8 Asians

A few weekends ago was the 40th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that decided on the issue of abortion, allowing a woman the right to choose to have an abortion or not. To be honest, I did not know where Asian Americans fall on this issue until referencing the landmark Pew Research study on Asians Americans last year:

“About half (54%) of Asian Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most circumstances, and 37% say it should be illegal. U.S. Asians’ views on abortion are similar to those of the general public. Among all adults in the U.S., 51% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and 43% say it should be illegal.”

To be honest, I am kind of surprised the support is not higher, given that most Asian Americans do live in more liberal “blue” states rather than more conservative “red” states. In any case, I’m personally for a woman’s right to choose, as well as my friend, Dr. Sophia Yen, whom I’ve blogged about before.

Yen was one of the organizers and supporters for the Celebrating: Women, Life, and Liberty, THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF ROE V. WADE event held at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco. The crowd grew as the late morning approached noon where I would say several hundred were finally in attendance.

There were many speakers, including including attorney and activist Sandra Fluke (who was made famous by Rush Limbaugh by calling her a slut and prostitute). I was pleasantly surprised, given how politically apathetic Asian Americans can be, that there was quite good representation from a speaker perspective from the Asian American community, including:

• San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu (unfortunately, I got to the event a little late so wasn’t able to videotape him)
• Marily Mondejar of the President of the Filipina Women’s Network
• San Francisco Supervisor Eric Mar
• Mayor of Campbell Evan Low
• Dr. Sophia Yen
• Julie Soo, Commission on the Status of Women, City and County of San Francisco

In terms of those who attended, not so many Asian American attendees … Kind of sad given that San Francisco is about 35% Asian. I think the only other Asian American I met was a Stanford student who took the Caltrain up with a friend from Palo Alto. Well, I guess that is expected, especially on a social issue like abortion.