{"id":228528,"date":"2010-01-25T09:22:29","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T14:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhrealitycheck.org\/blog\/2010\/01\/25\/reclaiming-choice"},"modified":"2010-01-25T11:08:47","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T16:08:47","slug":"reclaiming-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/228528","title":{"rendered":"Reclaiming Choice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n\tThis post is part of our "What Does Choice Mean to You?" series<\/a> commemorating the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade<\/em>.\n\t<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\nOn a bitterly cold, winter morning in early 2008, an
\nanti-choice protester approached me and said, "I’m sorry your parents didn’t
\nteach you the ways of the Buddha." I was
\nwearing WACDTF<\/a>‘s signature oversized,
\nbright orange mesh vest donned by all clinic escort volunteers, and neither the
\ncold nor the color of the vest could compete with my raging anger. My WACDTF training kicked in and I managed to
\nrestrain myself long enough to walk away from the protester, but I spent the
\nrest of the morning projecting silent epithets at the middle-aged, graying
\nwhite man standing just 20 feet away.\n<\/p>\n

\n"How dare he?"<\/em> I
\nfumed. Clearly, the man made a sweeping assumption that because I appear Asian,
\nI must be Buddhist. Wrong! I don’t know
\na thing about Buddhism (besides some of the new age-y stuff I’ve heard here and
\nthere), and when I asked the other clinic escorts if the protester had made
\nsimilar remarks to them, none of them replied that he had. (I was the only
\nAsian American escort that day.)\n<\/p>\n

\nWhat that morning reminded me, and what I’m reminded of time
\nand time again is that "choice" is not just a decision when you’re a woman of
\ncolor; it’s an identity that becomes inextricably tied to one’s race, gender
\nand family affiliation. When a woman of color seeks family planning services,
\nher decisions are viewed as representative of her family upbringing, her
\ncommunity and her race.\n<\/p>\n

\nThat’s why reproductive justice organizations like the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum<\/a> are
\nspeaking out against discriminatory policies that seek to undermine Roe v. Wade
\nand pit communities of color against the pro-choice movement. For example, proposals to ban abortions based
\non sex-selection<\/a>
\nand so-called "race selection" have been cropping up on the federal and state
\nlevels. Proponents claim the bills
\nprotect the health and human rights of women and girls, particularly Asian
\nAmerican and Pacific Islander and African-American women. In practice, the
\nproposals would limit the reproductive health options of women and girls of
\ncolor, and exacerbate racial stereotypes.\n<\/p>\n

\nOn the anniversary of Roe, I continue to be a
\npro-choice, reproductive justice advocate because I don’t want others to choose
\nfor me or my sisters. As a daughter of
\nimmigrant parents, I refuse to let the anti-choice movement define who I am and
\nwho they think I should be. And, as an
\nAsian American woman who had an abortion, I reject any attempts to blame my
\nparents or my race for a medical service that I wanted, needed and don’t
\nregret.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post is part of our "What Does Choice Mean to You?" series commemorating the 37th anniversary of Roe v. Wade. On a bitterly cold, winter morning in early 2008, an anti-choice protester approached me and said, "I’m sorry your parents didn’t teach you the ways of the Buddha." I was wearing WACDTF‘s signature oversized, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228528\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}