The most visible graphic on the National Organization for
Women’s website this
past week is the one at the top right corner, which reads, “Support
Women’s Rights — Contribute to NOW.”
Browsing the site, one finds admonitions to support family leave
policy, observe Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered Health
Awareness Week, and support a bill that would provide “emergency”
contraceptives to rape victims.
Nowhere on the website of the nation’s best-known women’s rights
group is there a single mention of Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged
Florida woman who at this writing is starving to death after her
husband ordered the removal of her feeding tube.
While the political battle over Schiavo’s fate has reached a
fever pitch in recent weeks, NOW has ignored it entirely, instead
focusing on issues such as family leave and gay rights. Since March
15, NOW has praised San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard A.
Kramer’s ruling that same-sex couples have the right to marry in
California, cheered Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s introduction of the
Equal Rights Amendment in the House, mourned the death of Wanda
Alston, a “lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender community leader,” and
urged that Americans sign a petition to have Congress renew the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 “before the scheduled expiration date in
2007.” (FYI: The Voting Rights Act is permanent law that does not
expire.) On Jan. 20 NOW called for Harvard President Lawrence
Summers to resign for his comments that women might be less apt
than men to pursue academic careers in science. Summers merited
another mention on March 18. NOW President Kim Gandy inaccurately
characterized Summers’ remarks when she asked her readers,
“Remember Harvard President Larry Summers, who suggested that women
were biologically incapable of doing as well as men at math and
science?”
Amazingly, NOW has completely ignored Terri Schiavo, who would
appear to be the ideal poster woman for left-wing feminists. There
is evidence that the heart attack that brought on her brain damage
may have been triggered by an eating disorder. Schiavo, who was
overweight as an adolescent, had become obsessed with her weight.
Her feeding tube was ordered removed by her husband, who has been
living with another woman, with whom he has two children, for
years. Yet the plight of this utterly defenseless woman dying on
her husband’s command has elicited not a word from top officials of
the nation’s top feminist organizations.
(For the record, I don’t think Michael Schiavo’s living
arrangements prove his motivations are mercenary. He may well be
acting out of compassion for his wife. But it is the sort of
circumstantial evidence leftist feminists typically would use to
demonize a husband.)
A search for “Schiavo” on feministmajority.org produces no hits. Feminist
Majority has spent its time recently highlighting abortion issues
in Indiana and South Dakota, women’s rights in Afghanistan, and a
change to Title IX.
The Ms. Foundation for Women has focused this
month on a “Global Week of Action for Women’s Rights” and
“Realizing the Power of Women of Color.” No mention of Terri
Schiavo.
The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom sent an alert on March
15, warning its members on March 15 that Congress has yet again
approved spending money on the U.S. military. The group published
sample letters to the editor for its members to send in opposition
to nuclear weapons. And it announced that it will focus on two
issues over the next three years: “Women Challenge U.S. Policy:
Building Peace on Justice in the Middle East,” and “Save the
Water.” Schiavo did not make the cut.
Women’s Action for New Directions, which, according to its
website, “empowers
women to act politically to reduce violence and militarism,” was
busy in the past month arranging vigils to remember the Iraq war
dead, organizing letter-writing campaigns opposing cuts in the
federal budget, and celebrating “progressive women elected to
Congress.” Evidently there was no time left over to comment on
Schiavo’s case.
Women’s Human Rights Net actually reprinted on its website this month a
short “Position Paper on Women With Disabilities,” published by Disabled Peoples’ International. It
read in part, “Disabled women and girls are much more marginalizes
(sic) and mostly invisible to policy makers. Disabled women and
girls are subject to massive human rights violations without regard
to their age, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, class, religious
and other status. WE (sic) no longer accept being objects of
violence and discrimination and we insist on respect for and
protection of our human rights.”
Of course, there was no mention of Terri Schiavo in this paper
or anywhere else on the website — or on the site of Disabled Peoples’
International.
Had Schiavo been a transgendered activist for nuclear
disarmament, perhaps America’s left-wing women’s organizations
would have taken notice of her travails. Alas, she was merely an
unlucky young woman who had become emblematic of the right to life
movement. In other words, she collapsed on the wrong side of the
political fence.
