Feminist Gloria Steinem says: “Forced childbirth is the single biggest cause of global warming.”
In a keynote address at a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood in Memphis, Tennessee, Steinem discussed what she views as the connections among feminism and anti-racism, and global warming and abortion.
“Why is it that the same people who are against birth control and abortion are also against sex between two women or two men?” Steinem asked her audience, reports the Memphis Flyer. She continued that those people “are against any sex that cannot end in reproduction.”
“Forced childbirth is the single biggest cause of global warming,” Steinem said.
Steinem’s address kicked off the Planned Parenthood Greater Memphis Region (PPGMR) awards event, during which the abortion business announced a “massive fund-raising campaign” to pay for a second facility in the region.
The campaign – called the Now Campaign – intends to raise a total of $12 million and says $10 million has already been raised. About $750,000 will reportedly be spent on education and outreach, and the same amount on political advocacy.
“While Planned Parenthood has evolved in amazing ways over the last 75 years, our core mission – providing care no matter what – has remained constant,” said Ashley Coffield, president and CEO of PPGMR. “The idea of providing compassionate, quality care in some ways remains as controversial today as it did 75 years ago.”
“Even as we celebrate this milestone, we know that there are many in this community who would seek to eliminate our funding, terrorize our patients, and attack our facilities,” she added. “The Now Campaign is about committing ourselves to building a fearless, empowered community of advocates and healthcare practitioners for the next 75 years. A new era of Planned Parenthood in Memphis begins now.”
In an interview with the Flyer earlier in September, Steinem noted there is more protest against the equality movement today.
“It’s probably peaking in part because, in short order, this country will no longer be a majority European-American or white country,” she said. “For people who were born into a system that told them that men were superior, white people were superior, and Christians were superior, it’s very upsetting to understand that they are no longer in the majority, and they’re fighting back.”
Asked if America is ready for its first female president, Steinem replied:
It’s going to be very difficult, but it’s been very difficult for President Obama, too. The right wing has been so hostile to him. If the right wing had cancer and he had the cure, they wouldn’t accept it. They’re just dead set against him. Similarly, the idea that a female human being should be the head of arguably the most powerful nation on Earth is offensive to people who believe in the hierarchy. I did not think in 2008 that this country could elect a woman. I do think we can and must now, but it’s going to be hell.
Steinem added she is inspired by young women, particularly the three who launched the Black Lives Matter movement [Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi], as well as Lena Dunham and America Ferrera.
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