Blog For Choice Day

Today, as part of NARAL’s Blog For Choice Day, we’re asking ourselves a question posed in honor of Dr. George Tiller, who often wore a button that simply read, “Trust Women.” That question is, What does Trust Women mean to you?

Check out what local pro-choicers have to say, and contribute your own answer in the comments below!

It means trust that we as women know our minds, our bodies, and are conscious enough, educated enough & aware enough to decide what is best for our lives & overall well being. Trust that we are capable of making the right choices and trust that the decision is not taken lightly.
- Korann

I started to become more involved in pro-choice advocacy after my mom died. It’s something she would have done. The bullshit verbal propoganda that clinic visitors must listen to would have troubled her; the in-your-face intimidation they have to run like a gauntlet would have infuriated her. So I do clinic escorting in her honor. I trust women to make their own decisions and I want them to be safe.
- Ebony

I love the phrase “Trust Women.” To me, it means trust women to make the best decisions for themselves.
- Catherine

“Trust Women” means that no one should imagine they know our lives and our bodies better than we do ourselves.
- Cory

As women, we are charged with making decisions about our bodies, our families and our lives every day. “Trust Women” means that the community acknowledges that women will make the best decisions we can in a given situation. “Trust Women” means that no one will restrict our choices because they think they know better. “Trust Women” means just that–trust us to take control of our bodies, our families and our lives.
- Sara

It’s not just about trusting women to make this one choice, but about all the choices women make. When I was a doula attending births, I watched as people tried to make decisions for women because they didn’t trust them to know what was best for their bodies and their families. When I decided that I wanted to get an IUD, my gynecologist lied to me about the risk factors and even quoted old research before saying, “I feel like a mother telling her child not to do something, but you’re going to do what you want anyway.” Trust Women means understanding that women are intelligent adults who are able to process information and make intelligent, appropriate decisions. It means giving women the facts and the whole truth and then knowing that they will make the decision that is right for them, even when it isn’t the decision you might have made.
- Peigi

I trust women to be able to make the best medical decisions for their own lives. No one else should have the right to tell women what they can and can’t do with their own bodies. I’ve never had to imagine what it would be like to fear for my life because of an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy. We younger women have never faced a coat hanger or other dangerous abortion method, and I fight to keep it that way. So happy anniversary, Roe v Wade! Let’s keep abortion safe, legal, on demand, and (also so important) accessible!
- Erin

1 comment
  1. Shannon Deputy said:

    I read “Trust Women” as a fact. People need to trust that women know what’s best for themselves and their bodies, because who could possibly know better? The truth is that when a woman’s right to her own body is threatened she is no longer in control of herself, and in a sense she once again becomes property for someone else to dictate how she will live. Well fuck that. The reason this world is in such shitty shape is partly because women are not regarded equally, and they have kept us down because often we are denied the choice. The choice George Tiller wanted to protect was the most fundamental of things, the choice a women can make about her own body. If we do not protect this right, all others will escape our grasp. -Shannon

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