Money for human needs – NOT war and fake clinics!

Speech for MNAAC Say NO to Anti-Abortion Centers protest by Anti-War Committee member Meredith Aby-Keirstead

March 3, 2023

The Ant-War Committee stands with MNAAC to demand an end to anti-abortion clinics and to the use of taxpayer funds to support them.  You might wonder why a group like the AWC wants to be a part of the movement for reproductive justice?  We are are a part of the movement for social justice in this country.  We aren’t just concerned with the rights of people abroad.  We live here too and want to improve our human rights at home and reproductive rights are human rights!

The reproductive rights movement focuses on bodily autonomy and consent – which we agree with – but not just  in relations between people but also in foreign relations.  We believe that just like people should get to control their own bodies.  Palestinians, Venezuelan, Iranians and other people fighting imperialism should get to control their own futures.  

In addition, the anti-war movement we are used to language being used to confuse us in an effort to  try to get us to consent to the agenda of the 1%.  The anti-choice movement calls these “Crisis Pregnancy Centers” and portrays them as actual clinics even though they don’t actually provide any healthcare.  These anti-abortion centers promote a right wing religious agenda and give people medical misinformation.  Similarly in foreign policy the US government loves to dress up bombing other countries as “human rights protection”.  

Lastly, in both cases our tax dollars are being spent to hurt people.  Minnesota taxpayers provide anti-abortion clinics with over $3 million a year …with almost no oversight or regulation.  It is more important than ever that Minnesotans seeking reproductive healthcare receive complete, accurate information from trusted sources.MN is now an island of abortion access in a sea of red states.  We should be spending the 3 million a year the state normally spends on CPCs instead on expanding access to reproductive healthcare – especially since people from around the Midwest are coming here to access it.  

Similarly in the anti-war movement one of our central demands is money for human needs not war! The US spends $3.8 billion a year to fund Israeli apartheid which is disgusting because it means we are funding the killing at least 65 Palestinians so far this year, a rate of more than one death per day. 

When human rights are under attack, what do we do?  Stand up!  Fight Back!

#reproductiverightsarehumanrights