We in Women’s Liberation refuse to remain silent any longer. We do not accept the will of the so called experts or the powerful in government who up until now have taken it upon themselves to define the rules, the time, and the place where women must bear their children. Abortion is every woman’s right, may she be rich or poor, married or unmarried; and it is a decision which she alone can make, especially in this society where the responsibility for childrearing in the vast majority of cases falls directly upon the individual mother. The laws that restrict abortion to emergencies and exceptional situations, along with the ridiculously rigid policies of hospital abortion approval committees which limit the number of legal abortions to a minute fraction of the actual need are among the most obvious and unjust examples of the way our society oppresses women. We must fight these laws and the medical profession, embodied in the male controlled American Medical Association, on the issue of free and safe abortion, keeping in mind that even this is only a small step toward satisfying our total medical needs, and is by no means a satisfactory alternative to free child care, safe and sure birth control and a guarantee that our lives and our children’s lives are healthy, happy, and fulfilling. Unless we fight the abortion laws in this broader context, we will find that even after the laws are repealed, our oppression will remain. Our victory will be as hollow as the victory of the suffragettes 50 years ago who staked their movement on winning the vote and then found that having the vote didn’t really change things.