Michelle Koopmans: We must stand up and be counted'

Scan page 4

REE ORTIO PROUV The following are excerpts from a presentation by Michelle Koopmans to the Feb. 15, 1986, Grand Rapids, Mich., Discussion Group on "Women: Which Way in the '80s?" Koopmans is the president of the Grand Rapids chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the chairperson of NOW's Michigan state task force on reproductive rights.

NOW's statement of purpose in 1966 was written as follows: "The purpose of the National Organization for Women is to take action to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society now, exercising all the privileges and responsibilities thereof in truly equal partnership with men."

In 1986 this statement of purpose reads exactly the same. It hasn't changed a bit.

Today NOW is working toward a time where indeed we will have equal part - nership. When I say equal partnership, don't mean one on one or pairing off. mean partnership in society as a whole, where we have equal access and equal opportunities.

To be a little more specific, our NOW chapter is still working on issues like the Equal Rights Amendment. Some people say the ERA is dead and gone. It's not. Women in the United States still do not have equal citizenship under the constitution. We are still not equal legal persons.

Until we have equal citizenship, any other rights that we gain will continue to be eroded, and we'll go back and forth and play the games with comparable worth, equal opportunity, and abortion rights from now until doomsday.

NOW is bringing this issue back out into the forefront. We're going to do just what they did with the vote: We're going to take it back to the states and start over.

The issue I work most closely on—the one we're in the most danger of losing—is reproductive rights. When I talk about reproductive rights I don't just mean abortion. I mean the right to choose things like birth control.

The far right would like to take even this basic right away from us. But without the right to decide if and when we are going to become parents, access to education and employment are meaningless. We can't go forth and plan education, employment, family lives and individual lives without the right to control our reproductive lives.

I don't think people realize how much our reproductive rights are being threatened. The Supreme Court right now has agreed to hear two cases. They are similar to cases they've already heard concerning abortion and states' rights. So it is very possible the Court will go ahead and limit our rights. It could say we have to have spousal consent or parental consent for an abortion, or that we have to have 24 hours of counseling before we have a procedure. No medical procedure in the country has that requirement.

So reproductive rights is one issue we can come out and fight for right now by contacting our representatives. We have to go through the legal systems. We have to go out to march, too, to let those legal systems know we exist. But we have to go through our legislature and legal systems—at least to begin with—and we need to let those people know that we're out there. The best thing we can do for reproductive rights is stand up and be counted.