April 12, 2000

Abortion Belongs

in Take Back the Night

To the editors:

In "Take Abortion out of TBTN" (Op-Ed, April 13), Mattie J. Germer '03 and Erin L. Sheley '02 argue that abortion-rights activism should be eliminated from Take Back The Night week because "abortion is not an issue of gender-based violence." Germer and Sheley are correct that not all women at Harvard favor abortion rights, but their argument ignores the intimate connection between support for abortion rights and the ongoing battle against sexual violence.

What makes rape different from other forms of assault is that it involves the alienation of a woman or man from control over her or his own body. The introduction of physical or psychological coercion into sex attacks the very core of bodily determination and the right to control one's sexual, reproductive, and emotional life. The support for abortion rights is predicated on the same principles: women must have the right to control their own bodies and determine when and if they want to become mothers. The battle against sexual violence in this country has always been intimately linked with abortion-rights activism because of the natural affinity between the two positions.