Ani Difranco's Hello Birmingham

I just posted about Jennifer Baumgardner's I Had an Abortion project. A controversial project being that part of it includes a t-shirt which states "I had an abortion" across the front of it. The purpose of the shirt and the project is to promote awareness, decrease stigma and to provoke thought and education.

To read my post click here.

A film entitled "I Had an Abortion" also exists. In the film the music of my favorite musical artist Ani Difranco is spread throughout.

As a woman of Christian faith one might think that I oppose the freedom to choose however I am pro-choice. While I do believe that the act of abortion is destroying life I do believe that a woman is not owned by government or shaming eyes. I also find it sickening to know that doctors and nurses who assist abortions are often targeted. The knife sinks deeper when I hear of Christian men and women who physically harm physicians to seek vengeance.

Many of Ani Difranco's songs appear in the film however all excerpted pieces are instrumental parts of her songs. One of the songs in the film is called Hello Birmingham which speaks to the 1998 abortion clinic bombing in Alabama.



Hello Birmingham by Ani Difranco

hold me down
i am floating away
into the overcast skies
over my home town
on election day

what is it about birmingham?
what is it about buffalo?

did the hate filled want to build bunkers
in your beautiful red earth
they want to build them in our shiny white snow
and now i've drawn closed the curtains
in this little booth
where the truth has no place to stand
and i am feeling oh so powerless
in this stupid booth
with this useless little lever in my hand
and outside
my city is bracing
for the next killing thing
standing by the bridge
and praying for the next doctor martin luther king

it was just one shot
through the kitchen window
just one or two miles from here
if you fly like a crow

a bullet came to visit a doctor
in his one safe place

a bullet ensuring the right to life
whizzed past his kid and his wife
and knocked his glasses right off of his face

and the blood poured off the pulpit
yeah the blood poured down the picket lines
and the hatred was immediate, yeah
and the vengence was divine

so they went and stuffed god down the barrel of a gun
and after him they stuffed his only son

hello birmingham; it's buffalo
i heard you had some trouble down there again
just calling to let to know
that somebody understands

i was once escorted
through the doors
of a clinic
by a man
in a bulletproof vest
and no bombs
went off that day
so i am still here to say
birmingham
i'm wishing you all of my best
oh birmingham
i'm wishing you all of my best
oh birmingham
i'm wishing you all of my best
on this election day