10 Reasons Why the Fight for Reproductive Justice Is Still Essential

By Jill Filipovic, AlterNet (Also posted at Feministe and the Huffington Post. )
......... time to get out and fight. Here are a few reasons why:

10. Abortion is already inaccessible and out of reach for many women.
9. If abortion is illegal, then women and doctors will be criminals.
8. Anti-choicers care about controlling your sex life, not saving babies.
7. They're going after your birth control, too.
6. Illegal abortion kills women.
5. Legal abortion is good for women, men and families.
4. Poor women and women of color are disproportionately impacted by anti-choice policies.
3. Choice isn't just about not giving birth -- it's about your right to have children.
2. Anti-choicers are also going after the rights of women around the world.
1. Reproductive justice is about you.

It's about your rights and your family and your body. All of us make reproductive choices -- to have kids or not, to use birth control or not, to have sex or not, to continue a pregnancy or not.

Reproductive health care impacts all of our lives. In a pro-choice country, children are wanted and cared for, pregnancy is voluntary and families are healthy. Women and men have a full range of rights, and the liberty to act as individuals instead of squeezing themselves into narrow gender roles. Sex is both a pleasure and a responsibility, not a guilt-ridden exercise intended only for reproduction in the context of a male-headed heterosexual marriage. One's character and morality are squarely centered in their heart and their head, not between their legs. Health care is available for everyone who needs it, without judgment or impediment. And lives are actually valued -- even mine and even yours.