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Jun 12 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
I put inverted commas around "illegal" and "legal" when I write about my two abortions because the State--and the Supreme Court--can fuck off with its opinions about what I can/can't do with my uterus. That control belongs to me.
That necessary disrespect of unjust laws was at the core of #TheJanes, a clandestine network of women who provided 11,000 safe, affordable "illegal" abortions in Chicago in the 5yrs pre #RoeVWade. Watch the @HBO documentary about them feministgiant.com/p/essay-disres…
“I learned that sometimes you have to stand up to illegitimate authority and sometimes there are unjust laws that need to be challenged,” Heather Booth, of Jane

A Supreme Court stacked w/religious zealots tasked w/doing the bidding of right-wing conservatives deserves no respect
White supremacist Christian zealots, busy building a theocracy, who have used democracy to cut democracy at its knees by destroying the right to abortion right–a right that most Amerians support–deserve no respect. feministgiant.com/p/essay-disres…
Fuck the Supreme Court.

This is not the time for politeness or civility. I refuse to be civil with religious zealots who do not recognize my full humanity and who are denying me the fundamental right of ownership of my body. feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-se…
When the fascist fucks in your country tighten their grip on your body, the path to freedom must be paved with profanity.

Politeness is capitulation.

feministgiant.com/p/fuck-is-a-fe…
Read all my essays on abortion here.

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feministgiant.com

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More from @monaeltahawy

Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Jun 13
In 1996, I had an “illegal” abortion in Egypt and in 2000 I had a “legal” abortion in the US. I share my stories because I know how long it took me to share them and how many others need to hear them (as I did). #OurAbortionStories Mona holding up a sign sayi...
I was not raped. I was not sick. The pregnancies did not threaten my life. I did not already have children. I just did not want to be pregnant. I did not want to have a child. And so I had two abortions. feministgiant.com/p/abortion-is-… #OurAbortionStories
When abortion is “illegal,” it does not make it rare nor eradicate it. It  makes it dangerous and often deadly for the poorest and most vulnerable people who can get pregnant. I could afford the doctor’s fee for getting a safe, “illegal” abortion. #OurAbortionStories
Read 11 tweets
Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Jun 10
As white Christian theocrats prepare to destroy a right that most people in the U.S. support, what will most Americans do about abortion rights? In the years before #RoeVWade, an underground network of women called #TheJanes provided safe, affordable illegal abortions.
And in this essay, I look at how activists in Argentina, Mexico, Poland and Ireland fought abortion bans feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-se…
Christian zealots have used democracy to cut it at its knees by destroying the right to abortion–a right which most Americans support. Anyone who is not an able-bodied, white cisgender heterosexual man should fear what is to come. feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-ha…
Read 11 tweets
Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Jun 9
In 1996, I was pregnant and needed an abortion in Egypt, one of the most restrictive countries in the world where the procedure is banned under all circumstances. My then boyfriend and I found an OB/GYN who performed abortions at his clinic.
“I can do it right now! Pay the 400 pounds (approx. $107) now and I can abort you right now. The operating room is right next door. It won’t take long,” the (male) doctor told me soon after my boyfriend and I went in to see him. feministgiant.com/p/essay-disres…
I told him I preferred to come in the next day. We returned the next day, I paid the 400 pounds and had a safe and “illegal” abortion,

For breaking the law in Egypt, I could have been sent to prison for 6mths-3yrs. The doctor could have faced 3-15yyrs in prison.
Read 11 tweets
Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Jun 8
Theocrats are competing in the Zealotry Olympics. On May 26, even as the Supreme Court had yet to issue its decision on #RoeVWade, the governor of Oklahoma signed into law the strictest abortion ban in the US, making the state the 1st to effectively end availability of abortion.
The @HBO documentary #TheJanes about illegal abortion providers pre-Roe v Wade, airs today. Will viewers in the U.S. understand that the past is not a foreign country but instead destination as ambition when theocrats are driving? feministgiant.com/p/essay-disres…
“We were really ordinary women and we were trying to save women’s lives. We wanted every woman who contacted us to be the hero of her own story.”

Watch #TheJanesHBO
Read 5 tweets
Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Jun 7
On Sunday, @tx4abortion activists disrupted Joel Osteen's Lakewood megachurch service by stripping to their underwear and yelling "It's my body, my fucking choice!" via @riseup4abortion #RoeVWade
Fuck yes @riseup4abortion: "Bring SOCIETY to A HALT! NO RETREAT, NO DEFEAT!"

I ask in my latest essay: When will you start burning things to the ground? Where is your fucking rage?

And it is important to insist: abortion on demand and without apology.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-the-ha… #RiseUp3Abortion
Read 11 tweets
Mona Eltahawy Profile picture
Jun 7
I had an “illegal” abortion in Egypt in 1996 and a “legal” abortion in the U.S. in 2000. I feel like I straddle a surreal "before" and "after” that is about to go into effect but in reverse in the U.S. Watching the film "Happening" was a stark reminder feministgiant.com/p/essay-lies-s…
And watching the new @HBO documentary (airing June 8) The Janes, about an underground collective that provided low-cost and free abortions to an estimated 11,000 women in Illinois pre-Roe v Wade was another. I'm writing about it for my next essay.

Sign up to get my essays delivered to your inbox.

My newsletter is free--no paywall or ads. If you can pay, it helps to keep it free.

feministgiant.com
Read 7 tweets

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