June 26, 2008
Greetings again from Washington DC, where the eleven Wanderlusties have sprawled into every free inch of space in the house where we are staying in Columbia Heights – ten are still snoozing, while I am up so early yet again. I’ll have to see to it that this particular habit formed during the trip disappears as soon as we get to New York!
It’s rare to spend two nights in the same place, but yesterday was our day off in Washington DC, followed by the discussion forum in the evening. We decided as a group to spend our day off meeting with certain organizations that do work in the reproductive justice field and whose work fits closely with the personal interests of the group.
Our first meeting at the National Abortion Federation with the staff of the counseling hotline was interesting mostly in that the hotline that used to be limited to telling women their option and counseling them through making a decision now has the capacity to direct financial assistance to women who would otherwise not have the money to have an abortion, all due to an anonymous $6 million grant specifically for that purpose. The hotline is hiring new staff, expanding the hours the hotline is available, and frantically creating new systems to deal with the financial side – and they can still only answer 8% of the calls that come in. A reminded that the work we are riding for is so necessary and acutely urgent.
Just the promise of our second meeting kept me going through some of the stressful and physically demanding situations during the trip – I used to work at Advocates for Youth as a public policy intern and I waited longingly for a hug from Deb and Barbara and James and all the rest of the fantastic staff there. In my very biased opinion, it was the best meeting of the day – the whole office piled into the conference room to hear our stories about the trip, laugh with us and share our frustration as fellow activists working in a world in which our work never seems like enough. Of all the organizations I have worked with, Advocates for Youth seems most in tune with the reproductive justice framework – they focus on the individual rights of young people to make whatever decisions they will make, they partner happily with other organizations that have the capacity to do some work better than they can, and they have a open, generous and respectful culture that shines through all their work. I was absolutely on cloud nine when we left for our final meeting – even though the rest of the group had to scream at me to make me leave!
The last meeting at SIECUS was a run down of a lot of stuff I know and work with every single day. They are another great organization working to get comprehensive sexuality education into the public schools and funded by the federal government, and provide some of the best research and materials for sex ed activists to use in their states and communities. I have always known that the sex education activist community, by necessity, must keep one eye on the statehouse – but I am beginning to realize on this trip that the work I do as a policy advocate is not enough. We have to turn our energy toward curriculum creation and, more importantly, implementation in schools across the United States. What good are funding and favorable laws if the information never actually reaches the youth?
After our last meeting, we biked up the mall and to the very fancy Acadiana restaurant, where the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice had a wonderful reception waiting for us. Early on in the trip planning process I volunteered to facilitate the DC meeting and was therefore a bit nervous walking in – and grew more so when the restaurant host looked at my bike grease stained teal pants and tennis shoes with positive disdain. Oh, well – onward, weary activists, onward. After grabbing a glass of wine and some great food, I set off to mingle for the fifteen or so minutes before the meeting was to start. Becky Turner, AKA ‘Hot Rev’, the executive director of the Missouri Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, knew most of the people in the room and introduced me to Rev. Carlton Veazey, the president and CEO of RCRC, and to Francis Kissling, famed leader of the pro-choice movement and former president of Catholics for a Free Choice.
Nora and I started a conversation with Ms. Kissling that eventually covered the current state of abortion politics, the recent election, the feminist waves and their general mood swings, and the outlook for choice during my lifetime. I was so enthralled with this woman who was challenging me, in a quiet yet forceful way, to look at abortion politics in a completely new way that I never started the meeting. Nora didn’t move an inch either. Instead, we listened as Ms. Kissling talked about the importance of reclaiming morality, and being unafraid to say that there is a limit to all rights, including abortion – and that without accepting and embracing these limits the right will be lost entirely. She understood where I was coming from as I identified myself as more second wave than third – but warned against becoming single-issue oriented and reminded me to stay true to the reproductive justice framework. I kept looking at Nora and Stacey, my eyes telling them that this was amazing and groundbreaking and terrifying for me. When the conversation finally ended (because we only had the space for two hours!), we all exchanged contact information and Ms. Kissling agreed to be interviewed for my book. I’ve yet to order my thoughts about it, but conversations like that one are the reason I came on this trip. I am leaving DC this morning with renewed energy and a lot to think about as I pedal to Baltimore for yet another meeting tonight.