The Detroit Action Network For Reproductive Rights (DANFORR) is involved in organizing on many fronts in the struggle for women’s reproductive freedom. The organization fights to defend the right to save, legal abortion, against forced sterilization, and for the right of women to hav ea real reproductive choice – all the social support to raise children, if a woman so chooses. Many DANFORR organizers are speaking out on the cost of war and militarism and how it impacts directly on women’s reproductive freedom.

DANFORR activists include abortion-provider clinic administrators, students, women’s rights and pro-choice advocates, and other progressive women and men. Since the Network’s founding in May of 2006, the group has organized two demonstrations, sponsored several meetings and programs, organized and participated in clinic escorting, and raised money for the pro-choice struggles in South Dakota and Mississippi. DANFORR actively opposed Proposal 2, the racist, sexist, anti-affirmative action measure that was passed overwhelmingly in the Nov. 2006 elections. DANFORR has also shown support for domestic partner benefits and LGBT rights.

DANFORR activists see the critical links between these struggle and that of women’s fight for reproductive choices. They believe the struggle for reproductive rights must include the overall demand of reproductive freedom for all women. This means the right to decide if and when, and how many, children to have, the right to raise them with everything they need for a decent life—a job with good wages, health insurance, a place to live, enough money for heat and other utilities, good schools, nutritious food, and a society free of discrimination.

We have a long way to go to meet these criteria. DANFORR organizers have noted that Michigan has the highest child poverty rate in the country; unemployment is worse here than in any other state except Mississippi; public education, especially in Detroit, is woefully under-funded and schools are closing; health care is but a dream for millions; over 45,000 Detroit households have no drinking water; Michigan leads the nation in foreclosures; and over 330,000 jobs have been lost in the last several years alone. These conditions impact women, children, the poor and unemployed, low-income women, and families who struggle everyday to survive.

Debbie Johnson, a DANFORR leader, stated: “The November elections were considered a mandate by the people to stop the war in Iraq. You might ask, what does this have to do with women and the pro-choice struggle? With reproductive freedom for all women? These issues are intimately linked because the money that is funding the war and occupation comes directly from us.

In Michigan, over $9.6 billion in federal taxes so far has gone to the Iraq war, over $600 million from the city of Detroit alone. This money could provide full medical benefits for every child in the state for two years. We need to go to the Democrats and make them keep their election promises and fulfill their mandate from the people, make them stop the war immediately, and demand not one penny more for war. DANFORR urges all pro-choice and women’s rights advocates to get involved in the struggle to stop the Iraq war, bring the troops home now, and end all funding for the war and occupation. Pro-choice activists will be among those demonstrating in Washington, D.C., on March 17, with plans being made to stay at the Capitol until Congress stops the war.

While funding is being sent overseas to fund the war in Iraq, funding restrictions here at home promote unequal access to health care. DANFORR members have recently gotten involved in a national campaign to overturn the Hyde Amendment, a law signed by President Carter in 1977 that effectively eliminated the right to choose for over 23 million low-income women on Medicaid.

The Amendment banned federal funding from going towards abortion except when a woman’s life is endangered by the continuation of the pregnancy or is a victim of rape or incest. In a country where 45 million Americans are without health insurance, access to health care becomes a major factor in the right to choose. The US government has sanctioned the denial of this right to low income women receiving Medicaid.
The right of reproductive choice is also denied by funding restrictions to women in the military, women in federal prisons, women in the Peace Corps, and women who receive health care from Indian Health Services.

The “Hyde—30 Years is Enough!” campaign, initiated by the National Network of Abortion Funds, states:
“Today, women forgo food, risk eviction and pawn their possessions as they attempt to raise money for an abortion. Some are forced to continue the pregnancy, abandon their education and stay trapped in poverty…. We call for full public funding of abortion as a part of comprehensive health care for all, and support for low-income women to care for their children with dignity. We stand for reproductive justice, a world in which all women have the power and resources necessary to make healthy decisions about their bodies and their families.”

But abortion rights have not remained static over these last 30 years. Many abortion rights activists consider today one of the least secure periods for the right to choose since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. DANFORR organizes public events to educate about the many on-going attacks on women’s reproductive rights. Currently anti-choice legislation is pending in many states, including Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Wyoming, Texas and once again in South Dakota.

In 2006, anti-choice petitioners failed to get a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion placed on the ballot in Michigan. Nevertheless, NARAL Pro-Choice America gives Michigan an “F” grade in reproductive rights.

Like in over 30 other states, Michigan requires women seeking an abortion to undergo a 24-hour “waiting period.” According to a 1993 Michigan law, the following documents are required to be given to a woman seeking an abortion at least 24 hours prior to the procedure: a written summary of the abortion procedure she will undergo; depictions, illustrations or photographs of fetal development corresponding to the nearest probable gestational age of the woman’s fetus; prenatal care and parenting information. Young women under 18 in Michigan must get parental consent or go before a judge for a waiver in order to obtain an abortion. Over 40 states have parental consent or notification statutes aimed at minors.

Shalece Daniels, a young mother and college student, is also the administrator of the Women’s Advisory Center and Sharpe Clinic in Detroit. “I got involved in DANFORR because the crisis facing women in South Dakota last year was a real slap in the face. When the governor there signed the abortion ban into law in March of 2006, I realized that as women we can’t take our rights for granted, that we need to organize a struggle to make sure Michigan stays a pro-choice state.”

To address these ongoing attacks on choice, DANFORR has taken on the issue of “crisis pregnancy centers,” right-wing anti-choice outfits that masquerade as women’s reproductive health services, run often with taxpayer dollars and notorious for dispensing false and misleading information to women seeking help. Activists held an informational picket line and demonstration outside of the so-called “Pregnancy Aid” on Detroit’s east side in Sept. 2006 in order to expose the lies and hypocrisy surrounding these types of facilities.

In addition to picketing the “crisis centers,” DANFORR activists are also present at abortion clinics. Susan Farquhar, Debbie Johnson, Jacqueline James and other DANFORR activists have taken on a crucial role in defense of women’s right to choose by acting as clinic escorts on Saturday mornings at the Eastland Women’s Clinic on Eight Mile in Eastpointe. Farquhar stated, “The patients and those who accompany them are grateful we’re there. Every week, anti-choice protesters harass women who go into the clinic. I recently met a union steward who lives nearby. He thinks the number of anti-choice picketers there has diminished. Hopefully clinic escorts have been a factor in that.”

Reproductive Rights is not just a pro-choice vs. anti-choice issue. It encompasses all aspects of women’s health and freedom—reproductive or otherwise. DANFORR is fighting on many fronts to make “a women’s right to choose” not just an empty slogan.

If you want to get involved in the struggle or need more information on anything discussed in this article, please contact DANFORR by calling (313) 378-2369 or emailing danforr@sbcglobal.net.