Politics...

***In my head I was singing, 'I am Woman' with a great big smile on my face...  In my head I could hear you singing with me.  I don't know where you stood on the issue of abortion, it wasn't really anything we ever spoke about.  I know that you did everything you knew to do to make the world just a little bit better for your daughters than it was for you.  I figure that you would understand the sentiment, no matter the politics of the thing.  I guess that I'll never stop wondering what you would have said to this thing or that - hopefully it will just get easier.  I love you - and I felt your presence this weekend.***

Here is the speech I gave at the rally:

"My name is Heather Hall.  I have been fighting for reproductive rights since I was a teenager.  For 17 years I have been fighting encroachment on my personal privacy and medical rights but still, there are some that would like to write their legislation on my uterus.  From Dr. Gunn in 1993 to Dr. Tiller in 2009, I have mourned the loss and murder of our medical providers.  Our opposition would say that they are protecting unborn children, but those of us here know that this issue isn’t as easy as that.  The reasons for a woman choosing to end a pregnancy are many and varied and anything but easy.  The impact a pregnancy has on a woman’s body can’t be argued... it’s incredibly drastic and in some cases incredibly detrimental to her health and well being.  These are issues too big to fit into small minds.

When my mother was pregnant with me she was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease and given the choice to end her pregnancy and seek immediate treatment for this life threatening cancer.  By my presence here, I honor the choice she made.  When I was pregnant for the first time and we found that the fetus wasn’t viable, I was given the choice to wait for my body to flush the tissue or to undergo a D & C.  I chose to have the D & C rather than waiting.  Each subsequent pregnancy I have been secure in the knowledge that it was my choice to carry a child to term or to terminate the pregnancy.  No one honors my choice by taking it away.  You do not honor the truly difficult choices your mothers made by revoking the choices of her daughters and granddaughters.  Being a mother is big.  Being a good mother is a job bigger than the Oklahoma sky and I am here to tell you that you were each chosen.  Your mothers chose to carry and nurture you in their bodies at, in some cases, great risk to themselves.  You honor your mothers choices by being here and respecting that they had the right.  They had the freedom to make a choice that some Oklahoma legislators would like to revoke.  This is not a direct action, but a yawn and grab maneuver that is better left to teenage boys in darkened movie theaters.  

These attacks on our privacy and freedom aren’t just localized to the shiny buckle of the bible belt, but are occurring across the nation.  I stand with you.  I say that no means no.  You cannot legislate my rights away and you cannot use public funds to propose unconstitutional laws.  This has already been settled in the Supreme Court of our great nation and I am tired of having the same fight over and over.  Current proposed legislation would seriously curtail a woman's ability to make unimpeded health decisions and it would potentially cut down at the knees an agency that has been on the front lines in the battle against AIDS and other STD’s.  An agency which has taken on the task of providing education and resources to promote safe sex practices.  I stand with Planned Parenthood.  I stand with any health care providers that support a woman’s right to choose what grows in her body.  I stand by my mother’s choice, and the ability to make it."

It's clear to me that you can't give a speech like you would read or perform a poem... as Ike said, '[I] forgot to leave space for applause!'...

Today, I am going to seek new ways to make the world and this life just a little better for my children.  I am not going to be afraid of the unknown and I will not be afraid to stand up when the issue is important.