threeplusfire: (young meier)
three ([personal profile] threeplusfire) wrote2009-06-09 07:15 pm

Jane's Due Process

http://open.salon.com/blog/steelrigged/2009/06/02/i_helped_teenagers_get_secret_abortions

I know I am helping the right-wing make something private into something shameful by being discrete. But I don’t have a T.V. show, I don’t have security guards, all I have is the residual fear that somewhere there is a man with a gun, looking for our office, who is absolutely certain he has the right to shoot me, because I help teenagers get abortions.

Jane's Due Process - http://www.janesdueprocess.org/

I am thinking about volunteering for this group. I have no legal skills or training, but I do know how to talk to upset people on the phone. Of all the things I've done in my life, I am wondering if volunteering at clinics and for groups like this will be the most dangerous one. (My volunteer orientation for Planned Parenthood is next month)

I am also starting to wonder how this, and how my messy, complex gender identity crisis, will change my friendships and my life. My livejournal has not been exceptionally funny or lighthearted in the past couple weeks. If I feel some outrage fatigue on the subject, that probably goes double for anyone reading. Not to mention, is there a weird disconnect between identifying as male and being so wrapped up in the cause of women's rights over their reproductive health and choices? I don't know. Is it frivolous to be wishing I had a more gender neutral name at such a time? What am I going to say when someone does cut me out of their life because of all of this? Should I finally go ahead and take that hand gun class, get a concealed carry license?

It is strange, to feel all of this converging at once.

[identity profile] wonderlandkat.livejournal.com 2009-06-10 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I must have been on the super unclear juice last night. My question was really is being an escort the most effective thing that I can do or is there something more effective, like working to overturn 24 waiting periods or laws where the doctor has to say that abortion causes breast cancer when it doesn't. Basically, based on my skills and inclinations, what can I do that would be most useful in keeping abortion available to women.

I'm actualy leaning towards something else at this point because in my area, PP needs escorting only very early on Saturday mornings and I don't think that's something I could personally do well.

[identity profile] delchi.livejournal.com 2009-06-10 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Everything helps.

[identity profile] tsarina.livejournal.com 2009-06-11 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
I think anything helps - perhaps the best way to decide is to look at your skills and your time. What can you do with them? What can you commit to, what is going to work best in your schedule?