The Feminist Organization Reclaiming Consciousness and Equality (F.O.R.C.E.) group will host the “Die-In” protest Wednesday at Cal State Long Beach to raise awareness about international abortion rights.
The “Die-in” protest will be held on the Speaker’s Platform from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will concentrate on the Mexico City Policy, or the global gag rule, to its opposition.
“It’s a policy that says that foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) receiving funds from the United States of America cannot perform, promote or lobby for an abortion in their country,” said F.O.R.C.E. co-chair and organizer of the protest, Justine Schneeweis.
According to www.globalgagrule.org, President Bush reinstated the policy on his first day in office in 2001. Funding for the policy comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
According to dissenters, the policy threatens free speech because it “stifles” public debate on abortion-related issues, and it is argued that it should be seen as more than just a “woman’s issue,” but rather a human rights violation.
According to Schneeweis, the idea for the Die-in, which will consist of a sit-in styled protest, came from an affiliate of F.O.R.C.E., the Feminist Majority Foundation.
“The Die-In itself stems from the idea of sit-ins, where people sit and occupy space in order to call attention to an issue,” Schneeweis said. “Instead of just ‘sitting,’ we’re ‘playing dead’ in order to call attention to this issue by representing the thousands of women whose lives have been lost or damaged as a result of the gag rule.”
Wandie Kabule, F.O.R.C.E co-chair and a senior journalism major, said awareness of the global gag rule is important and that there should be a greater concern for the rights and health of the international community.
“When people are denied not only access but information about abortions, they are not getting options that may save their lives. That is unfair,” Kabule said. “This is also especially important as a free speech issue.”
Schneeweis said the NGOs have to either comply with the policy, which can lead some women to have forced pregnancies or seek illegal abortions, or refuse to comply but risk losing funding for family planning assistance and reproductive medical supplies, including contraceptives.
“I’m very angry with the policy,” said Erika Henriquez, a junior journalism major. “I understand that those women may not have the ability to fight against the gag rule, but if I were them I’d probably start my own protest.”
F.O.R.C.E. is protesting the current administration’s support of the policy on the heels of a major political transition with President-elect Barack Obama, who has expressed his disapproval of the policy. According to a Nov. 9 article in The Washington Post, Obama plans to repeal the policy once in office.
F.O.R.C.E. hopes Obama will repeal the gag rule on his first day in office.
“The policy does not affect our lives here as directly as it affects women’s lives abroad, but the fact itself that it does kill and endanger women in any part of the world should definitely impact every single person here,” Schneeweis said. “It should impact us through means of anger to ignite people to do what we can as privileged, as a lot of us are living in the U.S., to fight for the rights of humans who are affected by harmful policies such as these.”
Some worry that the U.S. may be overextending their influences of power with the policy.
“I’m not a woman,” said Alejandro Cervantes, a junior business management major at CSULB, “but I’m definitely concerned because why do we have the right to control the reproductive rights of women in not just our country, but the world?”
Be there or be square!!!!!!!!!!!