400 At An International Conference in Latvia Vow to Keep Abortion Available


They call themselves "abortion pirates." They were doctors, healthcare workers and political activists. They were from countries with liberal abortion laws and from others where abortion is against the law period. They gave papers and exchanged strategies. From this report, it sounds like the international production and distribution of pills used for abortions plus transportation of women internationally to access surgical abortion is alive and well.

Some of the participants in the Latvia conference have or will go to jail. It is not discouraging the others. No doubt many expect to be jailed. Jail did not discourage the "Jane" amateur abortion surgeons in Chicago before Roe. 

There was a time when forced birth zealots, too, we ready to go to jail for their convictions. A few killed doctors and/or clinics burned. This kind of conviction seems scarce now. It may be the reality they are defending very tiny bits of a woman's flesh is starting to sink in and really is not a cause worth jail time. It is OK to disrupt a woman's life over a tiny piece of her own flesh but we in the forced-birth club, our lives are important. Here and in many other places the truth has been published, it is and always has been impossible to enforce forced-birth laws. The determination of women to succeed dwarfs religious whackos. 

The determination of women to obtain equal opportunity extends beyond abortion rights. All readers have seen protests of women all around the world, including Iran, over how they are allowed to dress. Whether we're talking alcohol, marijuana, head coverings or abortion, when the public, especially women, think laws are bonkers violations will outrun attempts to enforce. Good laws can be enforced. Bad ones not. 

The conference in Lativa was interesting because it cut across so many variables. Latvia itself was part of the Communist Block. Then there are the various version of Christianity and secularism one finds from several continents. Women's rights has a foothold in all those places.  



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