Women of Color Demand Justice: Say NO to Operation Save America

By SPARK Reproductive Justice Now and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective

The week of July 12-19 2008, Operation Save America, a violent anti-choice and racist organization, will fill the city of Atlanta, GA with their message of hate and terror. During this time we call on women of color, our allies and reproductive justice and social justice activists to Stand for Justice and Say NO to Operation Save America.

As leaders, mothers, partners, students, and beyond women of color are faced with intricate realities that shape our lives. For all of us that reality includes making decisions about our bodies, our lives, and our communities. For some of us that means we choose abortion. We unapologetically support women of color as creators of their own futures and, in creating our paths of autonomy support women's access to safe and legal abortion. Our struggle for abortion access is anchored in our belief in reproductive justice or the complete economic, physical, social, and political well-being and power to make the best decision for our bodies, our families, and our communities.

Abortion has always been a part of our lives. As healers, midwives, enslaved, free, colonized, and imprisoned people, women of color have and continue to create a story of resilience and resistance in which abortion, parenting, adoption, foster care and beyond have all played a part. We will not allow Operation Save America to reduce our lives into a simplistic sound bite that points the finger solely at abortion and not at the impact of war, poor education and healthcare to name a few. We resist our stories and our legacies being co-opted by this group. We denounce images of our children used as tokens by a mostly White group to justify their cause.

Operation Save America continues to play on a history of shaming and blaming women of color. As reproductive justice advocates and activists, we recognize our choices are dictated by our circumstances; and the discussion regarding abortion requires that we talk honestly about racism, health care, education, sexuality, and poverty. OSA's presence is just another overt reign of terror felt by women of color and our communities by an organization whose membership and message aim only to point the finger without addressing the real issues that impact the lives of women of color and our families.

For this week and beyond, women of color and our allies unite to say NO to OSA. Calling on the prophetic traditions of the Black church, civil rights movement, and our women of color's historical commitment to freedom and liberation, we have a firm understanding that fight for our bodily autonomy, the safety of our communities, and the demise of oppression and exploitation requires that everyone Stand for Justice and Say NO to Operation Save America.