WEBVTT

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- Basically, I wanted to make a film

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because I had an abortion.

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And if you have an abortion,
you wanna do something

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to not have other people go
through what you went through.

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- [Susan] I felt like something
was happening to my body

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but it was something that
I had no control over.

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And my stomach seemed to be swollen up.

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My breasts seemed to be too big.

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It seemed like everyone could tell.

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I just was sure that everyone
in the world could tell.

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And I started wearing clothes
that would conceal the shape

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of my body, as though I were already like

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about nine months pregnant.

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It was a bad relationship with this guy,

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and after a while I lost a
lot of self-respect in him.

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But I found myself just doing things

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in a kind of passive way.

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It was very hard for me to feel

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that I had any control
over what was happening.

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I always felt, in some ways, subservient

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to him and that he was
directing what went on.

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And I guess that reflected itself

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in my attitude towards birth control.

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I just became more and more sloppy

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about everything in my life.

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I became very sloppy in everything I did

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because I couldn\'t act anymore,

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I couldn\'t control anything.

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So I just would let things
happen more and more,

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just let things happen.

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It didn\'t seem worth
making a big effort not to.

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It was such a destructive relationship

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between the two of us
that I never even thought

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of having a child.

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I never thought of
bringing a child into that.

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I could barely tolerate it

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and I thought introducing a young life

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into that situation would be a disaster.

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I went through calling
all these drug stores.

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I didn\'t know where to
get a pregnancy test.

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And what they said is
I had to see a doctor,

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which really bothered me

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\'cause I didn\'t have that much money.

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And I went to the doctor to
find out if I was pregnant

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and I was really scared.

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I thought I was all along,

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but going to a doctor was
like having to confirm it.

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Well, I went there and
had the pregnancy test

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and then afterwards he
called me into the office,

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then he told me I was pregnant.

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He said it in a sort
of very sympathetic way

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but I just thought,

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I just have to get through
this little episode

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and then I can go on and
it\'ll almost be over.

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And I asked him if he
could give me an abortion.

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He said that he could, but for $1000.

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And I was, I was just so upset.

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Of course, I couldn\'t pay that much money.

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And just feeling really frustrated then

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because I had to find an abortionist.

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And I thought maybe this
doctor could have done it

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and it could have been easy

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and a very good and clean procedure.

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But it turned out

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that he really wasn\'t sympathetic at all.

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So we went, then we started
the, you know, the big search.

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But we had, I remember,
to make the phone call

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and use some names and
get all these directions

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because we didn\'t have
any contacts or, you know,

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we didn\'t know people who
were into that kind of thing.

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It wasn\'t scary, it was like hiding.

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Kind of like you felt
like you wanted to go

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around with your hands over your face.

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Nobody cared, you know, really.

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You still felt kind of dirty and funny.

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So I don\'t know, after, you
know, just incredible anxiety,

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every day I\'m getting
more and more pregnant.

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What am I gonna do?

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You know, every day.

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What if I don\'t find somebody?

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Just this absolute terror

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of not being able to
get rid of it in time.

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I was supposed to go over to
this doctor in the morning.

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I\'d phoned him up long distance

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and just very calmly said
I would like an appointment

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for the morning because this was the code.

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So he said, okay, you come in the morning

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and he put a date like
a week and a half away.

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- I didn\'t really wanna talk
to anyone about it very much.

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I felt that other people were strong

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and free and independent and I was weak.

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But I had one friend who
I thought I could talk to

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and it was very good.

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It was just,

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it was nice to be able to
bring it out in the open.

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It wasn\'t anything to be ashamed about.

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It wasn\'t anything so
much that she said to me

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but just the fact that I could speak

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about it with somebody else
was so liberating to me.

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One thing I knew, I became aware

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of children for the first time.

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And I found myself watching
them and thinking about them.

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I\'d never really thought

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about children much before
one way or the other.

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I never had any fantastic
desires to be a mother.

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I could relate to older children

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who could express themselves,

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but I never had any
particular relationship

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with little babies.

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And I found myself
watching them and trying

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to figure out what it would
be like to spend a whole day

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or a whole week or a whole
life with a small child.

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I don\'t think children
should always be brought

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into the world no matter what.

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I think that there are enough children

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in the world right now who are neglected

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and unfulfilled and have unhappy lives.

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I think the only way I could stay calm was

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by making the whole thing very unreal.

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And I felt a strange kind

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of detachment throughout
that whole period.

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I\'d walked through the streets

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and feel fantastically detached.

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My whole body felt unreal.

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I felt detached from my own experiences

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and from people around me.

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I guess I felt really alone,
but I didn\'t feel lonely.

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I think I was just slightly,
I felt slightly crazy.

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I was so terrified about the abortion.

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You go to this house

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and somehow everything
seems a little bit sinister.

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I had heard all the horror
stories about abortions.

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I kept trying to console myself

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with the thought that other
women had had abortions

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and obviously they hadn\'t died

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or the guy would\'ve
probably been arrested,

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so he must\'ve been okay.

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And I thought, well, if they
survived it, I will too.

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Then my mind just completely blanked.

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I think the fear mainly was
a fear that the operation,

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since it was illegal,
would make me sterile,

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might make me sterile,
I might lose my life.

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You know, that it\'s illegal.

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I was prepared that I probably
wouldn\'t have anesthetic.

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I don\'t know about my own body.

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I don\'t know, you know, really
what was happening in there.

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There was a woman who came
out right before I went in,

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and when she walked out, that, I really

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got the fear then

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because she looked like she
had just narrowly escaped it.

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She just looked like she
had been through the mill.

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Like her, she was just
had been crying obviously

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and she was, you know,

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having a little bit of trouble walking.

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It was just, you know, and
then I heard my name called

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and I had to go into the same
door that she came out of.

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- [Mary] At least 1 million
women seek abortions every year.

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Only 1% get legal abortions.

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300,000 of those who
have illegal abortions

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suffer complications.

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3 to 8000 women die from
illegal abortions every year.

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80 to 90% of those who die
are non-white, poor women.

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- [Janet] Well, my first
marriage that would,

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I guess, be beyond all birth control,

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because I think the only
reason I did get married is

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because of sex.

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I was afraid to do anything without it.

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If I had birth control in those days

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I think I wouldn\'t have
gotten into this mess

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because the marriage
didn\'t work, you know.

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He didn\'t love me and I didn\'t
love him, whatever love is.

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But anyway, it was pretty horrible.

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And I don\'t know, finally
I got a divorce from him.

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Come down here and still no birth control.

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Now only one doctor, that
was with my first marriage,

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after I had had the baby,

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he said something about the diaphragm.

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And at the time, money
was so tight with me.

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In fact, that doctor\'s
never been paid off.

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See, I had a hard time on welfare.

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I was living in Chelsea then.

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And oh, it was wicked, wicked, wicked.

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I guess that led me to
wanna give up the baby.

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When I gave up my baby,

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that was the hardest
thing I ever had to do.

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The hardest thing.

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And as long as I live,

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I\'m always going to be
wondering where my baby is.

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You carry this baby in you.

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All right, the first few
months you don\'t feel a thing.

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If anything, you\'re sick.

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You get morning sickness

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and you\'re pretty miserable
with the change taking place.

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Once that baby starts moving around

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you know, you kinda, well, you feel it,

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I don\'t know how to explain it.

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But they kept on bringing
me the baby for feedings

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and I couldn\'t take it.

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And I just signed myself out

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and I came home and I just
told everybody the baby died.

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Oh, I was so depressed, it was horrible.

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But anyway, it\'s bothered me,

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it always will be until the day I die.

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But I say abortions
are better, way better.

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I had had an abortion.

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I got pregnant, got careless one night

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and I don\'t know, call me fertile Myrtle.

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But anyway,

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all I had to do was shake
hands and I\'m pregnant.

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And because I had given up one baby

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and then I got pregnant
again, I couldn\'t stand it.

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So I went for an abortion
and a woman neighbor of mine,

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thank God she helped me out
and I got an abortion, illegal.

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It wasn\'t bad really.

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It was a solution of lye and Ivory soap

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and you boil the water and, I don\'t know,

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you boil it all together.

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It was some kinda like douche bag

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that fits up into the uterus, yeah.

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And like the person came to the house

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and gives you a sloosh, washes you down,

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and inserts it and then just tells you,

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when you feel a little cramp, tell me.

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And so I did.

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And then the person
stops and then you wait.

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Well, sometimes they
say it takes 48 hours.

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Well, with me, it didn\'t.

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The only thing is, see,
I didn\'t come out clean.

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I was sick for a long time.

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Went in for D & C.

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Then, I don\'t know, I had
all kind of woman trouble,

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just from poor healthcare,
I think, I don\'t know.

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I was lucky, I really
was in knowing this woman

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because the baby that
I gave up for adoption,

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she was screaming at me
then to have an abortion.

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I really believe that, you know,

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he thought something of me
because I was gonna have his kid.

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And she tried to tell me

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and I got kind of mad at her too.

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And then I realized later
that she was right all along.

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I don\'t know, what do we have to do?

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Go through these, all these experiences,

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make all these mistakes

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before we find out what life is all about?

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- [Mary] A safe abortion is
a simple, easy operation.

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It should be available free
to all women, on demand.

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Every woman has the right to decide

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whether or not to have children.

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Every woman should be able to bear

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as many children as she wants.

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What we tried to deal
with in the first part

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of the film was talking about
our personal experience.

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And now in the last part of the film,

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we wanna talk about the
things that you start thinking

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about when you talk about fighting back.

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You can\'t then think of
abortion as an isolated issue.

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You have to think about how
to get better birth control,

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about what happens with profit medicine,

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about the reasons why poor
women can\'t get good abortions,

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about the reasons why
Black women can\'t get

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good abortions.

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And then about the possibilities
of abortions being forced

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on Black women and the way
sterilization has been.

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There are a lot of complicated issues,

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but when you talk about a woman starting

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to take control of her life,

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you really have to end
up meaning everything.

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- [Janet] They said they
wanted to take out my uterus.

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I said, what\'s that?

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And they explained to me.

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I didn\'t even know what a uterus was.

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They said, that\'s how you get pregnant.

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I says, oh really?

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- [Poet] We said, our
bodies are ours to control.

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My pain and expectations mold me.

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He who draws the minds
like bars around my life,

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professing we can\'t to
make its prison hold me.

00:15:42.570 --> 00:15:47.370
- [Janet] Young girls having
babies and there\'s no need

00:15:47.370 --> 00:15:50.100
of it because it\'s just
gonna tie them down.

00:15:50.100 --> 00:15:52.920
Maybe the kids might not be wanted.

00:15:52.920 --> 00:15:54.420
The girls are very young.

00:15:54.420 --> 00:15:58.230
My own son, he was 17, the girl was 15.

00:15:58.230 --> 00:16:01.410
Now in East Boston, they
have the clinic here.

00:16:01.410 --> 00:16:03.570
But see, it\'s not for single women.

00:16:03.570 --> 00:16:05.820
I know one girl that had a baby,

00:16:05.820 --> 00:16:07.200
and after she had the baby,

00:16:07.200 --> 00:16:11.160
and she\'s on welfare,
allowed her to get the coil.

00:16:11.160 --> 00:16:12.990
A lot of people they don\'t wanna talk

00:16:12.990 --> 00:16:14.850
about things like that.

00:16:14.850 --> 00:16:17.438
You know, they kinda like turn it off.

00:16:17.438 --> 00:16:20.730
And this is why all these
girls are getting in trouble,

00:16:20.730 --> 00:16:21.694
I think.

00:16:21.694 --> 00:16:25.050
If there was only some way that
they could get birth control

00:16:25.050 --> 00:16:25.920
for their kid.

00:16:25.920 --> 00:16:28.920
I wish I could do something,
but I don\'t know what to do.

00:16:28.920 --> 00:16:31.170
- [Poet] Your bodies
are theirs to control.

00:16:31.170 --> 00:16:34.020
They\'ll tell you that your mind is clever

00:16:34.020 --> 00:16:36.872
until you choose to fight
among the dispossessed,

00:16:36.872 --> 00:16:40.110
your smiling eyes are blind forever.

00:16:40.110 --> 00:16:42.690
- Why does a woman\'s hormonal
system have to be fucked

00:16:42.690 --> 00:16:45.120
around with all the time
when it\'s very complicated

00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:48.540
and very necessary to
procreate the species,

00:16:48.540 --> 00:16:52.050
when in fact it makes much
more sense to have a pill

00:16:52.050 --> 00:16:56.610
for a male, whose hormonal
system is not as complicated.

00:16:56.610 --> 00:16:57.900
- Doctors really tell you all sorts

00:16:57.900 --> 00:17:00.150
of different things about the pill.

00:17:00.150 --> 00:17:04.140
Some of them will tell you
that it\'s perfectly all right,

00:17:04.140 --> 00:17:05.160
there\'s absolutely no harm.

00:17:05.160 --> 00:17:06.870
And others will tell
you it\'s absolutely bad,

00:17:06.870 --> 00:17:08.520
it could make you sterile.

00:17:08.520 --> 00:17:10.290
Most doctors have told me that it\'s fine

00:17:10.290 --> 00:17:12.960
and they won\'t tell me anything
about the possible dangers

00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:14.880
or possible things to watch out for.

00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:18.090
- We\'re too afraid to ask a
guy to use a condom or rubber

00:17:18.090 --> 00:17:21.480
because it won\'t feel good and
it\'ll minimize his pleasure

00:17:21.480 --> 00:17:23.400
and nobody thinks about our pleasure.

00:17:23.400 --> 00:17:25.860
And in fact, I think
it\'s because, you know,

00:17:25.860 --> 00:17:27.570
women aren\'t supposed to
have very much pleasure.

00:17:27.570 --> 00:17:29.471
- [Poet] My body is mine to set free

00:17:29.471 --> 00:17:32.867
and by liberating mind will arm me.

00:17:32.867 --> 00:17:35.670
You isolate me, saying I\'m all alone.

00:17:35.670 --> 00:17:38.160
Can\'t break our unity to harm me.

00:17:38.160 --> 00:17:40.200
- [Catha] The decision
making power is in the hands

00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:43.080
of an elite few in all the
industries, health included.

00:17:43.080 --> 00:17:46.200
And the idea that a doctor
would share his knowledge

00:17:46.200 --> 00:17:48.390
with the patient seems to be something

00:17:48.390 --> 00:17:49.380
they don\'t want to do to do.

00:17:49.380 --> 00:17:50.730
Doctors have openly said

00:17:50.730 --> 00:17:52.443
that abortion is a boring procedure,

00:17:52.443 --> 00:17:55.260
that it\'s much more
interesting to deliver a baby

00:17:55.260 --> 00:17:56.790
at the same time as they have said

00:17:56.790 --> 00:17:58.590
that four out of five babies delivered

00:17:58.590 --> 00:18:01.830
at the public facility in
this city were unwanted.

00:18:01.830 --> 00:18:03.120
What they\'re essentially saying is,

00:18:03.120 --> 00:18:05.280
we don\'t have time to do abortions

00:18:05.280 --> 00:18:07.800
because we\'re too busy
delivering unwanted babies.

00:18:07.800 --> 00:18:09.840
There\'s a very subtle attitude on the part

00:18:09.840 --> 00:18:12.420
of doctors that a woman
who gets pregnant deserves

00:18:12.420 --> 00:18:13.830
to be punished for it,

00:18:13.830 --> 00:18:15.510
holding the availability of abortions

00:18:15.510 --> 00:18:17.400
as a weapon of punishment in their hands.

00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:20.160
The doctor said, if we make
abortions available on demand

00:18:20.160 --> 00:18:21.630
won\'t there be more promiscuity?

00:18:21.630 --> 00:18:24.450
The specter of females being
able to function freely,

00:18:24.450 --> 00:18:27.420
according to their own needs
and desires is something

00:18:27.420 --> 00:18:29.430
which these male doctors and the system,

00:18:29.430 --> 00:18:31.230
in general, that cannot handle.

00:18:31.230 --> 00:18:33.240
It should be basically
the right of the woman

00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:35.310
to control her reproductive life, period,

00:18:35.310 --> 00:18:36.510
no questions asked.

00:18:36.510 --> 00:18:38.580
And the only consideration
that the doctors should

00:18:38.580 --> 00:18:43.221
have to deal with is a medical
examination of that woman.

00:18:43.221 --> 00:18:45.629
- [Poet] My body is claimed by the state

00:18:45.629 --> 00:18:49.477
but my self-exploding mind will steer me.

00:18:49.477 --> 00:18:51.720
You shackled me and
called my slavery liberty,

00:18:51.720 --> 00:18:54.483
but never ceased to fear me.

00:18:56.730 --> 00:18:58.720
- [Speaker 1] Abortion for
a poor woman in Washington

00:18:58.720 --> 00:19:02.460
to go to the better
hospitals will cause $500.

00:19:02.460 --> 00:19:05.762
You have to have the money
before you enter the hospital.

00:19:05.762 --> 00:19:09.330
$75 to go to see a psychiatrist.

00:19:09.330 --> 00:19:10.830
- [Speaker 2] It seemed
to be the thing, you know,

00:19:10.830 --> 00:19:12.150
if your pocketbook is big enough,

00:19:12.150 --> 00:19:13.860
then they examine you
because you can afford

00:19:13.860 --> 00:19:16.170
to go in the hospital,
you can afford to give

00:19:16.170 --> 00:19:19.050
this doctor a big fee, you
know, and things like that.

00:19:19.050 --> 00:19:21.000
Maybe they think that welfare clients

00:19:21.000 --> 00:19:26.000
or poor Black and Puerto Rican
people cut imaginary yields.

00:19:26.187 --> 00:19:28.650
Whatever you have, you get painkillers.

00:19:28.650 --> 00:19:30.570
So that\'s a normal medication, painkiller,

00:19:30.570 --> 00:19:33.385
and whatever disease you have goes on and

00:19:33.385 --> 00:19:34.590
goes on and goes on.

00:19:34.590 --> 00:19:39.360
And not only welfare clients,
but poor working people too.

00:19:39.360 --> 00:19:41.220
- [Catha] We certainly
would not see syphilis

00:19:41.220 --> 00:19:43.980
at stage five or an advanced pneumonia

00:19:43.980 --> 00:19:45.630
that\'s going to kill a person

00:19:45.630 --> 00:19:48.120
in the private white hospitals.

00:19:48.120 --> 00:19:49.620
- [Speaker 3] But the
infant mortality rate

00:19:49.620 --> 00:19:52.020
at DC General Hospital
is much higher than is

00:19:52.020 --> 00:19:52.980
in any other hospital.

00:19:52.980 --> 00:19:54.900
And most of the people who
go there are Black people

00:19:54.900 --> 00:19:57.600
and we consider this as
another form of genocide.

00:19:57.600 --> 00:19:58.680
You know, let them die.

00:19:58.680 --> 00:20:01.132
- [Poet] My body is mine to control

00:20:01.132 --> 00:20:03.690
and the anger in my mind defines me.

00:20:03.690 --> 00:20:06.000
He who led me where it only profits him

00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:09.810
for me to go has lost power to confine me.

00:20:09.810 --> 00:20:11.250
- [Speaker 5] Abortions
are a contradiction

00:20:11.250 --> 00:20:12.810
for third world people.

00:20:12.810 --> 00:20:15.600
On one hand, we don\'t
want our sisters to have

00:20:15.600 --> 00:20:17.880
to go in back rooms and
stick knitting needles

00:20:17.880 --> 00:20:20.490
up themselves and have uncool abortions.

00:20:20.490 --> 00:20:22.620
We want sisters to be
able to get abortions when

00:20:22.620 --> 00:20:26.070
they want them and in
facilities where they\'ll live.

00:20:26.070 --> 00:20:28.740
Because like at Lincoln
Hospital, the first sister

00:20:28.740 --> 00:20:32.070
in New York City to die
of an abortion death,

00:20:32.070 --> 00:20:33.720
after that law was passed was

00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:35.343
a sister named Carmen Rodriguez.

00:20:36.240 --> 00:20:37.740
\'Cause in Lincoln Hospital,

00:20:37.740 --> 00:20:39.480
the room that they use to do abortions

00:20:39.480 --> 00:20:43.050
in is a supply room that they
stuck an operating table in.

00:20:43.050 --> 00:20:45.930
We say don\'t force people
to go get abortions when

00:20:45.930 --> 00:20:48.480
the health conditions in
the hospitals are fucked up.

00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:50.357
But the sisters should have that right.

00:20:50.357 --> 00:20:53.670
But on the other hand, there\'s
genocide being committed

00:20:53.670 --> 00:20:55.380
against Blacks and Puerto Ricans.

00:20:55.380 --> 00:20:57.090
To get welfare, a lot of times, you know,

00:20:57.090 --> 00:20:59.610
you have to get abortions
or be sterilized.

00:20:59.610 --> 00:21:02.130
- [Mary] Black life
expectancy is seven years less

00:21:02.130 --> 00:21:03.720
than that of whites.

00:21:03.720 --> 00:21:06.240
The Black maternal
mortality rate is four times

00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:07.770
that of whites.

00:21:07.770 --> 00:21:08.603
- [Speaker 6] Come to think about that,

00:21:08.603 --> 00:21:10.020
especially when we talking about genocide

00:21:10.020 --> 00:21:11.495
and experimentation and all,

00:21:11.495 --> 00:21:12.687
I think of all those things
as a mother, you know.

00:21:12.687 --> 00:21:14.580
And a lot of things I normally would do,

00:21:14.580 --> 00:21:17.370
then I think two or three
times before I do it.

00:21:17.370 --> 00:21:19.179
The doctor told me I needed a hysterectomy

00:21:19.179 --> 00:21:20.643
four children ago.

00:21:21.540 --> 00:21:22.650
And I found out that, you know,

00:21:22.650 --> 00:21:24.300
I didn\'t need a hysterectomy,
but he felt that

00:21:24.300 --> 00:21:25.200
I had too many children.

00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:26.850
- [Speaker 4] Over one third of the women

00:21:26.850 --> 00:21:28.440
in Puerto Rico are sterilized.

00:21:28.440 --> 00:21:30.780
The sterilization program was pushed there

00:21:30.780 --> 00:21:32.760
as population control.

00:21:32.760 --> 00:21:34.650
There\'s no need for population control.

00:21:34.650 --> 00:21:37.080
What they wanna do is
control the population

00:21:37.080 --> 00:21:39.030
so they can take over more of the islands,

00:21:39.030 --> 00:21:40.920
and there won\'t be so
many Spics to deal with.

00:21:40.920 --> 00:21:43.980
We\'re going to have to
stand up and start fighting

00:21:43.980 --> 00:21:46.320
against that kind of forced
sterilization of women.

00:21:46.320 --> 00:21:49.214
- [Catha] The IUD was first
tested in Puerto Rico.

00:21:49.214 --> 00:21:52.680
It was then tested on Black
women in Harlem Hospital

00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:54.720
in New York and on poor women

00:21:54.720 --> 00:21:57.663
in Sunflower County, Mississippi
and Atlanta, Georgia.

00:21:59.040 --> 00:22:00.060
- [Speaker 3] In terms of birth control,

00:22:00.060 --> 00:22:03.210
saying that the birth
control is voluntary,

00:22:03.210 --> 00:22:06.030
but that pill is being
pushed on welfare mothers.

00:22:06.030 --> 00:22:07.890
And what the investigator
tells you is we\'re gonna cut

00:22:07.890 --> 00:22:10.020
down your money if you have another kid.

00:22:10.020 --> 00:22:11.520
You\'re not gonna be
able to take care of it,

00:22:11.520 --> 00:22:13.500
you\'re not gonna be able to feed the kid.

00:22:13.500 --> 00:22:15.330
And that\'s why some of those mothers walk

00:22:15.330 --> 00:22:17.430
into those birth control centers.

00:22:17.430 --> 00:22:18.630
- [Speaker 5] Rather than a hysterectomy,

00:22:18.630 --> 00:22:20.070
I tried a birth control pill.

00:22:20.070 --> 00:22:21.150
And I got the pills,

00:22:21.150 --> 00:22:22.860
after I was taking it, about six weeks,

00:22:22.860 --> 00:22:25.590
I began to get a growth on the breast.

00:22:25.590 --> 00:22:27.420
Each week, it got bigger and bigger.

00:22:27.420 --> 00:22:29.490
So they told me to
continue to take the pills.

00:22:29.490 --> 00:22:32.040
Don\'t worry about the growth,
they would remove the breast.

00:22:32.040 --> 00:22:34.770
So I came home and I sat
down and I thought about it.

00:22:34.770 --> 00:22:36.630
I flushed the pills down the toilet,

00:22:36.630 --> 00:22:38.190
then the growth went away.

00:22:38.190 --> 00:22:41.640
I had examination for cancer
and I don\'t have cancer.

00:22:41.640 --> 00:22:43.443
So who\'s the fool, who\'s stupid?

00:22:44.490 --> 00:22:47.550
- [Catha] The pill was
first tested in Puerto Rico.

00:22:47.550 --> 00:22:50.400
It was then tested in clinics
in the Chicana neighborhoods

00:22:50.400 --> 00:22:54.000
of San Antonio, Texas, and
Los Angeles, California.

00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:55.800
- [Speaker 3] What we
should push for is a society

00:22:55.800 --> 00:22:57.900
where women have the right
to determine the number

00:22:57.900 --> 00:22:59.670
of children they wanna have.

00:22:59.670 --> 00:23:01.980
The society should be
able to take care of them.

00:23:01.980 --> 00:23:05.040
- [Poet] My body is mine to control.

00:23:05.040 --> 00:23:07.113
My self-determined mind defines me.

00:23:08.310 --> 00:23:10.710
If she will not lead me where I wanna go,

00:23:10.710 --> 00:23:13.497
I\'ll agree to fall behind me.

00:23:14.820 --> 00:23:15.870
- [Mary] All over the world,

00:23:15.870 --> 00:23:18.600
women are fighting for
control over their lives.

00:23:18.600 --> 00:23:20.910
They are fighting against
those who kill their children

00:23:20.910 --> 00:23:22.230
and destroy their homes.

00:23:22.230 --> 00:23:25.260
They are fighting for decent
jobs and decent wages.

00:23:25.260 --> 00:23:27.510
They are fighting for daycare
centers and the right to bring

00:23:27.510 --> 00:23:30.030
up their children in decent conditions.

00:23:30.030 --> 00:23:32.340
We who fight for free abortions on demand

00:23:32.340 --> 00:23:34.230
join them in that struggle.

00:23:34.230 --> 00:23:36.390
We know that we will not
be able to take control

00:23:36.390 --> 00:23:39.120
of our lives until every demand is won.

00:23:39.120 --> 00:23:41.160
We know that 90% of those who died

00:23:41.160 --> 00:23:43.320
from illegal abortions were poor women,

00:23:43.320 --> 00:23:45.300
Black, and third world women.

00:23:45.300 --> 00:23:47.070
We will not allow those who killed them

00:23:47.070 --> 00:23:49.950
to substitute one form
of racism for another.

00:23:49.950 --> 00:23:52.290
We will fight all those
who seek to sterilize

00:23:52.290 --> 00:23:54.810
or abort any woman against her will.

00:23:54.810 --> 00:23:56.430
We know that we will not be free

00:23:56.430 --> 00:23:57.980
until all our sisters are free.

00:23:58.830 --> 00:24:01.890
- [Poet] My rage is the
color of all my sisters

00:24:01.890 --> 00:24:03.945
the man\'s keeping down.

00:24:03.945 --> 00:24:06.425
It\'s white like the heat of the sun

00:24:06.425 --> 00:24:08.883
and the sun\'s yellow crown.

00:24:09.750 --> 00:24:12.150
It\'s black like the boulders that roll

00:24:12.150 --> 00:24:14.830
down the round, mountain ground.

00:24:16.080 --> 00:24:17.783
Here\'s what I found.

00:24:17.783 --> 00:24:20.010
My body is mine to control

00:24:20.010 --> 00:24:23.130
and my mind defines the raging inside me.

00:24:23.130 --> 00:24:25.080
Every woman is my sister and my leader,

00:24:25.080 --> 00:24:26.866
when she says that she will stand

00:24:26.866 --> 00:24:28.533
and fight beside me.