San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution opposing “anti-abortion banners” on January 28, 2014. Click here for a short video of public testimony on the resolution, and a statement by lead sponsor Supervisor David Campos. Other sponsors were Supervisors Chiu, Cohen, Weiner, Mar, Yee, Farrell, and Kim.
The Trust Women/Silver Ribbon Campaign presented petitions with hundreds of sharply worded comments from San Francisco and nationwide, who expressed outrage that the City posted banners with the false statement that “abortion hurts women.”
Elizabeth Creely: Stating that a medical procedure is “hurtful” or damaging is wrong. There is plenty of evidence that a lack of medical care is what hurts women.
Dr. Ellen Shaffer, Director, Trust Women/Silver Ribbon Campaign. This debate is both about reproductive rights and justice – and also about the ability of forces with an entirely different political and economic agenda to tie up our political system in knots, so that virtually nothing is accomplished. We are trying to figure out how to deal with an annual march by outsiders who don’t represent San Francisco’s views or values, their efforts to use our rules to post banners saying “Abortion hurts women,” and how we represent our own views in public.
Joe Brenner, Men Who Trust Women: I’ll read an excerpt from a joint statement from Dr. Harvey Cohen, Stanford Professor of Pediatrics, Peter Coyote, actor and writer, father to a grown daughter, grandfather to her young girl, political activist, and ordained Zen Priest, Steve Heilig, healthcare ethicist, and Stephen Keese, realtor in Palo Alto, all members of Men Who Trust Women.
“Abortion is safe. Access to legal abortion services is essential. Access to legal and affordable family planning health care services including abortion has been critical for expanding economic, educational and professional success and emotional satisfaction for women, the men and children in their lives and for communities as a whole. Denied abortion care can perpetuate poverty.
“San Francisco must preach what the City practices. Public pronouncements matter. By approving these banners for prominent display on public property on Market Street, the City has contributed to undermining women’s personal and private medical decisions, and undermining public health.
Cheryl Traverse: I can’t think of five issues that are more not neutral than abortion in the United States of America right now. It is hugely not neutral.
Professor Susan Englander: The display gives a false imprimatur of the City’s approval.. I believe that action on this issue should have been more immediate and decisive; these banners should never have seen the light of day.
Hene Kelly: The truth is that abortion did hurt women. The truth is that as I was growing up as a young girl, I lost one of my best friends. She was raped. She had nowhere to turn. Her parents wouldn’t help her; nobody did. She went and got an illegal abortion, and died from the infection. I became a teacher. I had a student who was raped, and got pregnant. She didn’t know where to turn. She went to Planned Parenthood. She got an abortion. Now’s she’s a social worker, working with young women. She was saved by that abortion.
Justine Marcus: Low income and women of color, who are disproportionately affected in terms of access to medical education, in terms of domestic violence, rape, abuse, and also who have escalating rates of teen pregnancy, are especially vulnerable to this kind of public health misinformation.
Supervisor David Campos: I think it really is important for us to send a very clear message about how we in San Francisco do trust women and we respect their right to decide for themselves what to do with their bodies. This is not about free speech, this is about misinformation that has been put out by fringe groups that have no backing for the claim that somehow abortion hurts women. I think that the medical evidence and scientific evidence on this point is very clear. We need to carefully look at the policies and procedures that got us to this point, to make sure that there isn’t misinformation that is put out.
I especially was touched by the comment that these kinds of tactics are especially negative when it comes to the disproportionate impact on poor women, and I have seen that myself because of the work that we have done with Planned Parenthood in my District, where anti-choice extremists have come out to target poor, working class, middle income women, as they are trying to access reproductive rights. I also hope that the City is proactive, not only in using whatever proceeds are coming in to educate women, but also in putting out the correct information about the safety of abortion as a procedure. I think that if we allow these kinds of groups to put up this kind of misinformation, that we should also have our own information presented and that we make it clear by posting similar banners that clearly say that we trust women.
I think that what is happening is really sad, and it certainly does not reflect the values of San Francisco.