This wonderful article appeared about last night’s production of The Abortion Monologues in Pittsburgh. Thank you to the National Council of Jewish Women, Pittsburgh section, and all of the volunteers for doing such a fine job with my work. I appreciate you.
As Roe v Wade is overturned in the US, it’s hard not to ponder what this means for reproductive rights in Canada, and of course, for our fellow humans south of the border.
I have a substantive body of work about abortion and frankly, I always hope I will never have to return to it. I want our rights to bodily autonomy to be secure. They never are. Nothing is. There’s always some patriarch, some autocrat, some fascist, ready to upend democracy and any social progress we have made to assert their will. The will to power. So here we go again.
My play, The Abortion Monologues, is out there and I offer it free of royalty payments to reproductive rights organizations and equity seeking groups who want to produce it. Get in touch. (Seriously, get in touch. We’ll still need to do a contract.) My old blog associated with the play is archival now. But it’s still there, and aside from some language that I would now make more trans inclusive, it’s still pretty spot on. You’ll find a lot of info there.
We’re going to have to step up our work again. That is, I am going to have to step up my work again. I hope you will join me. Without doubt, my next offering to the world, Patterson House, is pro-choice. It’s clear what happens to women who don’t control their bodies or their choices.
There are those in Canada who would send us backwards. We are a long way from Pierre Trudeau saying, ”The state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.” I’m not even sure his son Justin would make such a bold statement. And that new Pierre is a threat to all of us.
Feminism is a theory. Feminism is an ideal. But feminism is also an action. It’s time to take action. As my friend Marnie reminds me, we can’t just hope for the best. Quoting David Orr, she says, ”Hope is a verb with its shirtsleeves rolled up.” So take action. Roll your sleeves up. We need you.
The wonderful people at SHORE (Sexual Health Options Resource Education, formerly Planned Parenthood) put on a production of The Abortion Monologues and were kind enough to send me a report. This is from Carrie McNabb, who signs off her notes with “Yours in Choice,” which I just cannot tell you how much I love.
“Jane, I just wanted to share the results of our recent production of your show! We raised $1800 in ticket sales from this production and donations of $700 at the door, for a total of $2500 raised for SHORE Centre. Thank you so so much. There was a woman who was also honoured that evening with a “Champion of Choice” award. She spent every single day of the anti-choice campaign “40 Days for Life” standing outside of our local abortion clinic holding up signs like ‘We support your choice,’ ‘We respect you,’ ‘Pro-choice,’ ‘[and] I don’t regret my abortion.’ So I wanted to say thank you for writing such a beautiful piece. Every single one of the cast walked away from this production permanently changed. And we received such kind feedback the evening of our show of people telling us how balanced and thoughtful the stories were. It truly was a remarkable evening of theatre and we raised a lot of money for a good cause. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
No, thank YOU Carrie and all of the people at SHORE and all of your volunteers for all the fine work you do. It’s not too late to donate.
The fine folks at SHORE (that is Sexual Health Options Resource Education) in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario are producing The Abortion Monologues to raise funds for their good work.
The show will be November 4, 2017 at the Little Theatre in Kitchener-Waterloo. Contact SHORE for tickets or more information and if you are in the area, please support this work.
Cover Image from Print Copy of The Abortion Monologues by Teresa Posyniak