The Orbis

I was pleased when I discovered that Orbis covered Nashville's recent Roe Anniversary demonstration. As executive director of the Tennessee Guerilla Women, the organization that sponsored the event, I can attest to the fact that most of the local media ignored the demonstration altogether. When you are accustomed to being ignored, it can be gratifying to be noticed at all, even when you are misrepresented.

Unfortunately, both The Tennessean and Orbis missed the real story. It was the largest pro-choice demonstration Nashville has seen in over a decade. Remarkably, some 100 women and men subjected themselves to gusting winds and sub-zero wind chill temperatures in order to stand up for choice. The success of the event was aided by the decidedly enthusiastic participation of a large number of Vanderbilt students.

Frankly, I was stunned by the size of the demonstration. The largest pro-choice demonstration we saw last year consisted of 15 participants. On a beautiful spring day, after an entire legislative session of threats, the day of the final vote came, and 15 women and men was the best we could do.

For this year's Roe Anniversary event, our press release advised that we would demonstrate to honor the memory of Roe v. Wade and to send legislators a message. The media had other ideas. The Tennessean billed the Anniversary demonstration as a pro-life event. The pro-choice action was buried in the story as a peripheral event, or a "counter demonstration," in a story entitled, "Pro-life rally marks abortion ruling's anniversary."

Orbis did much the same, calling its headline story: "Pro-life rally marks Roe v. Wade anniversary in Tenn., Pro-choice groups stage counter-protest). The Tennessee Right to Life organization must have been pleased. Their own press release couldn't have framed it better.

You know you are in trouble when both the mainstream Tennessean and the progressive Orbis employ the same language, or frames, as the radical right. In my view, a publication that bills itself as progressive should make an effort to challenge the language of the right. Certainly, there is plenty to challenge in terms such as "pro-life."

Contrary to the account by Orbis, the recently introduced anti-choice resolutions, which seek to remove the state guarantee to abortion rights, have not passed in the House. If that were actually true, we would have seen headlines in The Tennessean and angry pro-choice women and men in the streets.

Neither of the proposed anti-choice resolutions permit exceptions for victims of incest, rape or even to protect the health or save the life of a woman. HJR 14 states that the legislature "shall have the sole authority" to grant exceptions "as it determines are reasonably necessary for victims of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother."

There is no doubt that the outcome of the presidential election has emboldened our conservative legislators to such an extent that we may actually lose the battle this year.

The guiding premise of the Tennessee Guerilla Women is that progressives are not out-numbered in Tenn., we are merely out-organized. The only hope we progressives have in these perilous times is to join forces and change that.

Sandy Smith Madsen is the Executive Director of the Tennessee Guerilla Women, a progressive state-wide Internet-based organization devoted to fighting the radical right in Tennessee and across the nation.

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