Could it be that the pro-life movement – behind such, ahem, winning policies as abstinence-only education, mandatory waiting periods for women seeking abortion, and the just plain odd notion that contraceptives like the pill are nothing more than abortifacients – is actually nothing more than an anti-sex prohibitionist organization espousing a set of “moral” views that actually create a greater likelihood of unsafe sex and higher rates of abortion? As sad (and almost inconceivably bass-ackward) as that may sound, the facts of the ongoing war on sex, women’s reproductive freedom, and family planning bare out those assertions and more. But don’t take our word for it (not that you have to, since you live in Texas and can see the policies of lifer politicians in action – slashing funding for family planning and reproductive services and funneling funds to “crisis pregnancy centers” as a means of providing women “alternatives to abortion”). Instead, for a sobering educational experience, check out the new book How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America: Freedom, Politics and the War on Sex, by Christina Page, vice president of the Institute for Reproductive Health Access of NARAL Pro-Choice New York.
Page has written a searing, no-nonsense exposé of the actions and motivations of Lifers – revealed almost entirely through their own words and political campaigns, and the challenges to them written most often by scientists and other policy wonks. She’ll be the guest at a booksigning reception hosted by NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, 6-7:30pm Wednesday, June 21, at the Kathy Womack Gallery, 411 Brazos. Tickets are $35 per person; RSVP to www.prochoicetexas.org or call 462-1661.
Page will also read from her book at a free event Thursday, June 22 at noon at Book Woman, 918 W. 12th.
This article appears in June 16 • 2006.