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VOL. XIV $2.95 THE MYSTERY OF MARY'S FOOL Margaret Sange Revisited Brian Lanker's 75 Black Women THERE COULD BE MORE POLLUTION IN THESE FILES THAN ANY PLACE IN THE U.S. That's because we run the largest socially respon- sible money market fund in the U.S. We've found that a growing number of people care a great deal about what their money is doing while earning money market rates. Among other things, our shareholders don't want it used by companies that have a history of environmental pollution. So our researchers keep these detailed records and screen out violators. Our investments also exclude nuclear power producers, major military contractors and anyone with South African connections. This means a lot of research, and a lot of record keeping, but it also means an investment for you as clean as the world you'd like to live in. Call Us On 1-800-533-FUND WORKING ASSETS MONEY FUND ' 230California Street, San Francisco, CA 94111 Please send me a free prospectus with more complete infor- mation about Working Assets Money Fund, including fees and expenses. Name- Address- City State- _Z,r_ Telephone (_ 1Please rend ic carefully hetnrc v L _QN20J Distributed hy Working Assets Limited Partnership. WORKING ASSETS MONEY FUND THE LARGEST SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE MONEY MARKET FUND IN THE U.S. THE JOURNAL OF SUBSTANCE FOR PROGRESSIVE WOMEnN VOLUME XIV PUBLISHER/EDITOR IN CHIEF Merle Hoffman MANAGING EDITOR Beverly Lowy ASSOCIATE EDITORS Eleanor J. Bader Phyllis Chesler ASSISTANT EDITOR Karen Aisenberg CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Irene Davall Roberta Kalechofsky Flo Kennedy Nancy Lloyd ART DIRECTORS Michael Dowdy Julia Gran ADVERTISING AND SALES DIRECTOR FEATURES Margaret Sanger at age Carolyn Handel already a free thinker— THE CHILLING OF branded by a local priest ON THE ISSUES: A feminist, humanist REPRODUCTIVE CHOICE a "child of the devil". publication dedicated to promoting By Janice Raymond, Ph.D. political action through awareness and A provocative viewpoint on I DREAM A WORLD: education; working toward a global reproduction technologies and anti- Portraits of 75 Women Who political consciousness; fostering a spirit women politics 7 Changed America of collective responsibility for positive social change; eradicating racism, By Eleanor J. Bader sexism, ageism, speciesism; and support- MARGARET SANGER: An interview with Pulitzer ing the struggle of historically disenfran- Militant, Pragmatist, Visionary prize winning photographer chised groups powerless to protect and By Lawrence Lader Brian Lanker 16 defend themselves. Sanger's noted biographer presents a look at the flamboyant, SAVING CHOICE: UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS and sometimes controversial, birth Youth Organizes to Oppose All unsolicited material will be read by the editors. For return, enclose self-addressed, stamped envelope with control advocate and reformer 10 Parental Consent and proper postage. Articles should be not leas than 10 and Notification 21 not more than 15 double spaced, typewritten pages on MARGARET SANGER: women's health, social or political issues by people with hands on experience in their fields. Professional papers An Alternate View ON THE TRAIL are accepted. All editing decisions are at the discretion OF JANE THE FOOL of the editors. Feminist cartoons are also acceptable By Jill Benderly under the same provisions. A feminist health editor provides an By Denise Selleck ON THE ISSUES does not accept fiction or poetry. assessment of the firebrand's One woman's amusing search for Advertising is accepted at the discretion of the population control strategies and Jane the Fool, female jester in the publisher. Acceptance does not necessarily imply the political implications of her Court of Queen Mary I 22 endorsement. ideology 13 PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The opinions expressed by DEPARTMENTS contributors to our publication and by those we TALKING FEMINIST: interview are not necessarily those of the editors. ON THE ISSUES is traditionally a forum for ideas An Interview with Renee David Merle Hoffman—Editorial 2 and concepts and a place where women may have about French Feminism and Win Some*Lose Some 4 their voices heard without fear of censure or cen- Jewish Identity Choice Books 25 sorship. By Letty Cottin Pogrebin Recordings 28 ON THE ISSUES is published as an informational A look at a woman who describes and educational service of CHOICES Women's herself as part of the "international In Brief 29 Medical Center, Inc. 97-77 Queens Boulevard Forest Hills, NY 11374-3317 ISSN (895-6014 Jewish feminist movement" 15 Feedback 36 COVER PORTRAIT: MARY I, NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY CONTENTS PHOTO: SULLIVAN BROS. COURTESY SMITH COLLEGE Jan. 26, 1984) problems, including low birth weight, MERLE HOFFMAN Arlene had sinned, not against the mental retardation or developmental ON THE ISSUES politicized and verbalized norms and or cognitive handicaps, inter-reactional It was 1984, and Ronald Reagan was in expectations of the collective society in and relational difficulties, prematurity, the fourth year of his presidency. The which having and keeping babies is a abandonment and AIDS. Despite the country was awash in the mythology of good thing, but against the far more national scourge of drug addiction and patriotism and family values, and powerful and pervasive assumptive national surveys showing that more Arlene Pfeiffer met reality head on. societal regulations. These include, but than 10 percent of all babies are born It wasn't that she was stupid or in are not limited to, a belief system that to mothers who use illegal drugs, any way naive. Perhaps she thought places women in no win situations in women in New York City and around that in some unexplainable way she terms of their reproductive choices and the country are denied drug treatment was exempt, that it could not happen punishes them no matter what choice simply because they are pregnant. to her and that, magically, it would not they make. A Kafkaesque system where (New YorkNewsday, October 31,1989) happen to her. After all, she was an the rules are always changing, where There are no male counterparts in honor student, had been one since the "good girls" are few and far between, this situation. Thousands of pregnant 10th grade and came from a good and scarlet letters are given out like women are turned away from treat- Pennsylvania family. Not her, not candy. ment programs and they are turned Arlene. Marcia Levine had her encounter with away for a variety of reasons. Accord- In all probability, Arlene's meeting this reality in October of 1989. Marcia ing to Dr. Wendy Chavkin, a prenatal with reality started when she became was a waitress at the Odeon restau- addiction researcher from Beth Israel obsessed with time and its passage. rant in Manhattan. Her bosses' initial Medical Center in Manhattan, more There were possibly many sleepless reaction to news of her pregnancy was than half of the 78 drug treatment nights and continual trips to the bath- extremely positive. They even offered programs that she surveyed in New room, looking, always looking for the to buy her a black maternity outfit to York City had policies against treat- signs. Then, most likely, there were match the other employees' uniforms. ing pregnant women. Reasons for this the frantic calls to friends in the middle But as time passed and Marcia's preg- range from the centers' uncertainty of the night with a head full of desper- nancy became visible, their attitudes about their ability to handle medical ate thoughts. Ahead full of all thoughts. towards her changed. Soon her em- problems, to disagreement on the And time, always counting and recount- ployer was suggesting that she take a dosages of methadone a pregnant ing the days from the last time. Until less visible position, one where she woman should receive. Many female the counting stopped and there was no would be on the phones, which paid addicts themselves are reticent to seek denying the reality that had to be dealt less and had longer working hours. treatment because they fear retribu- with: She was pregnant, 17 and un- Her employer even went so far as ask- tion from the power structure, that is, married. Thrust as it were into the ing her to stand sideways in front of those who profess to safeguard the life vortex of competing and compelling him so he could determine whether she and welfare of the fetus. options, into the realm of "choice" as was beginning to "show". "My work This fear of prosecution is well placed. millions of women and girls before her, was no longer valued because I had a Indeed, Toni Hudson of Orlando, FL Arlene must have deliberated and baby in my belly," she said. (Newsday, had her brush with "reality" when she debated. She may even have contem- October 13, 1989) was arraigned on charges of providing plated abortion. What she thought of Marcia was wrong. It was not her drugs to a "minor", her baby born last that choice — whether a "sad neces- work that was no longer valued be- November with cocaine in its body. sity" or a cardinal sin —we do not cause of the "baby in her belly"; no, it "She was smoking coke an hour before know, but the result of her contempla- was far more real than that. It was that delivery," accused prosecutor Jeff Deen tions was a decision that was at once Marcia herself was unvalued. "We do of Broward County, FL. Deen plans to both courageous and daring. This honor not hire ugly people. We do not hire fat file a similar charge against a woman student was going to have her baby people. We do not hire cripples," Keith who gave birth to a second "cocaine and she was going to keep and raise it McNally, the owner of the Odeon, was baby" last year and, since last October, herself.

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