Woman's National Abortion Action Coalition (WONAAC) Newsletter, 1972-01-31 Page: 4 of 8
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THE CHICAGO WOMEN'S COMMISSION
A contribution to the strategy discussion by
Diane Rupp, Illinois Women's Abortion
Coalition.
The Illinois Women's Abortion Coalition had
originally planned to hold public hearings on wo-
men's experiences with abortion in November as
culmination of our Abortion Week. We did not feel
able to do the best job possible then, however, and
now plan to hold the hearings as the Chicago Wo-
men's Commission as part of our spring campaign.
We yet have only vague plans for the Commission
presentation itself, but are already working to pre-
pare and build the project through outreach in
three directions--to agencies, women and media.
Agencies and 'Professionals'
One of our first steps in preparing for the
Commission is outreach to other family planning,
abortion, social service, and legal agencies. From
them we get leads to women who might like to
testify and ideas for the Commission. One of the
lawyers in the case challenging Illinois' abortion
law, for example, is letting us use testimony from
the case which is public record. We have found the
name of the prosecutor who handles cases of quack
abortionists, and are hoping he will do the same.
Planned Parenthood is particularly interested in
seeing the Commission deal with the lack of con-
traceptive information and service among high
school women, and the director of the Institute
for Sex Education has given us valuable documen-
tation and leads to studies on the high rate of
suicide among pregnant high school women. We
also intend to speak with administrators and teachers
in homes for unwed mothers and adoption agen-
cies. This sort of outreach has the nice side-effect
of publicizing us among 'professionals' and some-
times gives us contacts for fundraising.
Women
We have been able to get commitments for
testimony from a large number of women already
active in the campaign. However, in our plan to
reach out to new women we hope to have a series
of 'wanted' posters and leaflets. These will be
progressively more detailed about the Commission
and will use different approaches in asking for testi-
mony. In the request we are emphasizing two rea-
sons that women should speak out--first, to help
in the campaign to repeal all abortion laws (we con-
sider the Commission's approach an escalation of our
educational attempts, something of a dramatic
response to the jars of fetus freaks) and second, to
help other women feel less isolated.
Although the Commission itself is about three
months away, we are finding it very much worth-
while to build and solicit testimony now since
it reaches out to women highly motivated to work
in the campaign. Several of the women who have
submitted accounts are willing to serve on our
speakers bureau for small 'speakouts' on abortion.4
These women, of course, are especially effective
since fetus freaks appear at their worst when at-
tacking them personally before an undecided
audience. We are now considering the use of these
speakouts to build the Commission itself.
Media
We always mention the Commission as part of
our program and press seem to like the idea. About
six weeks before the Commission we will send out
public service announcements requesting testimony.
A month before we will have a press conference
to announce the project, possibly with women to
speak out there as a preview. Again, two weeks be-
fore the presentation we will use public service
announcements. We are hoping also to persuade some
radio stations (who knows? maybe even tv) to broad-
cast the Commission and are making arrangements
with Distaff to film the presentation.SHOULD GAY WOMEN COME TO BOS-
TON ON FEB. 11?
An individual position paper by Karen
Bancroft, Boston.Women's Abortion Action
Coalition.
February 11 will mark the beginning of the Second
National Women's Abortion Action Conference.
But as Gays see the conference approaching, they are
questioning just how do abortions affect them. The
answer is not a difficult one, for we have witnessed
relatives or friends who have gone through the try-
ing experience of an abortion. But the whole ques-
tion of abortion law repeal is closer to us than just
relatives. Lesbians are women. And because we are
women we are subjected to the same sexist, degrading
remarks and actions that our straight sisters have
been subjected to. Therefore among many other
crimes, we too are raped and forced into bearing
children because of backward abortion laws; we
too have been left maimed or dead by hack abor-
tionists. And we too who have had abortions have
had to face the same expensive, humiliating and
time-consuming rituals. We, as women, are attacked
personally by the present laws.
As much as we are affected by the abortion laws,
we must realize that we are affected because we
are women and not because we are Gay. In this
light, the Gay and the Women's movement are two
separate movements. Adding Gay demands to the
abortion movement or adding abortion demands
to the Gay movement would weaken the focus of
either movement. We must remain separate but
united around common goals. The goal of repeal-
ing all abortion laws will be particularly important
to Gay women for it addresses itself to the right of
controlling our own lives.
cont. on pi
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Alexander, Karen B. Woman's National Abortion Action Coalition (WONAAC) Newsletter, 1972-01-31, periodical, January 31, 1972; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1940535/m1/4/: accessed June 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.