other causes. It’s hard to absorb or even understand the scale of this attempt to roll back the significant progress we made. One way to illustrate the true dangers of the present moment is to examine the growing list of words and terms banned for use by federal agencies or federally funded research and programs. Here are a few examples: activism, Black, cultural competence, health disparity, diversity, female, immigrant, GBV (gender-based violence), LGBTQ, Native American, sexuality, vulnerable populations, fetus, racism, trauma, and – last, but not least, WOMEN.

This policing of language appears to be the starting point to dismantle public health infrastructure and restrictions on access to health care, instilling fear in both patients and providers. A salient example of this approach at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the removal of the director and cutting of two-thirds of the programs in the Division of Reproductive Health of the CDC. Other CDC units essential to reproductive health have also suffered either elimination or drastic gutting of staff and resources, e.g., HIV prevention, environmental hazard response, gun violence prevention, worker safety, birth defects, blood disorder programs, dental health, and lead poisoning prevention. Along with the struggle to achieve safe and legal abortion, it took many years to draw the scientific connections between such broad aspects of public health and the well-being of women, infants, children, and families.

It could not be more clear that reproductive justice – in the U.S. and globally -- is impossible under our current federal leadership that is intent on rolling back so many of our rights. It is also crystal clear that we must organize not just to protect, but to expand our rights, including our reproductive rights. As we look back to past movements, we want to embrace not just their successful strategies, but also their sense of purpose, solidarity, and belief that all was possible. We can and will build back a world that is better than the one we are being forced to leave behind. 

We must view the current assaults as a call to bring people together with a sense of profound urgency, and to alert those who have shied away from the abortion fight – or other single issues –  to join together in our common interest. Every action, every letter, every phone call, every conversation, every offer of mutual aid and support, every opportunity to raise our voice, and every donation matters. I encourage you to find your role in our movement, and to follow organizations like Pro-Choice NC for ways that you can act in solidarity for the world we want.

This post was written by Trude Bennett, former Pro-Choice North Carolina Foundation board member and emerita faculty at the UNC-CH School of Public Health