>For this reason, I also advocate the coming out of women who have had
>an aboriton and are happy to discuss it and its relation to women's
>liberation. Taking a page from queer politics, I say, "we are here, we've
>had an abortion, get used to it -- we are everywhere!"
Speaking of not very compelling political rhetoric...
Perhaps the reason that this coming out hasn't happened is that there *isn't* any relation between having an abortion and women's liberation--not every experience can be transformed into revolutionary praxis. I know several women who are staunch pro-choicers and active in women's movements and who have had abortions, and none of them believe the process gave them any insight into attaining liberation; certainly they never felt like chanting uplift slogans about the experience. In fact, though they are still pro-choice, they don't feel comfortable with the medical procedure; they feel that abortion is too personal and emotionally ambivalent an experience to be translated into political action. Admittedly my sample is a bit limited and anecdotal, but I don't think necessarily irrelevant.
As an aside, I must say that I agree with Steve Perry's statement about the transgressions in logic of the fetus-is-not-human argument. When is that magic moment when that bundle of cells becomes human? Who gets to decide that, and how? It seems we are having enough problems holding on to abortion rights--porous logic and bland justifications will not win any converts.
Eric