Abortion, Autonomy and the Future With Mary Summers and Karen Weinstein

For 15 years, I’ve done what most HR professionals shy away from — talk about abortion at work. And not everyone liked that. People would say things like, “Ew,” “Don’t talk about that,” “Our organization isn’t political” or “What does abortion have to do with work?”

Every time I discussed it, I said that if people are interested in closing the pay gap and advancing gender equality at their organizations, we have to talk about abortion. We must understand that a woman has the right to do with her body and life as she chooses. But now, in 2022, the Supreme Court took away reproductive rights for women on the federal level, which has led to everybody talking about abortion.?

My guest is Mary Summers, who is joined by her collaborator, Karen Weinstein. In 1970, they made the movie “Abortion and Women’s Rights 1970 .” Back then, the movie spoke to the need for safe, legal abortion and the broader fight for reproductive justice. In this episode, we discuss what the film is all about, why it needed to include stories from Black and brown women, and what we can do moving forward.

How can you have women in leadership positions, as high up as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, but their value to society is first viewed through their uterus? How can you have a woman leading an organization but not be able to leave the state for fear she may get an abortion? It doesn’t make sense, and we can create the change necessary.

Punk Rock HR is proudly underwritten by The Starr Conspiracy. The Starr Conspiracy is a B2B marketing agency for innovative brands creating the future of workplace solutions. For more information, head over to thestarrconspiracy.com .

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Stories Below the Surface

“Abortion and Women’s Rights 1970” was created to showcase women’s challenges in the years before the Roe v Wade court decision. With this film, the hope was to shine an unfiltered light on what women were facing in their struggle to guarantee reproductive rights.

“That title reflects the fact that it was very important to us to put the issue of abortion in a broader context of what was then the women's liberation movement, the effort to fight for equality for women in all kinds of ways — from daycare to equal pay for equal work, to access to a wider range of jobs, to sharing housework,” Mary shares. “And we wanted to get the date in there because that was such a critical time for the movement for abortion rights and access, and for women's rights more generally.”

The film’s stories were intersectional even if the world wasn’t. Everyone who worked on the film had been active in political or social movements, Mary says. “When people heard that we were making a film about abortion, we started getting tapes in the mail. I mean, that was back in the day before the internet,” Mary explains.

“I think that the reality is we were very aware that, even though it was so hard for middle-class women to get abortions then, and they went through horrible experiences that we shared and talked about and that are in the film, that the deaths from abortion were overwhelmingly of women of color and poor women,” Mary says.?

Even in the years after Roe v. Wade, Mary says, not every woman had the same access and the same autonomy, especially if they didn’t have money or were women of color.

Stigmas That Linger

Even women obtaining legal abortions have horrible stories to share, including walking through picket lines, enduring postpartum depression, feeling shamed, stigmatized and alone. and couldn’t talk to anyone. This was true even after Roe v. Wade, but especially before.

“There was a stigma to the whole thing. And so I think what is important is that women begin to talk if they want to about their stories, but that they become more public,” Karen says.

“We do want to honor and hear the stories of women who went through hell in association with their abortion experiences. And we want to understand everything about that and change it and figure out how to support women in the future,” Mary says. “But one of the reasons we ended up not showing our film very much after we first made it was that it did make a legal abortion look so scary. And after Roe v. Wade, the important message to get out was abortion is a safe, legal experience, much safer than childbirth actually.”

Legal abortion is a safe process that has evolved over the decades. While women can find it more challenging today to obtain an abortion, there are safer, less intrusive methods available for many women.?

“One of the other key changes that's happened with abortion that we haven't yet talked about is the fact that there are now medication abortions, and the majority of abortions are medication abortions now. That is even safer and easier in many cases,” Mary says. “Women can have them in their own homes. Pills can come in the mail. It can be a very ordinary, reasonable experience.”

The Path to a Better Tomorrow

What can women do in this uncertain, even scary era? One place to start is with electing politicians who support abortion rights..

“I have to say Democrats because of the Republicans’ position on abortion,” Karen says. “I really strongly hope that people will help get out the vote and go vote. That's the only way, or that's one of the strongest ways, that I think we can change what's going on. So I support that.”

Getting people who care about women’s reproductive rights is one step. The other is to ensure that the conversation keeps going and is normalized. Even in 2022, there are still people who rather not talk about abortion or don’t understand the significance of abortions and women’s rights. Sharing your story isn’t easy but can make a huge difference, even if you don’t see it immediately.

“It seems to me that it's a private issue, but the way that it's being dealt with today, it has to be the case that women come out and talk about their experiences, what they have happened to them, but also what they hope for their children, their daughters, their granddaughters,” Karen explains. “So I think it has to become more public, but it's up to each person because it is a fairly private experience.”

People in This Episode

• Mary Summers: LinkedIn
• Karen Weinstein: LinkedIn

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