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Ain't I A Woman? newspapers, June 1970-July 1971
1970-09-11 "Ain't I a Woman?" Page 7
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RCED STERILIZATION IS GENOCIDE! t of every women to have free and adequate birth control and free tion upon demand is one we do not question. Neither do we question rth control can be used in a genocidal way against the poor. minor- third world peoples. We know it can be. We know it has been. The that women have no control over the medical care we do or do not d this is the control we must fight for. [photo] We refuse to be coopted by the arguments that inevitably come up when women demand the things they see as necessary. The arguments by men for birth control (meaning free sex for them) or the arguments against birth control (meaning keep them pregnant and barefoot) were easier to answer than the argument that our demands could cause the genocide of poor and third world people. The genocide of poor and third world people will not be caused by women who have demanded free adequate medical care. It is caused by those who have the power women never had -- by a sexist and racist medical industry and the sexist and racist capitalist nation it is part of . To blame women is to avoid confrontation with the real enemy. We must be prepared to fight the use of birth control on any woman against her will. But we see the availability of birth control as something we must have. We know too well that demanding free medical care (birth control included) is to demand only part of what is needed. Poor women will not become unpoor from not having children, nor will the job opportunities or activities that poor and uneducated women can spend their time on increase in desirability. That is why the fight we wage on this issue cannot be separated from the fight we must wage on other issues crucial to all women. We believe in self determination for all people. We believe that all women have the right to bear as many children as they wish. We believe that all women have the right to not bear children. We will not accept the right to birth control at the expense of the right to bear children. We must be prepared to fight for both. WOMEN ATTACK STERILIZATION PROGRAM AS GENOCIDAL DOVER, Del. (LNS)--Eighteen women from Wilmington Liberation Collective, a working class organizing project, disrupted a talk on sterilization at Christ Church in Dover on July 29. Carrying signs, banners, and leaflets, the women took over the microphone and forced the audience of about 100 middle class people to consider the social and political implications of the new push for sterilization. The talk was being sponsored by Zero Population Grown (ZPG), a national organization concerned with overpopulation. The women said that the thread of overpopulation, as ZPG talks about it, is a phony issue used to mislead people. Poverty and starvation are blamed on overpopulation rather than on inequitable distribution of resources, the real causes. Mass sterilization for women and men is the new solution to the "population problem." Sterilization becomes genocide. ZPG claimed that they only advocated voluntary sterilization, not seeing that sterilization is threatening because of who it is inevitably used against, and who controls it. ZPG is a middle class liberal organization backed by foundation money which will lobby for laws to control population through government "incentive" programs. The idea is to make it even more expensive to have children, especially more than two. It is obvious who would be effected by this kind of plan--poor people. Discouraging large families not only disregards the cultural tradition of some ethnic groups, but it also runs counter to every demand people are making for things such as free day care centers, free adequate medical care and preventive medicine for families. Some members of ZPG didn't understand how women who campaigned for free legal abortion could fight against liberalizing sterilization policies. The women explained that the demand for free abortion is a reasonable demand of women to control their own bodies and to decide when they will and when they will not have children. It has to be linked to demands for day care centers, equal pay, medical care, and safe birth control for it to be a free decision by women. While sterilization may not seem to be a direct threat to white women, it has already affected black and third world women. 40% of the women in Puerto Rico have been sterilized. Foreign aid is now given in proportion to the amount of birth control measures a country will accept. Huge Federal programs to sterilize women throughout South America, in India, Pakistan, and in Africa are underway. In Alabama, a woman on welfare must be sterilized after 3 children if she is to continue to receive aid, and thousands of minority women in New York City, Chicago, and all big city hospitals--even in Wilmington, Delaware--have been unknowingly sterilized without their permission. The leaflet the women handed out said, Sterilization is america's new way of controlling people. Women have never been able to control their own bodies. When there was a need for cheap labor for factories, mines, and the frontier, the childless woman was a disgrace. Women were pressured to produce huge families. But today when the poor and young are posing a threat to the stability of America, every means of birth control is being pushed. Sterilization is a dangerous threat because of who it is inevitably used against, regardless of liberal wording. In a country where milk is drained into the dirt and grain rots in elevators and is dumped into the sea in order to keep prices high we know that children are dying of malnutrition and starvation not because there are too many children--but because some men like duPont and Rockefeller own 5 billion dollars while others own nothing. . . Women have the right to have or not to have children regardless of their financial situation. A WOMEN? September 11, 1970 7
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RCED STERILIZATION IS GENOCIDE! t of every women to have free and adequate birth control and free tion upon demand is one we do not question. Neither do we question rth control can be used in a genocidal way against the poor. minor- third world peoples. We know it can be. We know it has been. The that women have no control over the medical care we do or do not d this is the control we must fight for. [photo] We refuse to be coopted by the arguments that inevitably come up when women demand the things they see as necessary. The arguments by men for birth control (meaning free sex for them) or the arguments against birth control (meaning keep them pregnant and barefoot) were easier to answer than the argument that our demands could cause the genocide of poor and third world people. The genocide of poor and third world people will not be caused by women who have demanded free adequate medical care. It is caused by those who have the power women never had -- by a sexist and racist medical industry and the sexist and racist capitalist nation it is part of . To blame women is to avoid confrontation with the real enemy. We must be prepared to fight the use of birth control on any woman against her will. But we see the availability of birth control as something we must have. We know too well that demanding free medical care (birth control included) is to demand only part of what is needed. Poor women will not become unpoor from not having children, nor will the job opportunities or activities that poor and uneducated women can spend their time on increase in desirability. That is why the fight we wage on this issue cannot be separated from the fight we must wage on other issues crucial to all women. We believe in self determination for all people. We believe that all women have the right to bear as many children as they wish. We believe that all women have the right to not bear children. We will not accept the right to birth control at the expense of the right to bear children. We must be prepared to fight for both. WOMEN ATTACK STERILIZATION PROGRAM AS GENOCIDAL DOVER, Del. (LNS)--Eighteen women from Wilmington Liberation Collective, a working class organizing project, disrupted a talk on sterilization at Christ Church in Dover on July 29. Carrying signs, banners, and leaflets, the women took over the microphone and forced the audience of about 100 middle class people to consider the social and political implications of the new push for sterilization. The talk was being sponsored by Zero Population Grown (ZPG), a national organization concerned with overpopulation. The women said that the thread of overpopulation, as ZPG talks about it, is a phony issue used to mislead people. Poverty and starvation are blamed on overpopulation rather than on inequitable distribution of resources, the real causes. Mass sterilization for women and men is the new solution to the "population problem." Sterilization becomes genocide. ZPG claimed that they only advocated voluntary sterilization, not seeing that sterilization is threatening because of who it is inevitably used against, and who controls it. ZPG is a middle class liberal organization backed by foundation money which will lobby for laws to control population through government "incentive" programs. The idea is to make it even more expensive to have children, especially more than two. It is obvious who would be effected by this kind of plan--poor people. Discouraging large families not only disregards the cultural tradition of some ethnic groups, but it also runs counter to every demand people are making for things such as free day care centers, free adequate medical care and preventive medicine for families. Some members of ZPG didn't understand how women who campaigned for free legal abortion could fight against liberalizing sterilization policies. The women explained that the demand for free abortion is a reasonable demand of women to control their own bodies and to decide when they will and when they will not have children. It has to be linked to demands for day care centers, equal pay, medical care, and safe birth control for it to be a free decision by women. While sterilization may not seem to be a direct threat to white women, it has already affected black and third world women. 40% of the women in Puerto Rico have been sterilized. Foreign aid is now given in proportion to the amount of birth control measures a country will accept. Huge Federal programs to sterilize women throughout South America, in India, Pakistan, and in Africa are underway. In Alabama, a woman on welfare must be sterilized after 3 children if she is to continue to receive aid, and thousands of minority women in New York City, Chicago, and all big city hospitals--even in Wilmington, Delaware--have been unknowingly sterilized without their permission. The leaflet the women handed out said, Sterilization is america's new way of controlling people. Women have never been able to control their own bodies. When there was a need for cheap labor for factories, mines, and the frontier, the childless woman was a disgrace. Women were pressured to produce huge families. But today when the poor and young are posing a threat to the stability of America, every means of birth control is being pushed. Sterilization is a dangerous threat because of who it is inevitably used against, regardless of liberal wording. In a country where milk is drained into the dirt and grain rots in elevators and is dumped into the sea in order to keep prices high we know that children are dying of malnutrition and starvation not because there are too many children--but because some men like duPont and Rockefeller own 5 billion dollars while others own nothing. . . Women have the right to have or not to have children regardless of their financial situation. A WOMEN? September 11, 1970 7
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