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NOW Member:
Feminist activists
and other progressives are now faced with what could be the scariest
prosecution since Susan Smith took action to combat depression in
a lake near her home in South Carolina.
This time,
anti-progressive forces may seek the death penalty against Andrea
Yates, a fascinating woman and mother of five, for dealing with
a crippling depression in the best way she knew how.
This intelligent
and resourceful woman could be sentenced to death simply for taking
a controversial and bold view of "human life."
Deprived of
the typical male-oriented weapons of destruction, Yates was forced
to improvise a late-term abortion procedure in her own bathtub.
This is just the sort of can-do spirit that made this country great.
Yates's choices
didn't make it easy. Tricky little monsters that they were, Yates'
choices — post-partum fetuses aged 6 months to 7 years —
only added to Yates' incomprehensibly stressful life by trying to
flee the abortion provider (or "mom").
Men still just
don't "get it." A home paid for by a man is no place for
a woman. Women belong in the Oval Office, on corporate boards, in
military fighter planes.
Many are asking:
How could Yates' husband be so out of touch? Human-rights advocate
Rosie O'Donnell may have put it best when she said she felt "overwhelming
empathy" for Yates.
And yet, Yates
could be sent to prison — or even the death chamber —
for exercising her right to choose.
The radical
right-wing D.A. has acknowledged that he will prosecute Yates for
her "crime." With a straight face, Harris County District
Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said: "The citizens of Harris County
ought to be able to consider the full range of punishment in this
case."
These bigoted
ravings have no place in a post-feminist society. Let Texas know
that they don't have to sink to the level of Iran to be seen as
"tough on crime."
As you well
know, nothing comes easy to women in America. (The NOW human-rights
project ranks the United States the most anti-choice nation within
the global community!)
Almost unbelievably,
right-wing radicals (men!) are not content to place this fascinating
woman in prison. They have imposed a gag rule on her tragic ordeal.
It is little known, for example, that Yates is:
- white,
- middle
class,
- a mother
of five so-called "children,"
- supported
by her husband.
And now the
right-wing radical Texas prosecutor wants to help make Yates life
even more difficult by punishing her.
Unlike Timothy
McVeigh, who allegedly had been sent to war and might have been
suffering from alleged "post-traumatic stress syndrome,"
or Nikolay Soltys, who recently made the difficult decision to terminate
the lives of six family members and some might argue was suffering
from alleged "provider-stress syndrome," Yates ordeal
was nearly incomprehensible.
Year after
year for almost a decade, Yates had been forced to endure the burden
of being supported by a man.
Yates's hardship
is so heart-wrenching that clearly she's entitled to treatment and
not punishment. But radical right-wing extremists say Yates is not
fit to be president and to control the nuclear codes simply because
she is a woman!
The right-wing
media have been pursuing a very disturbing line of questioning,
such as whether this beautiful, fascinating, delicate flower Andrea
Yates "murdered" her so-called "children."
NOW facts about
post-partum depression:
- When facing
an unplanned depression, many women (about 27 percent) make the
difficult decision to kill their children.
- A substantial
number of those who do not (79 percent) cite fear of prison as
the main reason.
- Many state
laws (98 percent) illogically treat women like rational beings.
- Many women
(64 percent) are mature enough to become mothers, but not mature
enough to make their own abortion decisions before the choice
grows into a teenager.
- Judicial
approval for post-partum choice is time-consuming and increases
physical, emotional and financial hardship (71 percent).
Anti-choice
laws pressuring women not to kill their children are dangerous.
As the Taliban instructs, no one has ever produced a shred of evidence
that women are capable of being treated like rational adults.
NBC Today
Show host and president of the Andrea Yates Legal Defense Fund
Katie Couric has observed, "Yates was an extremely troubled
woman." (Call 1-800-We-R-Nuts to contribute!) Couric advised
that "any money left over will be given to women's charities
dealing with post-partum depression and psychosis."
Join NBC. Join
Rosie and Katie. Do it for your daughter or your granddaughter (unless
you are depressed and need to kill them).
Women elected
the last president, and we will elect his successor. We have tremendous
power as voters, as activists and as organizers in our communities.
We will create a feminist future. And we are out of our minds.
© 2001
Universal Press Syndicate
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