I am a multiply disabled person who strongly advocates the sexual, reproductive, life, and all other human rights of people with disabilities. And I am a feminist who loves the "f" word that so many "but" away. So I welcome almost everything in this statement against the opposition of women's reproductive rights and the rights of disabled people.
I would really like to sign it, but I cannot, because it implies yet another unnecessary opposition of rights: between the rights of those who are already born and those who are unborn. So, where and how do I show my solidarity? Do the disability rights and feminist movements have room for people like me who want to fully bridge that often created divide between prenatal and postnatal lives?
Now, I am in those movements regardless of who does or does not want me in on them. I am going to keep doing the work, no matter what, just as I have for years. But any sign that people like me are at least sister (or fellow) travellers would be good.
It's nice that they think that support for abortion can be separated from the justification that the continued life of a disabled baby is a tragedy. Unfortunately, the abortion movement in general has never espoused this belief, and it never will.
Even as I disagree that attitudes & behaviors towards the unborn and already born can be this separated out–I am glad for prochoicers like the signers of this statement, who have a disability rights and reproductive justice consciousness. If they ruled the world, it would in effect become a much friendlier place for us people with disabilities at all stages of life.
Much safer than if it were run according to the unquestioned, entrenched ableism of many prochoicers. Or the patronizing, sickly sweet sentimentality of many prolifers who proclaim the preciousness of disabled people's lives while slashing and burning every possible measure that will help us actually get born and live abundantly as possible.