Column Violence against women -- a cause for pro-life activists
By DEMETRIA MARTINEZ
Today we are witnessing the opening
up of political space in what has been the subject of a hopelessly polarized
debate, namely abortion. This, thanks to the vision of the Seamless Garment
Network (NCR, Jan. 21). The
organization opposes not only abortion but also the death penalty, the arms
race and other threats to lifes sanctity.
What makes the Seamless Garment Network truly unique, however, is
that it is a coalition of activists who disagree on whether to criminalize
abortion -- and who therefore champion a more inclusive and, I believe,
revolutionary cause.
The networks goal is not to expend its resources trying to
make abortion illegal. Its goal is to make abortion unthinkable,
according to the networks executive director, Mary Rider.
Its an idea whose time has come. The network must seize the
moment to reach out to people who have grown numb to the predictable discourse
of both pro-life and pro-choice advocates; to win their trust by showing that
people on both sides of the issue can work together.
I am convinced that the pro-life movement has not been ambitious
enough. Pro-life activists have largely failed to analyze and to publicize
various forms of violence perpetrated against the unborn.
Take the epidemic of domestic violence as an example.
What if activists loudly and consistently spoke out for the
millions of women whose desires for healthy pregnancies are thwarted by
violence -- violence that takes place not at abortion clinics but in the
so-called sanctity of the home? Where the deadly weapon is not an
abortionists syringe but the fist of a man who claims to love the woman
hes beating up.
Theres a new study out on womens health titled,
Ending Violence Against Women. It was released by Johns Hopkins
School of Public Health and the Center for Health and Gender Equity.
One of every three women worldwide has been beaten, raped or
somehow mistreated, according to the report. Besides immediate physical
injuries, such treatment of women has been linked to problem pregnancies. The
report states that studies have linked abuse of women to miscarriages,
premature labor and fetal distress.
This global perspective reflects what we know about the United
States in particular: Violence against women is as American as apple pie.
In this country, domestic violence is the leading cause of injury
to women. The Justice department estimates that each year 3 to 4 million women
are beaten in their homes.
According to the Center for Disease Control, three-quarters of
women over the age of 18 who are raped or assaulted are victimized by husbands
or ex-husbands, boyfriends or ex-boyfriends, the person they live with or a
date.
Pregnant women and those who dont yet know they are pregnant
pay a heavy price, according to Lorena Howard.
It happens all the time. Women have told me about losing two
or more babies because they were beaten, she said. A leading Chicana
activist here in Tucson, Ariz., Howard works at a shelter for battered
women.
Problem pregnancies are often made worse when women smoke and
drink because of the stress of living under siege, she said.
She recently visited with a woman at a Catholic hospital -- 35
weeks pregnant -- whose partner punched her in the stomach.
Think of it, said Howard. Its living at
war.
Making domestic violence a pro-life issue would go a long way
toward saving unborn children -- and their mothers, she said. (In 1998, almost
a third of women murdered in this country were killed by husbands, ex-husbands,
boyfriends and ex-boyfriends, according to FBI statistics.) Perhaps churches
could declare themselves sanctuaries for battered women -- whose bodies are,
after all, sanctuaries for evolving life.
Such a campaign would also require taking a hard look at how we
can better socialize boys -- and rehabilitate male abusers; how we can confront
the myth that violent behavior is part of proving ones manhood or an
appropriate way to vent anger.
Then of course there is the problem of state violence against
women and the unborn: the refusal, on the part of the richest nation in the
world, to meet the basic needs of its poorest citizens.
Our economy may be prospering, but millions of women are not.
They lack the basics that facilitate a healthy pregnancy, such as
health insurance, good food and an environment free of toxins linked to
miscarriages and so on. This situation will persist as long as politicians
continue to pat babies on the head with one hand and throw money at the
Pentagon with the other.
The antiabortion movement, like all social movements, has relied
heavily on political theater: praying the rosary in silence in front of
clinics, crying out to women not to kill their babies or demonstrating with
blowup photographs of fetuses.
The challenge for the Seamless Garment Network is to come up with
potent symbols that can galvanize a new generation of activists.
Why not march with photos of fetuses to the offices of politicians
who refuse to support universal health care?
Why not pray the rosary in the lobby of the senator who axes
funding for battered womens shelters, job training and day care --
programs that would reduce womens economic dependency upon their
abusers?
Why not march on the Pentagon and run a full-page ad in The
New York Times on defense spending titled, Who Are the Real Baby
Killers?
The list goes on. The Seamless Garment Network has won half the
battle, by finding some common ground that people on both sides of the abortion
issue can stand on. The group offers real hope for changing the terms of the
debate. A lot of people will be watching.
Demetria Martinez lives in Tucson, Ariz.
National Catholic Reporter, April 21,
2000
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