Quote: "Sometimes I do fantasize about Roe being overturned, because then I think that there would be this real threat, this real enemy."

Quote: "There are some real problems with crisis pregnancy centers. Having never been in one, OK, I can't be completely sure what's going on, but I do know that we've seen many women who have gone to crisis pregnancy centers coming in very fearful of an abortion and being given a great deal of misinformation and guilted and fearful as a result of going in and visiting a center. And that's not right. That's just not right. At the very least, women deserve the information."

Quote: "As a part-time clinic worker, it seems that our staff is not directly involved in policy. Perhaps they are, but the majority of the staff isn't involved in the "movement" the same way the organizations are. And, perhaps, this divide is augmented at higher policy levels. Many of my co-workers here at this powerful organization seem only mildly interested (if at all) of the day-to-day operations of a clinic, or the issues a clinic faces. So it's weird. And I guess I'm on both sides of it, at low levels, both, but it's clear there's a lot of politicking going on either way."

Quote: "I had a fairly long phone conversation with Dr. Hern (Colorado abortionist) today which was really interesting. He had a number of criticisms not only of the Democratic Party (which you've read about if you're a reader here), but also of the pro-choice movement in general. He said that the pro-choice movement is really moving away from abortion in general. He expressed concern that doctors are not included in the movement as much as he believes they should be. He was annoyed that the pro-choice movement doesn't support him as much as he thinks they should. It was just very interesting to hear a doctor, who has a permanent, serious threat against his life for his work, criticize the very movement that should be helping both him & his patients."

Quote: Question: “Are you willing to go to jail and become a convicted felon, spend five years in a penitentiary, if you perform procedures once this law ( South Dakota abortion ban) goes into effect?”

Answer- (Un-named abortionist), “I think that I really would need to think about what the consequences to me would be, in order to continue to provide this service.”

Quote: "Back in the early '70s, Planned Parenthood led the fight to get abortions to be done in outpatient clinics, and it seemed like a good idea at the time, a way of providing easy access to good, cheap care," said Alexander Sanger, president of Planned Parenthood of New York City. "But it turns out that it has led to a stigmatization of abortion, as something most doctors opt out of."

Quote: “Many abortion providers are aging I don't know who is going to replace them. It's really hard getting younger doctors to do the procedure."

Quote: "We thought we had won."

Quote: The landmark 1972 U.S. Supreme Court decision - Baird v. Eisenstadt - paved the way for unmarried people to have access to birth control, and is seen as a precursor to Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion.

An Artcile on the life of abortion activist Bill Baird said that he is still fighting for women's rights. Baird said his critics are waiting for him to die.

He states, "I'm still fighting with every bit of passion I have, and I'm losing," Baird said. "The public doesn't seem to give a damn. When I saw the woman die, my life changed. I said, 'Somebody's got to fight.'"

Quote: "The Supreme Court's decision to hear this (partial-birth abortion) case is a dangerous act of hostility aimed squarely at women's health and safety. Despite 33 years of Supreme Court precedent that women's health matters, the court has decided it will once again take up this issue. Health care decisions should be made by women, with their doctors and families — not politicians. Lawmakers should stop playing politics with women's health and lives. Today's actions by the court are a shining example of why elections matter. When judges far outside the mainstream are nominated and confirmed to public office by anti-choice politicians, women's health and safety are put in danger.”

Quote: “The abortion ban signed in South Dakota last week was only the beginning. Eleven more states have proposed criminalizing abortion…"

"They want to criminalize reproductive health, interfere with a woman's relationship with her medical professional, and roll back our basic reproductive rights."

"A lot of us thought it couldn't happen, but it is happening. There is no room for complacency anymore.”

Quote: "The underground abortion movement there was not just activists and feminists, but was composed of the backbone families of these small, very conservative Massachusetts towns. There was a nationwide organization called the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion; in western Massachusetts there were two chapters. People (those that Cline interviewed) said should Roe be overturned, they'd be ready to go again. And I want to stress this -- it wasn't just the feminist activists who said this, but also the clergy." Cline is a Durham, NC, author of the book "Creating Choice: A Community Responds to the Need for Abortion and Birth Control”, 1961-1973, Interviewed former members of these illegal abortion underground networks.

Quote: "Roe was so far ahead of its time. It was a visionary decision. The failure, the sad part of it, was that we weren't ready for it. The sad, sad, sad thing is society is less ready for it than it was 30 years ago, but that's not the fault of Roe. But maybe what one can say is that in history, 100 years from now, or 200 years from now, when Roe is looked at, it will be looked at as one of the most-forward-thinking, principled decisions for women. Whether it survives or not, it existed. And it will be looked at as an important moment."

Quote: “The way we talk about this issue freaks parents out. It’s hard to trust us when we present ourselves as callous. The answers to all the questions are technocratic. If we were more honest about the ambiguities and the conflicts people would feel they could trust us and wouldn’t need to pass all those laws against us.”

Quote: "There is a deep-seated fear that if you address the moral issues, you're going to lose. But we're losing anyway. It's only by addressing the moral issues that we'll get some relief on the political questions."

Quote: "We're very fearful of what would happen." (Commenting this in response to the news that South Dakota made abortion illegal).

Quote: "In some ways, it's just as bad now as it was back in the pre-Roe days, and in some ways even worse. So many of the clinics in Minnesota are having to close because of our lack of providers. There are just about 12 doctors in the state that are providing all of the abortions and they soon will be dying off, including myself. I don't know what will happen. Pro-choice medical students, a dedicated bunch, are trying to demand an education. Membership in Medical Students for Choice now is about 7,000 students, but the problem is that they're only students for a short time. I've trained dozens of doctors who go into practice in a small town and become immediately isolated. One of my prize pupils had to even leave his practice in a small town because it was learned that he bought a suction machine to perform abortions."

Quote: The NY Times reported that Dr. Edwards, 63, said he felt an obligation to stay in business. ''If we retired, I'm not sure anybody else would come to Arkansas and practice. We can't get residents from the hospital to come over and see what an abortion is like.'' (NOTE: Dr. Jerry Edwards owns an abortion clinic with his wife, Ann F. Osborne, the director)

Quote: "The opposition has had some successes, sure. They've almost succeeded in decriminalizing abortion, simply by making people having them feel like criminals."

Quote: "The clinic movement has ghettoized abortion services and created easy targets to picket and bomb," she said. "Young doctors don't want to come work at clinics, and those of us who have been out on the front lines for a long time are very tired and hanging by a string. We're waiting for replacements, and they're not appearing. It's low-status, low-pay work with a lot of stigma."

Quote: "Talking about prevention really resonates with voters, because it's positive, it's proactive . . . it makes constituents feel good." ProKanDo is an abortion-rights lobby in Kansas.

Quote: "You get no thanks for performing abortions; you get spat on. Who admits to friends at a dinner party that they are an abortionist? It is not a sexy area; it is a bog standard area of women's care. The problem is that the more who exit the area, the more those that remain are dumped on [with extra work]."

Quote: “I think there will be a civil war if Roe v. Wade is overturned, by the way.”

Quote: "When you have a pro-choice president, people will begin to relax their guard and begin to support what is presented to them as minor restrictions."

Quote: In the article, Pro-choice Puritans by: Katha Pollitt, Pollitt says that "Abortion has become a bit like flag-burning--something that offends all right-thinking people but needs to be legal for reasons of abstract principle ("choice"). Unwanted pregnancy has become like, I don't know, smoking crack: the mark of a weak, undisciplined person of the lower orders.

She continues, "The trouble with thinking in terms of zero abortions is that you make abortion so hateful you do the antichoicers' work for them. You accept that the zygote/embryo/fetus has some kind of claim to be born.”

Quote: In the article, Christian Science Monitor, NOW at 40: What's left to do? Lillian Ciarrochi, a past president of The National organization for Women (NOW's Philadelphia chapter), imagines a scenario that would be anything but complacent if the gains they have triumphed are ever threatened.

She threatens, "I think there'll be a revolution. They'll do anything to not lose those rights."

Quote: "Unfortunately, a woman's right to choose has never been more at risk than it is today. We are one Supreme Court Justice away from having Roe overturned."

Quote: "It's just so difficult to provide abortions for patients here when there's zero support from the medical community."

Quote: "I'm not advocating back alley abortions," ( In reference to the do-it-yourself abortion recipe she posted on her website) "But we need to make this information available. I firmly believe that abortion is something that can be done by someone who is not an MD. "

Quote: "Technology has made it nearly impossible to talk about the fetus as just a clump of cells. Medical euphemisms like “cardiac activity” just don’t fly when patients can see a heartbeat with a sonogram at six weeks into a pregnancy.”

Quote: "Even when bans do contain exceptions — which this one doesn't — they are "bad for women's health, bad medicine and bad public policy," as the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio, Gary Dougherty, puts it. "We can't let this stay under the radar."

Quote: "...in many states across the country, the picture is far more grim. Studies have shown that 87 percent of counties in the United States, and 97 percent of the country's rural counties, have no abortion providers at all. And the number of physicians providing abortions in the U.S. has declined by 37 percent since the early 1980s. Those who remain are getting older. Indeed, more than half of all ob/gyns offering abortion services are more than 50 years old."

Quote: Rosemary Candelario, a longtime abortion rights activist and current director of the Massachusetts Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, points out that it is important for pro-choice organizations to recognize that some women, especially those with religious backgrounds, may have difficulty making the decision to terminate the pregnancy: "I think the fear in the movement is if we admit abortion is hard for some women, then we're admitting that it's wrong, which is totally not the case. I've heard from women who are having problems dealing with their abortion who are still ardently pro-choice."

Quote: "If men are really interested in beginning a meaningful dialogue about parenting, we recommend that they start the conversation while in the relationship and discuss birth control options and the potential outcomes of the sexual relationship with their partner. We encourage open dialogue between partners that includes how they feel about the possibility of parenting a child and also how to best prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases." (Commenting in response to the "Roe v. Wade for Men" lawsuit).

Quote: "If the law is implemented it will not stop abortion. A percentage of women will always find a way to terminate their pregnancy. The questions is, will they terminate it in a way that is safe, or will they terminate in a way that is unsafe? They will not stop having abortions.If anyone thinks that if Roe is overturned, that the issue will go away somehow, that it's settled, they'll be completely dead wrong. It just moves back to the states and reasserts itself with a whole new energy." (regarding a law that would outlaw abortion in South Dakota)

Quote: The LA Times reported a new trend in the pro-life fight that has Planned Parenthood finding it difficult to counter.

Pro-life activists in South Dakota deliberately avoid the familiar slogans of their movement. They don't talk about the "murder of innocent babies" or quote the Bible on the sanctity of life. Instead, campaign manager Leslee Unruh has taken what she calls a feminist approach, arguing that legalized abortion exploits women and — for their sake — must be stopped.

"Historically, this debate has been focused on fetal rights, fetal life. We have a lot of language about that," said Sarah Stoesz, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and North and South Dakota. "This adds an element we're not accustomed to. It's a different line of debate…. And that is something we struggle with politically."

Quote: " While her change of mind is certainly a public relations advantage for those opposed to abortion, it does not have any bearing on the case." (Weddington is the attorney who argued the Roe vs. Wade abortion case, she is commenting about how Norma McCorvey, the "Roe" in Roe vs. Wade has since become pro-life and renounced the Roe abortion decision.)

Quote: "If you had told me thirty years ago, we would still be debating this issue, I would not have believed it."

Quote: "If the country keeps going in the direction it is, abortion will only be legal in the states that choose to have it. We'll be down to about seven states, not including Florida. Some people will just go to Mexico, Canada or Indian reservations for abortions."

Quote: "There's been a pendulum swing in the Legislature with Republicans in office now, Anti-abortion "bills have always been in the Legislature, but there used to be pro-choice Legislatures so they never passed."

Quote: “Mississippi is a laboratory for anti-abortion regulations,” says Susan Hill, president of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, “They brew it up here because they know no one is going to stop it in the state Legislature. If it works, they send it on to other states.”

Quote: Should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade and thus return abortion law to the states, Mississippi will undoubtedly rush to ban abortion completely and put the state’s last abortion provider out of business. “Tragic is too soft a word for it if we are forced out,” says Hill. “Most women in the state are already poor and it would hit young, single women the hardest. …It would be a disaster for the women of Mississippi.”

Quote: “We need to make people realize that this is about them: Their family. Their daughter. We have to stop apologizing" for the nation's abortion rate and start mobilizing the millions of women "who believe it was the best choice for them, this might be the best thing that ever happened to the pro-choice movement.” (Commenting on the South Dakota decision to make abortions illegal).

Quote: “Abortion is a failure of the feminist establishment. With every kind of birth control available in the world, abortion is not something to be proud of. If you need an abortion, you’ve failed.”

Quote: "Women want to be treated by a medical professional, not by a friend, I don't see Roe falling. And if it were to fall, there'd be enough states where abortion was still legal that women could get on a bus." (Commenting after a pro-choice supporter posted a do-it-yourself abortion recipe on her website).

Quote: "The right wing is gaining power and I think there is every reason to believe they will capture the presidency next year and control the government. They will undoubtedly try and overturn Roe versus Wade. Of course we don't feel protected by this decision at the moment anyway. I think the United States is going very far to the right and I don't see anything there to change that."

Quote: “I think he's (Samuel Alito) going to be confirmed, and I think Roe v. Wade will be gone within a year. "

Quote: In a March-2006 article in Slate Magazine, William Saletan wrote about a meeting he attended led by pro-choice leaders, discussing the abortion rate and the current issue. Here are portions of that article:

“I came to the 2006 Center for American Progress, where leaders of pro-choice and feminist groups gathered to debate the movement's future..."

" I was invited to the meeting to debate the wisdom of declaring a pro-choice war on the abortion rate…"

Although I'm pro-choice, I can't claim to be part of the movement. I haven't earned it, and as a professional critic, I can't make such a commitment. So I came, I made my case, and then I shut up and listened. It was like preaching to the choir, except that my preaching was Sunni, and the choir was Shiite.

"The silence about whether there are too many abortions was partly a nuance problem... "

"Right away, I got in trouble for calling abortion "bad." I like such words because they're blunt: They express a nearly universal gut reaction and make it clear which direction you'd like to go. The absolute relativists in the room found these words unacceptable, since they "stigmatize" and "pass judgment" on women and doctors. (As far as I can tell, women who have abortions, and doctors who perform them, are more judgmental about the act than the movement's leaders are)..."

"I knew I'd get flak for using the word "bad." But I was amazed at the group's reaction to the word "responsibility," which was the subject of the next panel. "Responsibility is to me a code word that has a lot of racial and class implications," said one participant. "I don't like the word 'responsibility,' " said another. "I don't want to talk about responsibility unless we're talking about the government taking responsibility," said a third. Hoping to bring the discussion back to earth, the moderator suggested, "Is there a way for us to reclaim the idea of responsibility?" The answer was a chorus of rejection, punctuated by a "No way!" She retreated apologetically.”