1 00:00:15,396 --> 00:00:20,996 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Imagine there's a place in our world where the 2 00:00:21,116 --> 00:00:27,476 Speaker 1: known things go. A quarter of the mind, lined with shelves, 3 00:00:27,516 --> 00:00:33,556 Speaker 1: cluttered with proof, A purple cowboy hat. Oh, someone's put 4 00:00:33,636 --> 00:00:36,716 Speaker 1: up here on the wall poster, it says, the personal 5 00:00:36,876 --> 00:00:41,916 Speaker 1: is political. I love those day glow flowers. This place, 6 00:00:42,036 --> 00:00:45,916 Speaker 1: this warehouse, stores the facts that matter, and matters of fact, 7 00:00:46,516 --> 00:00:50,636 Speaker 1: the evidence of the past. It's all that stands between 8 00:00:50,636 --> 00:00:55,356 Speaker 1: a reasonable doubt and the chaos of uncertainty. It lies 9 00:00:55,396 --> 00:00:59,236 Speaker 1: in a time between now and then. The sign on 10 00:00:59,276 --> 00:01:05,356 Speaker 1: the door reads the last Archive. Step out that door 11 00:01:07,956 --> 00:01:11,636 Speaker 1: to Greenwich Village, across the passage of time to a 12 00:01:11,676 --> 00:01:16,436 Speaker 1: Friday night, March twenty first, nineteen sixty nine. Walk down 13 00:01:16,476 --> 00:01:19,556 Speaker 1: West fourth Street and up the steps to the Washington 14 00:01:19,636 --> 00:01:24,796 Speaker 1: Square Methodist Church, a cathedral. It'll cost you two dollars 15 00:01:24,836 --> 00:01:28,996 Speaker 1: to get in a donation to the Red Stockings radical feminists, 16 00:01:29,116 --> 00:01:32,516 Speaker 1: best known for staging a protest at the Miss America pageant. 17 00:01:33,356 --> 00:01:37,076 Speaker 1: There are three hundred people seated in the church, mostly women. 18 00:01:37,396 --> 00:01:41,236 Speaker 1: It's a handful of men here too. Oh and lucky 19 00:01:41,276 --> 00:01:44,636 Speaker 1: for us, there's a tape recorder up there on the altar. 20 00:01:45,676 --> 00:01:49,196 Speaker 1: All of us are members of the Women's Liberation Group 21 00:01:50,076 --> 00:01:55,556 Speaker 1: of New York City, and we discovered that by just 22 00:01:55,796 --> 00:01:58,956 Speaker 1: talking about our own experience, about our own lives, that 23 00:01:59,156 --> 00:02:02,476 Speaker 1: by talking about this altogether in our group, that we 24 00:02:02,476 --> 00:02:06,836 Speaker 1: were able to find out a lot more about reality 25 00:02:07,276 --> 00:02:09,996 Speaker 1: than by talking about all those objects. The thing we 26 00:02:10,076 --> 00:02:13,036 Speaker 1: would talk about our own abortion, and that was like 27 00:02:13,996 --> 00:02:18,476 Speaker 1: our plans for the satire. So much of how people 28 00:02:18,476 --> 00:02:21,796 Speaker 1: think about truth today comes from this one meeting. Like 29 00:02:21,956 --> 00:02:26,436 Speaker 1: water down a waterfall, twelve women got up to speak, 30 00:02:26,636 --> 00:02:30,476 Speaker 1: one by one. They passed a microphone. They testified for 31 00:02:30,556 --> 00:02:35,236 Speaker 1: more than three hours. They were mad as hell. A 32 00:02:35,356 --> 00:02:38,156 Speaker 1: month earlier, a committee of the New York Legislature had 33 00:02:38,156 --> 00:02:40,756 Speaker 1: considered whether or not to make abortion legal in the state. 34 00:02:41,596 --> 00:02:45,476 Speaker 1: The committee brought in experts to testify. Fourteen men and 35 00:02:45,636 --> 00:02:50,836 Speaker 1: one woman. Anne the Red Stockings and other activists had 36 00:02:50,876 --> 00:02:54,796 Speaker 1: stormed the committee meeting. They were camouflaged in dresses and stockings, 37 00:02:54,796 --> 00:02:58,676 Speaker 1: they said, and they'd shouted, let's hear from the real experts. Women. 38 00:03:00,076 --> 00:03:03,956 Speaker 1: They tried to tell their stories without much success. So 39 00:03:03,996 --> 00:03:06,756 Speaker 1: now they were here in this church in Greenwich Village 40 00:03:07,316 --> 00:03:10,716 Speaker 1: to actually have their say. The tape it's kind of 41 00:03:10,756 --> 00:03:13,596 Speaker 1: crazy to listen to the man is the one that 42 00:03:13,756 --> 00:03:17,956 Speaker 1: scrowls you and then when you turn to him and say, hey, look, sweetheart, 43 00:03:18,076 --> 00:03:21,676 Speaker 1: I'm pregnant. How do you know it was me? You 44 00:03:21,836 --> 00:03:26,276 Speaker 1: neverics love with anyone else. One of the things I 45 00:03:26,356 --> 00:03:28,516 Speaker 1: love about this tape is that it's not like women 46 00:03:28,596 --> 00:03:30,556 Speaker 1: crying in front of Oprah or something. It's more like 47 00:03:30,636 --> 00:03:36,036 Speaker 1: stand up comedy, but confrontational, courageous. George Carlin, Lenny Bruce 48 00:03:36,956 --> 00:03:39,636 Speaker 1: Awry second all the sand. It's just what am I 49 00:03:39,716 --> 00:03:42,836 Speaker 1: gonna do? What I is he going to do? What 50 00:03:42,996 --> 00:03:47,036 Speaker 1: am I going to do? These are the experts, the 51 00:03:47,156 --> 00:03:49,876 Speaker 1: people that are sitting here, the people that are in 52 00:03:49,916 --> 00:03:53,196 Speaker 1: the audience who have had the abortion. But no one 53 00:03:53,316 --> 00:04:03,876 Speaker 1: wants to listen to us. I mean, you know, we 54 00:04:04,036 --> 00:04:08,756 Speaker 1: are the only expert. They spoke out that night and 55 00:04:08,956 --> 00:04:11,996 Speaker 1: nighteen sixty nine because they wanted to change the law. 56 00:04:13,036 --> 00:04:16,556 Speaker 1: They'd also decided to talk publicly about their abortions because 57 00:04:16,596 --> 00:04:18,276 Speaker 1: some of them had been reading the writings of the 58 00:04:18,316 --> 00:04:23,436 Speaker 1: communist revolutionary Mao Zedong. Maoists believed in the practice of 59 00:04:23,636 --> 00:04:29,636 Speaker 1: speaking bitterness, describing your oppression, and blaming your oppressor. That's 60 00:04:29,636 --> 00:04:31,876 Speaker 1: what those women were doing in that church. They were 61 00:04:31,916 --> 00:04:36,676 Speaker 1: speaking bitterness. They called it consciousness raising. They also called 62 00:04:36,716 --> 00:04:39,356 Speaker 1: it rapping or a speak out. I'm sure that there 63 00:04:39,356 --> 00:04:41,996 Speaker 1: are many many women in this audience that have had 64 00:04:42,036 --> 00:04:44,996 Speaker 1: the same experience. So I know, you know, freak or 65 00:04:45,036 --> 00:04:47,236 Speaker 1: that it just happened to me, it's happened. Who can 66 00:04:47,356 --> 00:04:51,876 Speaker 1: eat everybody? You know? So if I get up and 67 00:04:51,956 --> 00:04:53,916 Speaker 1: I say it, you know, maybe everybody can get up 68 00:04:53,916 --> 00:04:55,836 Speaker 1: and say it, and we all get up and say it, 69 00:04:55,916 --> 00:04:59,396 Speaker 1: you know, maybe they'll do something about changing the situously. 70 00:05:02,276 --> 00:05:04,916 Speaker 1: Welcome to the last archive, the show about how we 71 00:05:04,956 --> 00:05:07,196 Speaker 1: know what we know, how we used to know things, 72 00:05:07,516 --> 00:05:10,316 Speaker 1: and why it seems sometimes lately as if we don't 73 00:05:10,316 --> 00:05:14,036 Speaker 1: know anything at all. I'm Jill Lapour. This season we're 74 00:05:14,036 --> 00:05:16,276 Speaker 1: trying to solve a Who've done it? Who killed truth? 75 00:05:16,676 --> 00:05:18,876 Speaker 1: In this episode, I want to try to find a 76 00:05:18,876 --> 00:05:21,236 Speaker 1: way to reckon with the consequences of a whole theory 77 00:05:21,276 --> 00:05:26,036 Speaker 1: of knowledge. Speak your truth, radical feminist said in the 78 00:05:26,156 --> 00:05:31,276 Speaker 1: Village in nineteen sixty nine, Speak your truth. Sure, it 79 00:05:31,356 --> 00:05:36,156 Speaker 1: sounds good, it sounds great, until you start to ask, 80 00:05:37,036 --> 00:05:41,956 Speaker 1: what if someone else's truth is different than yours. No 81 00:05:42,196 --> 00:05:46,316 Speaker 1: legislature would recognize my right to speak as an expert, 82 00:05:46,356 --> 00:05:49,676 Speaker 1: because it happened right in my body. Where a child grows, 83 00:05:49,716 --> 00:05:52,436 Speaker 1: it happens in my body later on, that I don't 84 00:05:52,476 --> 00:05:55,356 Speaker 1: want that child, and that I have to go through 85 00:05:55,996 --> 00:05:59,116 Speaker 1: a period of time in which I have no function 86 00:05:59,156 --> 00:06:05,916 Speaker 1: in this society. I've been talking all season about the 87 00:06:05,996 --> 00:06:07,836 Speaker 1: end of the age of mystery and the rise and 88 00:06:07,836 --> 00:06:10,196 Speaker 1: fall of the age of the fact. For a very 89 00:06:10,196 --> 00:06:14,596 Speaker 1: long time, conception was a mystery, the mystery, the mystery 90 00:06:14,596 --> 00:06:18,956 Speaker 1: of life. In ancient Greece, Aristotle dissected chicken eggs, which 91 00:06:18,996 --> 00:06:21,756 Speaker 1: came first, the chicken or the egg was an actual experiment. 92 00:06:22,876 --> 00:06:25,196 Speaker 1: Not until the middle of the seventeenth century did anyone 93 00:06:25,236 --> 00:06:28,516 Speaker 1: figure out that people come from eggs too. When the 94 00:06:28,596 --> 00:06:31,436 Speaker 1: United States was founded, there were no laws against abortion 95 00:06:31,516 --> 00:06:34,756 Speaker 1: before quickening about when a mother can feel the baby kicking. 96 00:06:35,116 --> 00:06:38,956 Speaker 1: Somewhere around four months or so later, conception was no 97 00:06:38,996 --> 00:06:41,996 Speaker 1: longer a mystery and became known as the facts of life. 98 00:06:42,676 --> 00:06:46,756 Speaker 1: Physicians began replacing midwives, and legislatures began making laws that 99 00:06:46,836 --> 00:06:50,676 Speaker 1: made the intentional end of a pregnancy a crime. By 100 00:06:50,796 --> 00:06:53,396 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, in New York, the only way a 101 00:06:53,436 --> 00:06:56,276 Speaker 1: woman could end a pregnancy legally was to have something 102 00:06:56,316 --> 00:07:00,276 Speaker 1: called a therapeutic abortion. Mainly she had to convince a 103 00:07:00,316 --> 00:07:04,236 Speaker 1: doctor that she was crazy. If you don't give me, 104 00:07:04,356 --> 00:07:06,596 Speaker 1: if you don't tell me, I'm g having abortion right now. 105 00:07:06,636 --> 00:07:09,916 Speaker 1: But it's go out and jump off the Ronald Bridge. 106 00:07:09,916 --> 00:07:15,956 Speaker 1: Well whatever. When I hope that therapeutic abortion, it quots 107 00:07:15,996 --> 00:07:22,836 Speaker 1: me more. But the therapy answered the therapeutic abortion than before. 108 00:07:27,156 --> 00:07:30,036 Speaker 1: Since this speak out took place, Americans have talked about 109 00:07:30,036 --> 00:07:33,676 Speaker 1: abortion a lot for or against, but usually in the 110 00:07:33,756 --> 00:07:36,716 Speaker 1: language of rights, the right to choose, or the right 111 00:07:36,796 --> 00:07:40,156 Speaker 1: to life. But I've always found that this debate is 112 00:07:40,196 --> 00:07:44,556 Speaker 1: also about knowledge. I still care about the questions the 113 00:07:44,596 --> 00:07:48,076 Speaker 1: Red Stockings asked. Who can know things? Who's an expert 114 00:07:48,316 --> 00:07:52,116 Speaker 1: whose knowledge matters? I decided to go talk to some 115 00:07:52,156 --> 00:07:53,916 Speaker 1: of the women who'd been part of that meeting in 116 00:07:54,036 --> 00:07:57,036 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine to hear them have their say in 117 00:07:57,076 --> 00:08:00,116 Speaker 1: the spirit of speaking out way, do you a lot 118 00:08:00,116 --> 00:08:02,676 Speaker 1: of water? So my producer Ben and I and one 119 00:08:02,716 --> 00:08:06,156 Speaker 1: of our researchers, Olivia Oldham, went to New York to 120 00:08:06,196 --> 00:08:09,676 Speaker 1: the apartment of Susan Brown Miller, a feminist best known 121 00:08:09,676 --> 00:08:13,556 Speaker 1: for a book about rape called Against Our Will. What 122 00:08:13,636 --> 00:08:18,116 Speaker 1: was the question? Brown Miller had first spoken out about 123 00:08:18,116 --> 00:08:21,276 Speaker 1: abortion at an earlier meeting. Her friend told her to go. 124 00:08:22,156 --> 00:08:25,196 Speaker 1: At first, it was awkward. Then one woman got up. 125 00:08:25,956 --> 00:08:30,796 Speaker 1: She said, we've been over this before, and you know, 126 00:08:30,956 --> 00:08:36,596 Speaker 1: god damn well that I couldn't find an abortionist and 127 00:08:36,676 --> 00:08:42,316 Speaker 1: I had to carry the baby to term and it 128 00:08:42,436 --> 00:08:46,196 Speaker 1: was a beautiful boy, but I had to give it away. 129 00:08:46,916 --> 00:08:53,196 Speaker 1: So when she said that, the floodgates opened and people 130 00:08:53,236 --> 00:09:00,836 Speaker 1: started to go around the room and they were talking 131 00:09:00,876 --> 00:09:06,516 Speaker 1: about being led blindfolded to a place in New Jersey 132 00:09:06,636 --> 00:09:10,796 Speaker 1: for a mafia protected abortion. They were talking about things 133 00:09:10,836 --> 00:09:14,556 Speaker 1: like that, and they were slowly inching up on me. 134 00:09:15,436 --> 00:09:22,796 Speaker 1: So I said, well, I've had three abortions, all outside 135 00:09:22,876 --> 00:09:27,636 Speaker 1: the continental United States, and my last one was about 136 00:09:27,676 --> 00:09:31,516 Speaker 1: six months ago. And when I said that, I really 137 00:09:31,756 --> 00:09:36,236 Speaker 1: started to cry because to me, this was the you know, 138 00:09:36,756 --> 00:09:46,276 Speaker 1: the first time that abortion was spoken about as a real, 139 00:09:46,396 --> 00:09:48,716 Speaker 1: as a real woman's issue, and the problem was not 140 00:09:48,836 --> 00:09:51,636 Speaker 1: getting pregnant or not having the protection. Why did you 141 00:09:51,676 --> 00:09:55,636 Speaker 1: get pregnant? You know, it was about what we had 142 00:09:55,636 --> 00:10:01,476 Speaker 1: to do to secure a safe abortion. As I knew 143 00:10:01,516 --> 00:10:04,636 Speaker 1: they were out there somehow, you know, I knew they 144 00:10:04,676 --> 00:10:08,236 Speaker 1: were out there. They were out there, safe places to 145 00:10:08,316 --> 00:10:12,516 Speaker 1: have abortions, but they were hard to find. They were underground. 146 00:10:13,396 --> 00:10:16,996 Speaker 1: But what if they came out above ground? When brown 147 00:10:16,996 --> 00:10:18,876 Speaker 1: Miller went to the Red Stockings wrap in the village 148 00:10:18,876 --> 00:10:22,396 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine, it was as a reporter and 149 00:10:22,436 --> 00:10:25,716 Speaker 1: you said you were asked to speak to testify. Yeah, 150 00:10:26,516 --> 00:10:33,316 Speaker 1: and I felt that Well, first of all, I didn't 151 00:10:33,356 --> 00:10:36,116 Speaker 1: like it, you know, it was too confessional for me, 152 00:10:36,236 --> 00:10:38,556 Speaker 1: you know. But second of all, I felt I could 153 00:10:38,556 --> 00:10:43,516 Speaker 1: do us all a bigger favor by writing about it 154 00:10:43,596 --> 00:10:46,876 Speaker 1: for the Village Voice, which I did. All the stocking 155 00:10:46,876 --> 00:10:49,356 Speaker 1: and writing led to a landmark legal case, which is 156 00:10:49,356 --> 00:10:52,316 Speaker 1: where Nancy Stearns came in. She met us Susan Brown 157 00:10:52,316 --> 00:10:55,236 Speaker 1: Miller's apartment. She's a lawyer. She'd come out of the 158 00:10:55,276 --> 00:10:59,196 Speaker 1: civil rights movement. I mean, challenging the law was the 159 00:10:59,236 --> 00:11:02,716 Speaker 1: basis of it and was fundamental, but I didn't know 160 00:11:02,756 --> 00:11:05,076 Speaker 1: whether we'd win. At that point, I thought we should win. 161 00:11:05,676 --> 00:11:08,116 Speaker 1: Just months after the Red Stockings held that first abortion 162 00:11:08,156 --> 00:11:11,476 Speaker 1: speak out in Greenwich Village, Nancy Stearns got involved in 163 00:11:11,596 --> 00:11:15,316 Speaker 1: trying to file a lawsuit called Abrahmowitz versus Lefkowitz. The 164 00:11:15,436 --> 00:11:19,116 Speaker 1: leading plaintiff was doctor Helen Abrahmowitz, and in the case, 165 00:11:19,636 --> 00:11:22,316 Speaker 1: Stearns wanted to sue the state of New York, arguing 166 00:11:22,316 --> 00:11:25,276 Speaker 1: that it's ban on abortion depride women of their right 167 00:11:25,356 --> 00:11:28,396 Speaker 1: to possess their own persons. She was also making an 168 00:11:28,476 --> 00:11:33,956 Speaker 1: argument though, about knowledge that women know. The crucial idea 169 00:11:34,076 --> 00:11:38,356 Speaker 1: from the litigation perspective was not necessarily having women as experts, 170 00:11:38,356 --> 00:11:42,036 Speaker 1: but having women as plaintiffs, the people who were challenging 171 00:11:42,076 --> 00:11:45,076 Speaker 1: the law, not just being sort of passive or we 172 00:11:45,156 --> 00:11:47,956 Speaker 1: happened to be there. Stearns wrote the briefs in the case, 173 00:11:48,316 --> 00:11:51,276 Speaker 1: but she was young and a little inexperienced, and she 174 00:11:51,316 --> 00:11:53,996 Speaker 1: wanted someone on her team who was older and who 175 00:11:53,996 --> 00:12:00,636 Speaker 1: could kick ass, So she brought in Florence Kennedy. Flow. 176 00:12:01,916 --> 00:12:05,916 Speaker 1: People magazine once called Kennedy the biggest, loudest and indisputably 177 00:12:05,956 --> 00:12:08,876 Speaker 1: the rudest mouth on the battleground where feminist activists and 178 00:12:09,156 --> 00:12:15,156 Speaker 1: radical politics join. Okay, everybody, while my chorus gets together. 179 00:12:15,476 --> 00:12:18,796 Speaker 1: Hurry up, chorus, get over here, y'all, hurry up. Flow. 180 00:12:18,876 --> 00:12:21,756 Speaker 1: Kennedy died twenty years ago, so we couldn't talk to her, 181 00:12:22,076 --> 00:12:24,196 Speaker 1: but for a long time in the nineteen eighties, She 182 00:12:24,236 --> 00:12:28,316 Speaker 1: had her own television show on Manhattan Community Access Picture 183 00:12:28,636 --> 00:12:32,716 Speaker 1: between two ferns. I swear there are ferns more than 184 00:12:32,756 --> 00:12:40,516 Speaker 1: two though the Flow Kennedy Show. Hi, y'all Flow Kennedy here, 185 00:12:41,076 --> 00:12:44,316 Speaker 1: and my guest has written she wore a cowboy hat, 186 00:12:44,596 --> 00:12:51,516 Speaker 1: a big ten gallon one, groovy jewelry, traumatic eyewear, eccentric, unmistakable. 187 00:12:52,116 --> 00:12:55,996 Speaker 1: She was unforgettable. I remember her hats. Yeah, the hats, 188 00:12:56,356 --> 00:13:02,356 Speaker 1: coy Yeah, wonderful, cowboy original, no doubt about it. Yes, 189 00:13:02,516 --> 00:13:05,276 Speaker 1: I was lucky in a lot of ways. My parents 190 00:13:05,276 --> 00:13:08,916 Speaker 1: thought we were absolutely perfect. I'm the opposite of Marilyn Monroe, 191 00:13:08,916 --> 00:13:12,636 Speaker 1: who was this golden goddess who thought that she was 192 00:13:12,676 --> 00:13:15,556 Speaker 1: a piece of ship, whereas I was a piece of shit, 193 00:13:15,676 --> 00:13:20,876 Speaker 1: and I thought I was this bronze mahogany statue. Florence 194 00:13:20,916 --> 00:13:24,356 Speaker 1: Kennedy born in Kansas City, graduated from Columbia Law School 195 00:13:24,436 --> 00:13:27,196 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty one. She opened a law firm in 196 00:13:27,236 --> 00:13:29,876 Speaker 1: New York. For a long time, she specialized in defending 197 00:13:29,876 --> 00:13:32,996 Speaker 1: black artists like Billy Holliday. She also got involved in 198 00:13:32,996 --> 00:13:36,876 Speaker 1: the Black Power movement. She defended black panthers, including Hrapp Brown. 199 00:13:37,276 --> 00:13:40,836 Speaker 1: She loved to speak in metaphors. In terms of politics, 200 00:13:40,996 --> 00:13:45,996 Speaker 1: I am what I would call a generalist, general practitioner. 201 00:13:46,396 --> 00:13:49,436 Speaker 1: See when people say, oh, I can work on race stuff, 202 00:13:49,436 --> 00:13:50,956 Speaker 1: but I don't want to have anything to do with 203 00:13:50,996 --> 00:13:53,796 Speaker 1: the homosexuality. I don't want to deal with prostitution. I 204 00:13:53,836 --> 00:13:57,036 Speaker 1: don't want to deal with abortion. My theory is the 205 00:13:57,076 --> 00:13:59,796 Speaker 1: way I looked at the pathology of our society and 206 00:13:59,836 --> 00:14:04,996 Speaker 1: the pathology of oppression, is that you don't regard yourself 207 00:14:05,036 --> 00:14:06,956 Speaker 1: as keeping a clean house if you just make up 208 00:14:06,956 --> 00:14:11,396 Speaker 1: the bad don't do anything in the sink anyway. In 209 00:14:11,516 --> 00:14:15,116 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, Flow Kennedy, Nancy Stearns and their legal team, 210 00:14:15,236 --> 00:14:17,596 Speaker 1: we're preparing that lawsuit against the state of New York 211 00:14:17,596 --> 00:14:20,356 Speaker 1: over its ban on abortion. They had to look for 212 00:14:20,436 --> 00:14:23,196 Speaker 1: plaintiffs before they could file, so they thought of some 213 00:14:23,236 --> 00:14:24,996 Speaker 1: of the women who'd spoken up that night in the 214 00:14:25,076 --> 00:14:28,436 Speaker 1: village in nineteen sixty nine, the red stockings wrapped. I 215 00:14:28,556 --> 00:14:33,236 Speaker 1: know from my own experience that I had luckily sent 216 00:14:33,396 --> 00:14:36,596 Speaker 1: enough to see that a seventeen year old girl who 217 00:14:36,676 --> 00:14:40,156 Speaker 1: gets herself pregnant by mistakes because she has not been 218 00:14:40,556 --> 00:14:44,996 Speaker 1: avail of birth control information. It's not in a responsible 219 00:14:45,076 --> 00:14:51,556 Speaker 1: position to take care of the children. When I listened 220 00:14:51,556 --> 00:14:53,396 Speaker 1: to that, I have to work a little bit because 221 00:14:53,396 --> 00:14:55,836 Speaker 1: it can be a little hard these days to remember 222 00:14:55,876 --> 00:14:58,716 Speaker 1: how new this was, how new this kind of talk was. 223 00:14:58,796 --> 00:15:03,556 Speaker 1: Then it's beyond novel. People did not talk about abortion publicly. 224 00:15:03,916 --> 00:15:08,036 Speaker 1: That's Nancy Stearns Again. We all knew generally whether we 225 00:15:08,076 --> 00:15:11,396 Speaker 1: had illegal abortion are not. We all knew generally what 226 00:15:11,476 --> 00:15:14,596 Speaker 1: it was all about. But hearing the details of it, 227 00:15:15,436 --> 00:15:20,836 Speaker 1: and particularly I think listening to the women who went 228 00:15:21,156 --> 00:15:25,116 Speaker 1: through pregnancy and gave their children their baby up for adoption, 229 00:15:26,476 --> 00:15:31,116 Speaker 1: it all just made me angry or in truth. Starns 230 00:15:31,156 --> 00:15:34,916 Speaker 1: held meetings all over the city gathering plaintiffs. Amazingly, women 231 00:15:34,956 --> 00:15:38,796 Speaker 1: turned up, women stood up, They told their stories, and 232 00:15:38,876 --> 00:15:43,756 Speaker 1: they agreed to be deposed on the record. Flow Kennedy 233 00:15:43,796 --> 00:15:47,236 Speaker 1: took Susan Brown Miller's deposition. Kennedy and Stearns and the 234 00:15:47,236 --> 00:15:50,036 Speaker 1: rest of their team wanted the women to testify in court, 235 00:15:50,276 --> 00:15:54,116 Speaker 1: in open court, but the judges, a three judge panel 236 00:15:54,156 --> 00:15:57,636 Speaker 1: of men, they didn't want life testimony in their courtrooms 237 00:15:57,636 --> 00:16:01,516 Speaker 1: about abortions. They probably thought, well, there's going to be 238 00:16:01,556 --> 00:16:04,276 Speaker 1: lots and lots of lots of testimony. You know, we 239 00:16:04,356 --> 00:16:05,956 Speaker 1: don't have the time for that, We don't want to 240 00:16:05,996 --> 00:16:07,596 Speaker 1: do it. You do it out there and then you 241 00:16:07,676 --> 00:16:10,276 Speaker 1: give us paper. But I think they didn't want to 242 00:16:10,276 --> 00:16:13,276 Speaker 1: hear from a lot of emotional women speaking out was 243 00:16:13,316 --> 00:16:16,476 Speaker 1: something new. But it's important to remember too that so 244 00:16:16,636 --> 00:16:20,476 Speaker 1: was the lawsuit itself. Women were not part of the picture, 245 00:16:20,476 --> 00:16:23,436 Speaker 1: and nobody was interested in women other than stopping us 246 00:16:23,516 --> 00:16:27,476 Speaker 1: from getting abortions. But the court would never decide on 247 00:16:27,476 --> 00:16:30,796 Speaker 1: the case because in the spring of nineteen seventy the 248 00:16:30,876 --> 00:16:34,796 Speaker 1: New York State Senate legalized abortion. Overnight, New York became 249 00:16:34,876 --> 00:16:38,396 Speaker 1: something of an abortion capital. The CDC reported that by 250 00:16:38,476 --> 00:16:41,356 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two, New York City had nearly twice as 251 00:16:41,356 --> 00:16:46,876 Speaker 1: many abortions as live births because the legislature made abortion legal. 252 00:16:47,156 --> 00:16:51,556 Speaker 1: The courts declared Abrahmwitz versus Lefkowitz moot. The case was 253 00:16:51,596 --> 00:16:54,996 Speaker 1: basically thrown out. Florence Kennedy had hoped that the case 254 00:16:55,036 --> 00:16:56,916 Speaker 1: would go all the way to the Supreme Court and 255 00:16:57,036 --> 00:17:01,316 Speaker 1: change US laws on abortion nationwide. That didn't happen. Instead, 256 00:17:01,516 --> 00:17:04,196 Speaker 1: a case out of Texas Rovie Wade got to the 257 00:17:04,236 --> 00:17:06,796 Speaker 1: Supreme Court and it would be argued on very different 258 00:17:06,796 --> 00:17:11,076 Speaker 1: grounds a right to privacy. But the Red Stockings and 259 00:17:11,236 --> 00:17:16,876 Speaker 1: radical feminism left a profound legacy behind consciousness raising and 260 00:17:16,956 --> 00:17:20,596 Speaker 1: speaking bitterness. And in the very moment that legacy was 261 00:17:20,636 --> 00:17:24,556 Speaker 1: being founded, you could already see too how all this 262 00:17:24,716 --> 00:17:32,156 Speaker 1: could backfire if everyone's speaking bitterness. Does everything come down 263 00:17:32,356 --> 00:17:36,476 Speaker 1: to a duel of personal stories, one grief pitted against another, 264 00:17:36,996 --> 00:17:42,676 Speaker 1: suffering versus suffering. Could it be that this, this endless 265 00:17:42,796 --> 00:17:47,636 Speaker 1: duel of bitterness? Could it be that this is what 266 00:17:47,876 --> 00:18:02,636 Speaker 1: killed truth? In nineteen sixty nine, radical feminists had argued 267 00:18:02,676 --> 00:18:05,796 Speaker 1: that women are the experts about their own bodies. They'd 268 00:18:05,796 --> 00:18:09,756 Speaker 1: also written a manifesto. It said, we regard our personal 269 00:18:09,796 --> 00:18:13,076 Speaker 1: experience and our feelings about that experience as the basis 270 00:18:13,116 --> 00:18:17,676 Speaker 1: for an analysis of our common situation. Another group of 271 00:18:17,716 --> 00:18:21,916 Speaker 1: women liked this approach to liberal feminists. Liberal feminists wanted 272 00:18:21,916 --> 00:18:24,476 Speaker 1: to get elected to political office and pass new laws 273 00:18:24,476 --> 00:18:27,676 Speaker 1: about women based on what women know from their personal experiences. 274 00:18:28,196 --> 00:18:31,836 Speaker 1: Laws about abortion, laws about rape, laws about discrimination and 275 00:18:31,876 --> 00:18:37,996 Speaker 1: employment and education. They also wanted to amend the Constitution. 276 00:18:40,076 --> 00:18:43,276 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy two, Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment 277 00:18:43,396 --> 00:18:47,276 Speaker 1: and said to the states for ratification. It's amazing when 278 00:18:47,316 --> 00:18:49,476 Speaker 1: you think about it, that it wasn't already law. But 279 00:18:49,556 --> 00:18:52,076 Speaker 1: all the IRI really says is that you can't discriminate 280 00:18:52,116 --> 00:18:54,876 Speaker 1: on the basis of sex. It had first been introduced 281 00:18:54,916 --> 00:18:57,756 Speaker 1: to Congress in nineteen twenty three, and by the middle 282 00:18:57,756 --> 00:19:00,876 Speaker 1: of the nineteen seventies it still hadn't been ratified, but 283 00:19:00,956 --> 00:19:03,476 Speaker 1: it looked like it was just about to become law. 284 00:19:03,836 --> 00:19:06,756 Speaker 1: It had been ratified by thirty five states, only three 285 00:19:06,796 --> 00:19:11,276 Speaker 1: short of the number needed. Meanwhile, liberal feminists had gotten 286 00:19:11,276 --> 00:19:15,396 Speaker 1: really ambitious. They decided to hold a national meeting, a 287 00:19:15,556 --> 00:19:18,396 Speaker 1: giant speak out. The point of the conference was to 288 00:19:18,396 --> 00:19:29,236 Speaker 1: adopt a national plan of action. The National Women's Conference 289 00:19:29,276 --> 00:19:33,156 Speaker 1: opened in November nineteen seventy seven in the Houston Coliseum. 290 00:19:33,316 --> 00:19:36,836 Speaker 1: Think of it as a second Constitutional Convention, except much 291 00:19:36,876 --> 00:19:40,876 Speaker 1: bigger and with women. It was a grand and glorious 292 00:19:40,956 --> 00:19:48,556 Speaker 1: right accompanying the torch on its long journey. Weeks earlier, 293 00:19:48,596 --> 00:19:50,836 Speaker 1: a torch had been lit in Seneca Falls, New York, 294 00:19:51,076 --> 00:19:53,476 Speaker 1: the state of the first Women's Rights Convention that had 295 00:19:53,476 --> 00:19:56,356 Speaker 1: been held in eighteen forty eight. Then a relay of 296 00:19:56,396 --> 00:19:59,476 Speaker 1: more than two thousand female athletes from Lean and lanky 297 00:19:59,516 --> 00:20:02,876 Speaker 1: marathon runners to brawny field hockey players carried that torch 298 00:20:02,996 --> 00:20:06,076 Speaker 1: twenty six hundred miles to Houston. It was meant to 299 00:20:06,196 --> 00:20:11,156 Speaker 1: change history. Two thousand delegates from fifty states gathered in Houston, 300 00:20:11,476 --> 00:20:15,876 Speaker 1: along with twenty thousand attendees, including Susan Brownmiller and Florence Kennedy. 301 00:20:16,476 --> 00:20:21,396 Speaker 1: Maya Angelou gave the convocation, we American women view our 302 00:20:21,556 --> 00:20:26,796 Speaker 1: history with equanimity. We allow the positive achievement to inspire 303 00:20:26,916 --> 00:20:32,036 Speaker 1: us and the negative omissions to teach us. We recognize 304 00:20:32,116 --> 00:20:36,676 Speaker 1: the accomplishments of our sisters, those famous and hallowed women 305 00:20:36,716 --> 00:20:42,316 Speaker 1: of history, and those unknown and unsung women whose strength 306 00:20:42,716 --> 00:20:46,076 Speaker 1: have given birth to our strength. Three First Ladies were 307 00:20:46,076 --> 00:20:49,396 Speaker 1: there too, Lady Bird Johnson, Betty Ford, and the current 308 00:20:49,396 --> 00:20:53,316 Speaker 1: First Lady, Rosalind Carter. Jimmy sorry that he couldn't be 309 00:20:53,356 --> 00:20:56,836 Speaker 1: here today, and I wanted to come and be with here. 310 00:21:04,876 --> 00:21:11,636 Speaker 1: In fact, I wouldn't have missed it for anything. And 311 00:21:11,636 --> 00:21:13,956 Speaker 1: and I trust that you are not going to say 312 00:21:14,356 --> 00:21:20,196 Speaker 1: he said a woman to do a man's job. Members 313 00:21:20,196 --> 00:21:23,156 Speaker 1: of Congress turned up to Bella Abzug and Barbara Jordan. 314 00:21:23,516 --> 00:21:27,396 Speaker 1: She was the keynote speaker and There were celebrities, Margaret Mead, 315 00:21:27,516 --> 00:21:32,436 Speaker 1: the anthropologist, Billy Jean King, the tennis player, and Jean Stapleton, 316 00:21:32,636 --> 00:21:36,236 Speaker 1: she'd played Edith on all in the family. Gloria Steinham, 317 00:21:36,276 --> 00:21:39,036 Speaker 1: a founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, was there, 318 00:21:39,556 --> 00:21:41,836 Speaker 1: and so was the president of the Girl Scouts of America, 319 00:21:41,996 --> 00:21:45,156 Speaker 1: who called the meeting to order using a gavel once 320 00:21:45,276 --> 00:21:49,076 Speaker 1: used by Susan B. Anthony, and I rise to advance 321 00:21:49,196 --> 00:21:54,036 Speaker 1: this body in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment. A 322 00:21:54,156 --> 00:21:56,876 Speaker 1: lot of the women at that conference were there to celebrate, 323 00:21:57,476 --> 00:22:01,116 Speaker 1: including Anne Richards, later the Governor of Texas. One of 324 00:22:01,116 --> 00:22:03,716 Speaker 1: her daughters, then just a little girl, would one day 325 00:22:03,756 --> 00:22:09,596 Speaker 1: serve as president of Planned Parenthood. On behalf amound matters. 326 00:22:10,036 --> 00:22:15,276 Speaker 1: Who cannot find women in the history texts of this 327 00:22:15,476 --> 00:22:19,636 Speaker 1: country in the elementary skills, I gotta say, you still 328 00:22:19,676 --> 00:22:22,236 Speaker 1: can't find many women in those books today, and you 329 00:22:22,276 --> 00:22:25,316 Speaker 1: also really can't find much about the National Women's Convention. 330 00:22:26,036 --> 00:22:28,756 Speaker 1: There were huge tensions in that cavernous hall in Houston. 331 00:22:30,476 --> 00:22:36,276 Speaker 1: Madam chair pro family, pro life delegates are being denied 332 00:22:36,916 --> 00:22:41,036 Speaker 1: points of privilege. I asked, moment, please, justin, momma, please 333 00:22:41,116 --> 00:22:43,716 Speaker 1: the parliamentary and instructed the chair. The chair had to 334 00:22:43,716 --> 00:22:48,476 Speaker 1: pound that gavel a lot just for starters. Think about this. 335 00:22:49,156 --> 00:22:51,876 Speaker 1: One out of every five elected delegates to the Convention 336 00:22:52,076 --> 00:22:55,516 Speaker 1: opposed the Equal Rights Amendment. There were huge debates on 337 00:22:55,556 --> 00:22:58,556 Speaker 1: the floor about a resolution supporting lesbian and gay rights. 338 00:22:59,396 --> 00:23:01,556 Speaker 1: This was a movement founded on the idea of women's 339 00:23:01,556 --> 00:23:05,516 Speaker 1: common knowledge, their common personal experiences, but it had a 340 00:23:05,556 --> 00:23:10,516 Speaker 1: fatal weakness because one experience for all women. There wasn't 341 00:23:10,556 --> 00:23:14,836 Speaker 1: one experience. Black feminists and Latina feminists in particular, rejected 342 00:23:14,876 --> 00:23:17,916 Speaker 1: that premise. At the conference, women of color formed a 343 00:23:17,996 --> 00:23:21,276 Speaker 1: minority caucus. Some of their thinking was informed by black 344 00:23:21,276 --> 00:23:23,836 Speaker 1: feminists from Boston who would offered a theory of what 345 00:23:23,876 --> 00:23:27,836 Speaker 1: would come to be called intersectionality. They said, we have 346 00:23:27,916 --> 00:23:30,836 Speaker 1: in many ways gone beyond white women's revelations because we 347 00:23:30,876 --> 00:23:33,476 Speaker 1: are dealing with the implications of race and class as 348 00:23:33,516 --> 00:23:36,836 Speaker 1: well as sex. That week in Houston, a lot of 349 00:23:36,836 --> 00:23:40,076 Speaker 1: that nuance got lost and there was a lot of fighting. 350 00:23:40,796 --> 00:23:45,796 Speaker 1: One resolution in particular rent the hall asunder Resolution twenty one. 351 00:23:46,316 --> 00:23:50,476 Speaker 1: Next item on the agenda is the Resolution on Reproductive Freedom. 352 00:23:50,556 --> 00:23:53,636 Speaker 1: It included a call for sex education and insurance coverage 353 00:23:53,636 --> 00:23:57,156 Speaker 1: of both contraception and abortion, and an endorsement of the 354 00:23:57,156 --> 00:24:01,556 Speaker 1: Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade. The first speakers 355 00:24:01,636 --> 00:24:05,356 Speaker 1: rose in support. Then the conservative delegates spoke out, and 356 00:24:05,396 --> 00:24:08,996 Speaker 1: I rise in opposition to this resolution. If the American 357 00:24:09,196 --> 00:24:13,676 Speaker 1: women do not drive out this flaw in the philosophy 358 00:24:13,836 --> 00:24:17,396 Speaker 1: of what is called a feminist movement, drive out of 359 00:24:17,556 --> 00:24:20,596 Speaker 1: flaws suggesting that they can kill people that are less 360 00:24:20,596 --> 00:24:24,916 Speaker 1: powerful than them than they have become much worse oppressors 361 00:24:24,916 --> 00:24:30,276 Speaker 1: than any of the men that they accuse of oppressing them. 362 00:24:30,476 --> 00:24:35,436 Speaker 1: Please come to order, Please come to order. It took 363 00:24:35,436 --> 00:24:37,276 Speaker 1: a while to quiet down the crowd long enough to 364 00:24:37,316 --> 00:24:40,556 Speaker 1: call the roll, but the chairmanaged it encounter the votes. 365 00:24:40,796 --> 00:25:01,836 Speaker 1: The resolution on reproductive freedom is adopted. Please come to 366 00:25:02,116 --> 00:25:06,356 Speaker 1: order and be seated. A group of pro life women 367 00:25:06,436 --> 00:25:09,076 Speaker 1: rush the stage carrying a giant photograph of a fe 368 00:25:09,956 --> 00:25:13,156 Speaker 1: Other women fell to their knees weeping, and that singing 369 00:25:13,516 --> 00:25:17,236 Speaker 1: they're singing. All we are saying is give life a chance. 370 00:25:20,916 --> 00:25:24,516 Speaker 1: Fifteen hundred reporters attended the conference, but strangely, the whole 371 00:25:24,556 --> 00:25:26,996 Speaker 1: thing seems to have been swallowed up by the earth itself. 372 00:25:27,956 --> 00:25:29,996 Speaker 1: I ask you, have you ever heard of the nineteen 373 00:25:30,036 --> 00:25:34,796 Speaker 1: seventy seven National Women's Conference. I'm guessing not reporters covered it, 374 00:25:35,196 --> 00:25:37,676 Speaker 1: but given the ambition of the thing, the coverage was scant. 375 00:25:38,716 --> 00:25:41,996 Speaker 1: NBC News included a report in its News Hour, a 376 00:25:42,156 --> 00:25:45,516 Speaker 1: conference's stand on the Equal Rights Amendment will be incorporated 377 00:25:45,556 --> 00:25:48,716 Speaker 1: into a national plan of Acting, a set of legislative 378 00:25:48,716 --> 00:25:51,756 Speaker 1: proposals to be sent to the President and Congress. The 379 00:25:51,876 --> 00:25:55,636 Speaker 1: question now is how seriously will all those men take 380 00:25:55,676 --> 00:26:00,636 Speaker 1: the suggestions made by all these women. It would turn 381 00:26:00,636 --> 00:26:04,996 Speaker 1: out not very seriously. But Houston wasn't about men versus women? 382 00:26:05,276 --> 00:26:09,436 Speaker 1: Who was about women versus women? Mainly because conservative women 383 00:26:09,556 --> 00:26:14,116 Speaker 1: organized a counter conference across town in the Astrodome. The 384 00:26:14,276 --> 00:26:18,316 Speaker 1: organizers described their assembly as a pro God, pro life, 385 00:26:18,636 --> 00:26:24,236 Speaker 1: pro family rally. The leader of this gathering was Phylish Slaughly, 386 00:26:24,396 --> 00:26:26,756 Speaker 1: a mother of six from Missouri with a perfect blonde 387 00:26:26,756 --> 00:26:29,956 Speaker 1: buffant who very often dressed impeccably in a pink suit 388 00:26:29,996 --> 00:26:33,756 Speaker 1: and pumps. Slaughly was a political genius, and she devoted 389 00:26:33,796 --> 00:26:36,316 Speaker 1: all of her talents to defeating the Equal Rights Amendment. 390 00:26:36,756 --> 00:26:41,076 Speaker 1: She founded a national organization called Stop ear. She told 391 00:26:41,116 --> 00:26:45,116 Speaker 1: her followers era means abortion. She also rallied women to 392 00:26:45,116 --> 00:26:47,476 Speaker 1: her movement by tying the era to rights for gay 393 00:26:47,476 --> 00:26:51,636 Speaker 1: men and lesbians. In Houston, she claimed she'd been banned 394 00:26:51,636 --> 00:26:54,356 Speaker 1: by the National Women's Convention, and on its third day 395 00:26:54,556 --> 00:26:57,916 Speaker 1: she held a press conference to say the conservative women 396 00:26:58,036 --> 00:27:00,996 Speaker 1: hadn't had the chance to speak their truth. If you 397 00:27:01,036 --> 00:27:03,956 Speaker 1: were at the convention last night, I think you also 398 00:27:04,116 --> 00:27:07,116 Speaker 1: must have been impressed with the fact that there really 399 00:27:07,196 --> 00:27:12,156 Speaker 1: isn't any debate on the equal rights. Most of the 400 00:27:12,196 --> 00:27:15,396 Speaker 1: speakers at the pro life, pro family counter conference spoke 401 00:27:15,436 --> 00:27:19,196 Speaker 1: the language of radical feminism, the language they'd adopted, a 402 00:27:19,316 --> 00:27:21,996 Speaker 1: language that by now had suffused the culture and altered 403 00:27:22,036 --> 00:27:26,556 Speaker 1: the nature of political conflict. We are busy engaging raising 404 00:27:26,596 --> 00:27:30,996 Speaker 1: the consciousness of the fabric all over America, and we 405 00:27:31,076 --> 00:27:34,036 Speaker 1: are in the business of raising the consciousness of our 406 00:27:34,156 --> 00:27:39,036 Speaker 1: ray makers in Roshington, and when Philish Slaughly took the stage, 407 00:27:39,196 --> 00:27:42,716 Speaker 1: this crowd went wild. Many had been to the other conference, 408 00:27:42,756 --> 00:27:46,836 Speaker 1: the National Women's Convention, but now they were home with family. 409 00:27:48,476 --> 00:27:52,556 Speaker 1: There are many differences between this meeting and the one 410 00:27:52,596 --> 00:27:56,156 Speaker 1: in that other hall today. I'm very proud that they 411 00:27:56,316 --> 00:28:00,836 Speaker 1: excluded me from that convention. The whole thing was designed 412 00:28:01,876 --> 00:28:05,836 Speaker 1: as a media event, a charade to go through the 413 00:28:05,916 --> 00:28:10,996 Speaker 1: motions of these funny state conferences and national conferences in 414 00:28:11,116 --> 00:28:16,036 Speaker 1: order to pass resolutions that were pre written and prepackaged 415 00:28:16,116 --> 00:28:19,516 Speaker 1: a year and a half ago, to tell league Congress 416 00:28:19,596 --> 00:28:24,476 Speaker 1: and the state legislatures that this is what American women want. 417 00:28:25,636 --> 00:28:29,316 Speaker 1: By coming here today, you have shown that that is 418 00:28:29,516 --> 00:28:33,796 Speaker 1: not what American women want. The women in the astrodom 419 00:28:33,836 --> 00:28:38,196 Speaker 1: waved bibles, they wept, and they spoke out, and they 420 00:28:38,276 --> 00:28:42,476 Speaker 1: endorsed their own resolutions, including their own version of an 421 00:28:42,476 --> 00:28:47,116 Speaker 1: Equal Rights Amendment, Equal Rights for Fetuses. Therefore, be it 422 00:28:47,156 --> 00:28:50,436 Speaker 1: resolved that the Congress enact and the States ratify a 423 00:28:50,636 --> 00:28:54,596 Speaker 1: mandatory Human Life Amendment to the Constitution to protect all 424 00:28:54,796 --> 00:29:01,036 Speaker 1: persons born and unborn. Some concession, it resolved that we 425 00:29:01,116 --> 00:29:04,956 Speaker 1: oppose the modification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. 426 00:29:05,076 --> 00:29:11,916 Speaker 1: All in favors say I all right. Therefore, be it 427 00:29:11,996 --> 00:29:18,676 Speaker 1: resolved that homosexuality, lesbianism, or prostitution shall not be taught, rarified, 428 00:29:18,916 --> 00:29:23,116 Speaker 1: or otherwise promoted as acceptable through the laws of society 429 00:29:23,396 --> 00:29:26,996 Speaker 1: through the adoption of children are within the institutions such 430 00:29:27,036 --> 00:29:33,196 Speaker 1: as our stools. All in favor SII. By rallying conservative 431 00:29:33,196 --> 00:29:36,036 Speaker 1: women against the Equal Rights Amendment, largely on the back 432 00:29:36,076 --> 00:29:40,276 Speaker 1: of arguments about abortion and homosexuality, shlaughly managed to turn 433 00:29:40,316 --> 00:29:43,796 Speaker 1: the tide against the ear a ding Dong the Witches 434 00:29:43,836 --> 00:29:47,636 Speaker 1: Dead Erie, opponents saying when word came of its defeat 435 00:29:47,956 --> 00:29:51,956 Speaker 1: five years later in nineteen eighty two, the National Women's 436 00:29:51,956 --> 00:30:04,676 Speaker 1: Convention had failed and was soon forgotten. In the nineteen sixties, 437 00:30:04,756 --> 00:30:09,036 Speaker 1: radical feminists argued that the personal is political, that live 438 00:30:09,316 --> 00:30:14,436 Speaker 1: experience the speaking of bitterness counts as evidence. In the 439 00:30:14,516 --> 00:30:18,556 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, liberal white feminists embraced this idea too, and 440 00:30:18,596 --> 00:30:21,596 Speaker 1: so did African American feminists, and so too, in the 441 00:30:21,716 --> 00:30:25,156 Speaker 1: end did conservative women, who very soon would help elect 442 00:30:25,156 --> 00:30:31,836 Speaker 1: a conservative to the White House. It's morning again in America. Today, 443 00:30:31,996 --> 00:30:33,836 Speaker 1: more men and women will go to work than ever 444 00:30:33,876 --> 00:30:36,916 Speaker 1: before in our country's history. In nineteen eighty, three, years 445 00:30:36,916 --> 00:30:40,196 Speaker 1: after the dueling women's conferences in Houston, Ronald Reagan was 446 00:30:40,236 --> 00:30:44,116 Speaker 1: elected president. Earlier, as governor of California, he'd signed a 447 00:30:44,156 --> 00:30:47,516 Speaker 1: bill liberalizing abortion laws, but he'd since become a staunch 448 00:30:47,556 --> 00:30:51,156 Speaker 1: ally of Philish Lafley's. In nineteen eighty he ran on 449 00:30:51,196 --> 00:30:54,476 Speaker 1: a GOP platform that included a plank dedicating the party 450 00:30:54,756 --> 00:30:59,196 Speaker 1: to the right to life for unborn children. This nation 451 00:30:59,276 --> 00:31:02,916 Speaker 1: cannot continue turning a blind eye and a deaf ear 452 00:31:02,956 --> 00:31:06,836 Speaker 1: to the taking of some four thousand unborn children's lives 453 00:31:06,836 --> 00:31:12,396 Speaker 1: every day. That's one every one second. One person who 454 00:31:12,476 --> 00:31:15,116 Speaker 1: was really affected by that speech of Reagan's was a 455 00:31:15,196 --> 00:31:19,716 Speaker 1: doctor named Bernard Nathanson. Nathanson had for a long time 456 00:31:19,796 --> 00:31:23,516 Speaker 1: conducted abortions, but he changed his mind about abortion, he said, 457 00:31:23,956 --> 00:31:28,476 Speaker 1: after the development of ultrasound. Reagan's speech convinced him to 458 00:31:28,516 --> 00:31:31,676 Speaker 1: make a film released in nineteen eighty five. It was 459 00:31:31,716 --> 00:31:35,836 Speaker 1: another kind of consciousness raising. Now, for the first time, 460 00:31:36,756 --> 00:31:41,996 Speaker 1: we have the technology to see abortion from the victim's 461 00:31:42,556 --> 00:31:47,396 Speaker 1: vantage point. The film is called The Silent Scream, and 462 00:31:47,436 --> 00:31:50,956 Speaker 1: so for the first time, we are going to watch 463 00:31:52,156 --> 00:32:02,956 Speaker 1: a child being torn apart, dismembered, disarticulated, crushed and destroyed 464 00:32:04,716 --> 00:32:11,756 Speaker 1: by the unfeeling steel instruments of the abortionist. Nathanson was 465 00:32:11,796 --> 00:32:14,116 Speaker 1: a doctor, but he narrates the film as if he 466 00:32:14,236 --> 00:32:19,036 Speaker 1: is a lawyer eliciting testimony from the fetus its personal experience. 467 00:32:19,636 --> 00:32:24,316 Speaker 1: He's a ventriloquist speaking out the fetus's truth. Once again, 468 00:32:24,476 --> 00:32:28,276 Speaker 1: we see the child's mouth wide open, in a silent scream. 469 00:32:28,476 --> 00:32:33,956 Speaker 1: In this particular freeze frame, this is the silent scream 470 00:32:34,196 --> 00:32:40,396 Speaker 1: of a child threatened him imminently with extinction. Prominent physicians, 471 00:32:40,436 --> 00:32:46,316 Speaker 1: obstetricians and gynecologists criticized the film as misleading and inaccurate. 472 00:32:46,876 --> 00:32:49,236 Speaker 1: Said that the cortex of a fetus of this age 473 00:32:49,516 --> 00:32:52,276 Speaker 1: wasn't developed enough for the fetus to feel pain, and 474 00:32:52,356 --> 00:32:55,676 Speaker 1: of course the film simply erases the body of the woman. 475 00:32:56,476 --> 00:33:00,076 Speaker 1: Most of the film involves Nathanson showing plastic models or 476 00:33:00,156 --> 00:33:03,996 Speaker 1: ultrasound film from inside the uterus, Lots of models of fetuses, 477 00:33:04,236 --> 00:33:08,756 Speaker 1: lots of fetuses inside uteruses, but not really inside women's bodies. 478 00:33:09,156 --> 00:33:12,516 Speaker 1: Barely see any women, and none of them speak. They're 479 00:33:12,596 --> 00:33:18,716 Speaker 1: utterly silent. Reagan saw the film and talked about how 480 00:33:18,796 --> 00:33:21,036 Speaker 1: much it had affected him. He said he wished every 481 00:33:21,076 --> 00:33:24,716 Speaker 1: member of Congress would watch it. Silent Scream aired, among 482 00:33:24,756 --> 00:33:27,676 Speaker 1: other places, on Jerry Falwell's TV show, and it was 483 00:33:27,676 --> 00:33:31,076 Speaker 1: also widely shown at high schools across the country. But 484 00:33:31,156 --> 00:33:33,836 Speaker 1: pretty often the broader public just argued over what they'd seen. 485 00:33:34,396 --> 00:33:39,196 Speaker 1: They didn't really disagree. They argued absolutely abortion had become 486 00:33:39,236 --> 00:33:44,156 Speaker 1: either all one thing, a brutal murder or all another thing, 487 00:33:44,716 --> 00:33:49,316 Speaker 1: just another medical procedure. This had become a debate about 488 00:33:49,396 --> 00:33:53,436 Speaker 1: moral absolutes, about who is good and who was evil. 489 00:33:54,516 --> 00:33:58,276 Speaker 1: It had also got bound together with another movement, the 490 00:33:58,396 --> 00:34:01,636 Speaker 1: victims rights movement. Well lot a victim to testify a 491 00:34:01,676 --> 00:34:06,396 Speaker 1: criminal may go free. The victim's rights movement began in 492 00:34:06,516 --> 00:34:09,476 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five with the publication of a book called 493 00:34:09,676 --> 00:34:13,316 Speaker 1: The Victims by a law and order conservative from the 494 00:34:13,356 --> 00:34:17,596 Speaker 1: Heritage Foundation named Frank Carrington. He wanted laws that would 495 00:34:17,596 --> 00:34:21,316 Speaker 1: be tougher on criminal defendants and harsher punishments for the convicted. 496 00:34:22,116 --> 00:34:25,316 Speaker 1: He and other conservatives were waging what's known as the 497 00:34:25,356 --> 00:34:28,956 Speaker 1: War on Crime. A lot of feminists joined that war. 498 00:34:29,676 --> 00:34:33,436 Speaker 1: They wanted more aggressive prosecutions and stricter sentences for violent 499 00:34:33,516 --> 00:34:37,236 Speaker 1: crimes against women and children. Believe the women, they said, 500 00:34:37,556 --> 00:34:41,756 Speaker 1: listen to their testimony, not just about abortion, but about 501 00:34:41,956 --> 00:34:45,916 Speaker 1: rape and domestic violence, and child abuse and more. And 502 00:34:45,996 --> 00:34:49,676 Speaker 1: then in asking for harsher punishments for men, they made 503 00:34:49,756 --> 00:34:53,116 Speaker 1: common cause with conservatives. The innocent victims of crime have 504 00:34:53,396 --> 00:34:57,236 Speaker 1: frequently been overlooked by our criminal justice system, and their 505 00:34:57,236 --> 00:35:02,036 Speaker 1: pleas for justice have gone unheated and their wounds, personal, emotional, 506 00:35:02,076 --> 00:35:05,916 Speaker 1: and financial, have gone unattended. This is Ronald Reagan speaking 507 00:35:05,916 --> 00:35:08,916 Speaker 1: in the Rose Garden, April nineteen eighty two. So I 508 00:35:08,916 --> 00:35:12,516 Speaker 1: am signing today an executive order establishing the President's Task 509 00:35:12,516 --> 00:35:16,116 Speaker 1: Force on Victims of Crime. Reagan's task Force recommended that 510 00:35:16,196 --> 00:35:19,596 Speaker 1: victims of crime be allowed to speak during sentencing hearings 511 00:35:19,996 --> 00:35:23,556 Speaker 1: to explain the nature the scale of their suffering. This 512 00:35:23,716 --> 00:35:26,956 Speaker 1: kind of statement came to be called victim impact evidence. 513 00:35:27,876 --> 00:35:31,516 Speaker 1: As a matter of intellectual genealogy, it comes from consciousness, 514 00:35:31,556 --> 00:35:35,356 Speaker 1: raising from speaking, bitterness from speaking your truth. Let the 515 00:35:35,436 --> 00:35:42,076 Speaker 1: victims speak. The Me Too movement is founded on the 516 00:35:42,116 --> 00:35:46,036 Speaker 1: evidentiary principles of the victim's rights movement. Believe the women 517 00:35:46,516 --> 00:35:51,076 Speaker 1: speak your truth. In twenty eighteen, Larry Nasser, an Olympic 518 00:35:51,156 --> 00:35:55,596 Speaker 1: gymnastics coach, was convicted of sexual assault the abuse of children. 519 00:35:56,476 --> 00:36:00,156 Speaker 1: His sentencing hearing in a Michigan courtroom was broadcast on 520 00:36:00,236 --> 00:36:04,196 Speaker 1: live television. Something that doesn't happen very often, and something 521 00:36:04,196 --> 00:36:07,276 Speaker 1: that really doesn't happen very often. The judge allowed one 522 00:36:07,396 --> 00:36:11,356 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty six women to deliver victim impact statements. 523 00:36:12,796 --> 00:36:17,276 Speaker 1: Thank you, what would you like me to know? For 524 00:36:17,356 --> 00:36:20,236 Speaker 1: the last year I have lived behind the shadows of 525 00:36:20,276 --> 00:36:24,076 Speaker 1: the name Jane Doe. I was afraid to be identified 526 00:36:24,076 --> 00:36:26,996 Speaker 1: as myself and didn't want to accept this as my story. 527 00:36:27,676 --> 00:36:30,276 Speaker 1: But I can't push it off anymore. This happened to me, 528 00:36:30,516 --> 00:36:34,916 Speaker 1: and I have a name. My name is Jassie Powell. Here, honor. 529 00:36:35,036 --> 00:36:37,996 Speaker 1: If it's okay with you, I'll be addressing the dependent 530 00:36:38,076 --> 00:36:42,636 Speaker 1: directly for a lot of this statement. You may I 531 00:36:42,636 --> 00:36:45,116 Speaker 1: still remember the first time I ever saw you. Larry 532 00:36:47,156 --> 00:36:54,156 Speaker 1: March twenty sixth twenty Their statements are harrowing. They're hard 533 00:36:54,196 --> 00:36:57,596 Speaker 1: to listen to the courage it took to say those things, 534 00:36:59,036 --> 00:37:03,396 Speaker 1: but the whole thing is also weird. More than one 535 00:37:03,476 --> 00:37:07,236 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty women delivered impact statements in court. Nasa 536 00:37:07,316 --> 00:37:09,996 Speaker 1: had been charged with sexual assaulting only ten of them. 537 00:37:10,796 --> 00:37:13,716 Speaker 1: By this point, he had also already pled guilty, and 538 00:37:13,956 --> 00:37:16,676 Speaker 1: he'd already been sentenced to sixty years in prison on 539 00:37:16,836 --> 00:37:20,596 Speaker 1: child pornography charges. So what were all those statements? That 540 00:37:20,716 --> 00:37:25,556 Speaker 1: is sentencing hearing about in a courtroom cluttered with cameras. 541 00:37:25,956 --> 00:37:28,196 Speaker 1: One hundred and fifty six women spoke of the harm 542 00:37:28,316 --> 00:37:31,396 Speaker 1: Nasser had done to them, But these were crimes for 543 00:37:31,436 --> 00:37:34,436 Speaker 1: which he had not been tried. On Twitter, using the 544 00:37:34,476 --> 00:37:39,196 Speaker 1: hashtag me too, people expressed relief and excitement and gratitude 545 00:37:39,396 --> 00:37:43,476 Speaker 1: to the judge. They thought she was a hero. But 546 00:37:43,556 --> 00:37:45,836 Speaker 1: a lot of legal scholars were shocked at the way 547 00:37:45,836 --> 00:37:48,636 Speaker 1: the judge handled her courtroom, and at how watching the 548 00:37:48,676 --> 00:37:52,356 Speaker 1: sentencing hearing on television felt something like watching a daytime 549 00:37:52,396 --> 00:37:55,916 Speaker 1: talk show. It's not that those legal scholars questioned the 550 00:37:55,956 --> 00:37:58,516 Speaker 1: suffering of the women who spoke that day, or the 551 00:37:58,556 --> 00:38:01,036 Speaker 1: truth of what they had to say, or even that 552 00:38:01,076 --> 00:38:04,436 Speaker 1: they needed to say. It is that they questioned the 553 00:38:04,436 --> 00:38:10,756 Speaker 1: place of those statements in this courtroom. Saying this out 554 00:38:10,756 --> 00:38:14,636 Speaker 1: loud to you is extremely uncomfortable for me, and I'm 555 00:38:14,676 --> 00:38:20,796 Speaker 1: sure for everyone who is listening it is supposed to 556 00:38:20,836 --> 00:38:26,156 Speaker 1: be uncomfortable. I would be doing myself and the other 557 00:38:26,276 --> 00:38:32,036 Speaker 1: brave women here a great disservice by shying away from 558 00:38:32,036 --> 00:38:36,996 Speaker 1: what is now my truth. The Me Too movement is 559 00:38:37,036 --> 00:38:41,676 Speaker 1: both lifted and burdened by the history that came before it, 560 00:38:41,756 --> 00:38:46,076 Speaker 1: a history that carries this idea. Everything I say is true, 561 00:38:46,316 --> 00:38:49,516 Speaker 1: everything you say is a lie. To question me is 562 00:38:49,516 --> 00:38:53,196 Speaker 1: to do me harm if we disagree. Whichever of us 563 00:38:53,236 --> 00:38:58,516 Speaker 1: has suffered more wins. Fighting child abuse and sexual assault 564 00:38:59,236 --> 00:39:04,276 Speaker 1: is crucial. No question those movements have done great good, 565 00:39:05,356 --> 00:39:07,836 Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean they haven't also contributed to an 566 00:39:07,836 --> 00:39:16,156 Speaker 1: epistemological chaos seized by absolutism. Proceed, please, my name is 567 00:39:16,236 --> 00:39:20,596 Speaker 1: Christine Blasi Ford. During the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for 568 00:39:20,676 --> 00:39:25,116 Speaker 1: Brett Kavanaugh, people wore buttons that read I believe Christine 569 00:39:25,116 --> 00:39:29,996 Speaker 1: blasi Ford. I tried to yell for help. When I did, 570 00:39:30,316 --> 00:39:32,756 Speaker 1: Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me 571 00:39:32,836 --> 00:39:35,956 Speaker 1: from yelling. It was hard for me to breathe, and 572 00:39:36,036 --> 00:39:39,396 Speaker 1: I thought that Brett was accidentally going to kill me. 573 00:39:40,196 --> 00:39:45,556 Speaker 1: She spoke her truth, and then he spoke his. I 574 00:39:45,756 --> 00:39:51,036 Speaker 1: was not at the party described by doctor Ford. People tweeted, 575 00:39:51,956 --> 00:39:55,596 Speaker 1: I believe Brett Kavanaugh. I'm here today to tell the truth. 576 00:39:57,116 --> 00:40:05,116 Speaker 1: I've never sexually assaulted anyone. What was the truth? Honestly, 577 00:40:05,116 --> 00:40:09,436 Speaker 1: it was hard to say for the record. I believed her. 578 00:40:10,436 --> 00:40:13,916 Speaker 1: I believed her because of my personal experiences. I believed 579 00:40:13,916 --> 00:40:16,116 Speaker 1: her because my experiences of being a person in the 580 00:40:16,116 --> 00:40:19,556 Speaker 1: world are a lot more like her experiences than like his. 581 00:40:21,036 --> 00:40:27,236 Speaker 1: But is that enough? I don't think that's enough. People 582 00:40:27,316 --> 00:40:30,876 Speaker 1: keep on speaking bitterness with absolutism of the abortion debate. 583 00:40:31,956 --> 00:40:36,196 Speaker 1: This divide though it isn't about abortion. Actually it's not 584 00:40:36,316 --> 00:40:39,956 Speaker 1: even a divide, because here's the thing everyone seems to 585 00:40:39,996 --> 00:40:52,156 Speaker 1: agree on. Speak your truth. So who killed truth? Maybe? Everyone? 586 00:41:02,956 --> 00:41:05,636 Speaker 1: The Last Archive is produced by Sophie Crane mcabbin and 587 00:41:05,636 --> 00:41:08,756 Speaker 1: Bennette of Haffrey. Our editor is Julia Barton and our 588 00:41:08,796 --> 00:41:12,956 Speaker 1: exact producer is Mia Lobell. Jason Gambrell and Martin Gonzalez 589 00:41:12,996 --> 00:41:17,036 Speaker 1: are our engineers. Fact checking by Amy Gaines. Original music 590 00:41:17,036 --> 00:41:20,636 Speaker 1: by Mattheist Boss and John Evans of Stellwagen Simfinett. Many 591 00:41:20,636 --> 00:41:22,596 Speaker 1: of our sound effects are from Harry Janette Junior on 592 00:41:22,676 --> 00:41:26,596 Speaker 1: the Star Genette Foundation. Our fool Proof players are Barlow, Adamson, 593 00:41:26,796 --> 00:41:30,756 Speaker 1: Daniel Burger, Jones, Jesse Henson, John Kuntz, Becca A. Lewis 594 00:41:30,836 --> 00:41:33,636 Speaker 1: and Maurice Emmanuel Parrott. The Last Archive is brought to 595 00:41:33,636 --> 00:41:37,316 Speaker 1: you by Pushkin Industries. Special thanks to Ryan McKittrick in 596 00:41:37,316 --> 00:41:40,716 Speaker 1: the American Repertory Theater, the Slesaner Library, the Flow Kennedy 597 00:41:40,756 --> 00:41:44,356 Speaker 1: Show produced by Don Lynn, the Internet Archive, Alex Allenson 598 00:41:44,396 --> 00:41:47,196 Speaker 1: and the Bridge Sound in Stage, and to Simon leek Head. 599 00:41:47,236 --> 00:41:49,956 Speaker 1: Pushkin thanks to Heather Fane, Maya Cane and Carl mcgliori, 600 00:41:49,996 --> 00:41:53,756 Speaker 1: Emily Rostock, Maggie Taylor, and Jacob Weisberg. Our research assistants 601 00:41:53,756 --> 00:41:57,316 Speaker 1: are Michelle Gaw, Olivia Oldham, Henriet O'Reilly, Oliver Riskin Cutz 602 00:41:57,356 --> 00:41:59,836 Speaker 1: and Emily Spector. I'm Jilliport