Marsha Saxton

Marsha Saxton was born with spina bifida. In the early 1970’s, she picked up a copy of Our Bodies, Ourselves, excited at the prospect of learning about her body from a different, more positive, perspective than the pejorative one she had experienced in the mainstream medical system. But, there was nothing about women with disabilities in OBOS’ first edition. Marsha set about to change that and, working with other like-minded women, created the Project on Women & Disabilities, which contributed a section to the next edition of OBOS. She also engaged in dialogue with abortion rights activists and challenged the acceptance of selectively aborting fetuses with disabilities. Marsha is involved with the World Institute on Disability, a research, training, and public policy center dedicated to promoting the civil rights and full societal inclusion of people with disabilities. Marsha’s activism and advocacy include other areas as well, including civil rights; quality health care; and, as the genome project began in the early 1990s, feminist bio-ethics. Marsha tells it like it is, and always willing to engage with others to make change. See: www.wid.org.
September 2005