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Email this pageAs the November 2008 Elections converge upon our every sense, here ARE some common sense thoughts on seizing the possibilities of change that I shared with Elle magazine last year. We collectively won the Newswomen's Club of New York's Front Page Award for the spread, which includes a number of excellent essays by prominent writers and politicians. But the greatest writing in the world isn't as important as registering and voting in every election.
This is a political cautionary tale, and the moral is Thomas Jefferson's admonition that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. It matters a great deal wo get elected. Conservative control of the Supreme Court will be George Bush's major domestic legacy. See the full story at Elle.com. Here's mine:
Elections Have Consequences: THE TIME IS NOW
The Gonzales v. Carhart decision (2007) felt like a bungee snapping me back to 1950s west Texas, where as a girl I absorbed the culture's (non)aspirations for women. I hid my intelligence and dreams of writing, married my high school sweetheart, had three babies by age 20, and stuffed my life into a Suzie Homemaker mold.
Eventually these injustices pinched too much to accept. My inchoate yearnings for self-determination were given voice by the 1960s feminist movement, while new technology—the birth control pill—made my awakening possible. I wanted my daughters to have more opportunities. I knew firsthand that for a woman to shape her destiny, she must be in charge of her fertility.
The Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in 1973 seemed like just another logical step toward equality. But, as Rita Mae Brown said, "If the world were a logical place, men would ride sidesaddle."
The fierce antichoice backlash that erupted when Roe was decided crested with the recent Gonzales decision. The ruling's language drips with such disrespect for women that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg charged it "reflects ancient notions about women's place."
Yet in the 34 years since Roe, I've been shocked to observe that some of these ancient notions still remain. As president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America for nearly a decade until 2005, I repeatedly saw how men's and women's support of the right to a safe, legal abortion wavered according to the extent to which they considered a woman to be in control of her own life. If she's a victim of rape or incest, about 75 percent approve of the procedure, according to Gallup. But only a little more than one third approve when the woman or family say they can't afford to raise the child. Ask if the decision should be between a woman and her doctor, and around 60 percent agree; ask whether the woman alone merits the freedom to make that choice, and far fewer do.
At first I thought: How little trust people have in women's moral capacity to make decisions! Then I realized the idea of women having the power to decide is what sticks in craws. When women are victims, "ancient notions" aren't disrupted. When we exercise our volitional powers over procreation and thus our own lives, we profoundly upset the ancient gender applecart.
Gonzales v. Carhart opened the door to outlaw all reproductive rights. But just because politicians can pass abortion bans doesn't mean they must pass them. It's up to us to tell politicians what we want at the ballot box. Abortion isn't just about a medical procedure or about babies. It's about whether women will have an equal place in society, including the human right to make our own childbearing decisions. I'd add that it's time for women to gain a stronger sense of our own worth. That's ultimately how we can reverse the Court and cut the cord pulling women back to the choiceless 1950s.—GLORIA FELDT
So what do we do about it? Are you registered to vote? Have you moved since you last voted and neglected to change your registration?
Can't remember? Every Woman Counts vote by state page allows you to click on your state and register or find ohter information you need to cast your vote. The League of Women Voters' Vote411 is a similar resource. Then it's up to you to vote early and often as the saying goes.Voting in the primary as well as the general election is especially important. When you vote in the primary elections, your voting power is doubled; about half as many people vote in primaries as in general elections.
MY OPINION: HILLARY GIVES WOMEN A MIRROR ON THEIR OWN FEARS 
Why, 135 years after suffragist Victoria Woodhull became the first female candidate for president, must we still ask whether women will seize this moment to create gender equality in America's top leadership?.....Some of women's resistance to Clinton is rooted not in ideology but in four fear-based factors which Hillary and her ambassadors must defeat if she is to become president...
Read my entire story on Women's eNews.