I used to live next door to a clinic that provided abortion services once a week. Every Wednesday I was forced to negotiate a maze of angry protesters displaying graphic photos. Believing I was a patient of the clinic, the protesters hurled mean disgusting names at me and would block the entrance to my apartment.
The anger I felt over those protesters denying a woman the ability to make the most personal and intimate of decisions free from harassment fueled my first, but definitely not last, public pro-choice activism; a pro-choice bumper sticker. Of course, this only increased the viciousness of the anti-choice protesters verbal attacks.
I have always firmly believed that no other issue has more impact on a woman’s autonomy then the decision of when, and if, to have children. However, it took those anti-choice extremists for me to realize just how precarious the right to choose is and caused me to dedicate myself to working to protect that right.
