{"id":1598,"date":"2014-01-30T00:32:56","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T00:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/?p=1598"},"modified":"2014-01-30T00:35:22","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T00:35:22","slug":"san-francisco-supervisors-oppose-false-claims-about-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/?p=1598","title":{"rendered":"San Francisco Supervisors Oppose False Claims About Abortion"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Francisco Board of Supervisors\u00a0unanimously adopted a resolution opposing\u00a0 \u201canti-abortion banners\u201d on\u00a0January 28, 2014.\u00a0 Click\u00a0here for a short video <\/a>of public testimony on the resolution, and a statement by lead sponsor Supervisor David Campos.\u00a0 Other sponsors were Supervisors Chiu, Cohen, Weiner, Mar, Yee, Farrell, and\u00a0Kim.<\/p>\n

The Trust Women\/Silver Ribbon Campaign presented\u00a0petitions with hundreds of sharply worded comments<\/a>\u00a0from San Francisco and nationwide, who expressed outrage that the City posted banners with the false statement that “abortion hurts women.”<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Creely<\/strong>: \u00a0Stating that a medical procedure is \u201churtful\u201d or damaging is wrong. There is plenty of evidence that a lack of medical care is what hurts women.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ellen Shaffer<\/strong>, Director, Trust Women\/Silver Ribbon Campaign. This debate is both about reproductive rights and justice \u2013 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\u2019t represent San Francisco\u2019s views or values, their efforts to use our rules to post banners saying \u201cAbortion hurts women,\u201d and how we represent our own views in public.<\/p>\n

Joe Brenner, Men Who Trust Women<\/strong>: I\u2019ll read an excerpt from a joint statement from Dr. Harvey Cohen<\/strong>, Stanford Professor of Pediatrics, Peter Coyote<\/strong>, actor and writer, father to a grown daughter, grandfather to her young girl, political activist, and ordained Zen Priest, Steve Heilig<\/strong>, healthcare ethicist, and Stephen Keese<\/strong>, realtor in Palo Alto, all members of Men Who Trust Women.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbortion 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cSan 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\u2019s personal and private medical decisions, and undermining public health.<\/p>\n

Cheryl Traverse<\/strong>:\u00a0 I can\u2019t think of five issues that are more not neutral than abortion in the United States of America right now.\u00a0 It is hugely not neutral.<\/p>\n

Professor Susan Englander<\/strong>: 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.<\/p>\n

Hene Kelly<\/strong>:\u00a0 The truth is that abortion did hurt women.\u00a0 The truth is that as I was growing up as a young girl, I lost one of my best friends.\u00a0 She was raped.\u00a0 She had nowhere to turn.\u00a0 Her parents wouldn\u2019t help her; nobody did.\u00a0 She went and got an illegal abortion, and died from the infection.\u00a0 I became a teacher.\u00a0 I had a student who was raped, and got pregnant.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t know where to turn.\u00a0 She went to Planned Parenthood.\u00a0 She got an abortion.\u00a0 Now\u2019s she\u2019s a social worker, working with young women.\u00a0 She was saved by that abortion.<\/p>\n

Justine Marcus:\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Supervisor David Campos:<\/strong>\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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\u2019t misinformation that is put out.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0have come out to target poor, working class, middle income women, as they are trying to access reproductive rights.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

I think that what is happening is really sad, and it certainly does not reflect the values of San Francisco.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Francisco Board of Supervisors\u00a0unanimously adopted a resolution opposing\u00a0 \u201canti-abortion banners\u201d on\u00a0January 28, 2014.\u00a0 Click\u00a0here for a short video of public testimony on the resolution, and a statement by lead sponsor Supervisor David Campos.\u00a0 Other sponsors were Supervisors Chiu, Cohen, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1598"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1603,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions\/1603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oursilverribbon.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}