Between Scylla and Charybdis: Reproductive Freedom after 9-11
By Carl Pope, Executive Director, The Sierra Club
| 11. 09. 2001
Keynote Address: National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League Annual Convention
It has been twenty five years since I addressed an audience on the
topic of abortion rights. The last time was two years after Roe v.
Wade, and I was at a seminar in Washington on how to deal with the
anti-choice movement which was then growing rapidly. I felt, and said,
that our conversation seemed to assume that we were fighting a political
campaign, which would have an end, and that I feared we were instead
beginning an enduring struggle. I immediately felt horrible - as the
only man in the room I was the wrong messenger for that message.
So I was honored when I was asked to speak here today, but more than
ordinarily anxious about addressing an audience. This was a topic
on which I had let others do the speaking for a quarter of a century.
After September 11, however, this, like so many things, changed.
Two weeks after the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked,
I attended the dinner of CARAL.
The program included a marvelous jazz singer. She had changed her...
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