Progress in Ireland, But Abortion Rights Are Hollow Without Access

By Julie Kay, Ms. Foundation for Women Senior Strategist, Advocacy and Policy

Women in Ireland can breathe a small sigh of relief today. New legislation allowing abortion when a woman’s life is at risk has moved the country one step closer to removing extremist legislative blockades on women’s human and reproductive rights. Yet, the reality is that for women in Ireland, like their American counterparts, these legal rights will be hollow if access to abortion information and services remains out of reach.

In ABC v. Ireland, a lawsuit I argued on behalf of a woman unable to access lifesaving abortion services and information, the European Court of Human Rights found that the denial of access constituted a violation of human rights. Mounting public pressure after the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar, a young woman denied a lifesaving abortion in an Irish hospital last winter, combined with the human right court’s order, has forced the government to enact reforms after decades of delay and wrangling over abortion restrictions in courts, in legislative bodies and on the streets in Ireland. Since 1992, an anti-abortion majority in government had even ignored its own Supreme Court’s ruling calling for access to legal lifesaving abortion.

Worldwide, women’s health gets treated as a political pawn by anti-abortion politicians who prioritize personal political gain over women’s human rights and health. This year, in the United States alone, women face increasing barriers to necessary abortion information and services from anti-abortion forces that continue to exert control over the legislative process. Intensified anti-abortion efforts have brought legislation from conservatives nationwide, including bans on abortion both early and late in pregnancy, regulations designed to shutter clinics in Texas and other states, and false claims about fetal development. The nonsensical push to make both reproductive health care and abortion inaccessible to women in poverty continued through bans on insurance funding for abortion through the Affordable Care Act, which occurred simultaneously with conservatives’ objections to funding for family planning programs.

The fact is that abortion in the U.S. is legal, yet inaccessible, for many women, particularly for marginalized women. Women of color, immigrant women and low-income women face greater barriers to reproductive health care nationwide. As a result, these groups experience higher instances of maternal mortality, increased health risks as a result of delayed access to abortion and outright denial of necessary and often life-saving reproductive health care. Such violations of women’s human rights occur even with greater legal access to abortion services than in other countries, like Ireland.

Unless we take affirmative steps to ensure genuine access to the full range of reproductive health care, American women will not be able to realize their full human rights of liberty, bodily integrity and full participation in society.

Hyde Amendment Infographic

Link to a larger version [PDF].

Access Denied: There's nothing to cheer about on the anniversary of the Hyde Amendment

The relief that women experienced following the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing access to safe and legal abortion was short-lived. After merely three years, zealous politicians managed to impose their own personal agendas with the passing of the Hyde Amendment, systematically excluding millions of low-income women and women of color from accessing abortion care.

With broad support from anti-choice legislators, the Hyde Amendment banned federal Medicaid coverage of abortion. Denial of Medicaid-funded abortions subsequently retracted low-income women’s ability to obtain a safe and legal abortion. The rights they gained in 1973 were essentially stripped away.

Today marks 36 years since the Hyde Amendment was enacted. Millions of women who rely on Medicaid for health care are still excluded from accessing abortion care. The restrictions imposed by the Hyde Amendment leave many women in a difficult situation—choosing between basic necessities like food and rent or the medical services that are standard among the majority of private health plans.

This injustice must end. Stand up for choice. Stand up for women’s constitutional rights. Please sign this petition from the National Network of Abortion Funds to repeal the Hyde Amendment.

Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights

Saturday was Human Rights Day, an opportunity for us to reflect on the most basic of human rights – reproductive rights. The ability to control what happens to our bodies entails more than just domain over who may touch our bodies and when. Human rights, by their very nature, dictate that women have complete control over their own fertility.

Unfortunately, this year’s acknowledgement of Human Rights Day follows the announcement that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius torpedoed the FDA’s decision to lift the age restrictions on Plan-B One Step.

Despite scientific evidence in favor of lifting the restrictions, young women 16 and younger will continue to need a prescription to purchase emergency contraception. Many will not get the prescription, because their primary care physician is closed on the weekend. Or because they don’t have a doctor at all. Or because it’s not safe for them to admit to their parents that they are sexually active. Their pregnancies will be among the 50 percent that are unplanned.

It’s an unprecedented move; no health secretary has ever before overruled the FDA. At the end of a year in which a record number of anti-women’s health bills were introduced in states across the country, this latest setback throws salt in the wound of those who trust women to make decisions about their own bodies. And it disregards an important and fundamental human right.

The fight for reproductive justice is far from over. But with the Ms. Foundation’s support, grassroots organizations in communities across America are working toward a future in which women have access to the resources they need to make decisions about their bodies.

Fighting Anti-Choice Legislation In Mississippi

This year, women across the nation have experienced a record number of attacks on their health. In the first six months alone, states enacted 162 new pieces of legislation related to reproductive health and rights, 49% of which specifically restrict access to abortion.

One of the most frightening tactics is the so-called “personhood” constitutional amendment, which grants a fertilized egg all the rights of a person. Unsuccessful in their attempts to ban abortion using this strategy in other states, anti-choice zealots have honed in on Mississippi, where the amendment will be put before voters on Nov. 8.

Not only would this extreme legislation ban abortions –without exceptions for rape, incest or the life or health of the mother – but it also would have broad medical and legal consequences. An article in today’s New York Times asked, “Could a woman taking a morning-after pill be charged with murder?” In fact, Initiative 26 (as it’s called in Mississippi) could ban access to common forms of birth control, as well as in-vitro fertilization, creating a murky legal scenario for women.

Mississippians for Healthy Families, a Ms. Foundation partner, has spearheaded the opposition to this dangerous attack on women’s health. With campaign offices in Oxford, Jackson, Hattiesburg and Gulfport, they’re mobilizing pro-women volunteers across the state in a strategic grassroots effort to defeat this legislation.

You can help, too! Visit http://www.votenoon26.org/get-involved to find out how you can donate, volunteer or join the social media movement against Initiative 26.

Organizing at the Intersections of Reproductive and Environmental Justice

Very proudly, the Ms. Foundation for Women supports an amazing cadre of organizations that are blazing new trails to advance environmental and reproductive justice every day. And if the news from one such grantee, Women's Voices for the Earth, is any predictor, 2011 is off to an incredible start.

Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE) is a national organization that works to eliminate toxic chemicals that impact the health of women and girls -- who, in fact, have largely been overlooked in research about the effects on humans of the more than 85,000 chemicals estimated to be use in the US environment today. Over the last month, WVE has taken bold and concrete action to protect the well-being of women and girls, raising awareness about how these chemicals compromise women's reproductive health, pushing for increased regulation of consumer products, and organizing to ban one particular toxic substance currently in widespread use.

Though little discussed in the national media, activists and everyday women alike know that women face environmental dangers unique to those faced by men: women, on average, use more personal care products, containing potentially dangerous chemicals, than men do; spend more time in the home and using cleaning products; and have higher fat reserves -- where toxins are stored -- than their male counterparts do. And women of color, low-income women, and immigrant women tend to be at even greater risk for exposure to environmental toxins than their middle class, white peers -- either because they live in areas that are rife with toxic and hazardous materials or work in industries with few protections against exposure to chemicals.

Read more »

Right Readies its Anti-Abortion Fight

It's no surprise, but it's still shocking: with just weeks to go before the start of the 112th Congress, conservative leaders are busy putting the pieces in place for an all-out, multi-tier war on reproductive rights.

With Republicans about to take control of the House, a tighter margin of Democratic leadership looming in the Senate and a significant rise in the number of anti-abortion governors across the country (up to 29 from 21), conservatives understand that they are sitting on a remarkable political "opportunity" to push for policies that limit access to and funding of abortions at both the state and local levels. And they plan to capitalize on it.

In the House, moves are already being made to lay the foundation for a more dedicated assault on reproductive rights: this week, Rep. Joe Pitts (R-PA) was named chairman of the influential Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, which has control over private health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. Pitts is a staunch conservative with a zero pro-choice rating; he was co-author of the famed "Stupak amendment" and has been described by some as “one of the most anti-choice members of the House.” His selection as chair of this important subcommittee "presages a major shift on abortion and family planning," according to The New York Times, and Pitts has already announced that he will use his new position to push for a ban on the use of federal subsidies “to pay for any abortion, or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes coverage of abortion.” (A stance that's so 2009, mind you, when the issue became a sticking point in health care reform, or better yet, 1976, when the Hyde Amendment, which already bans federal funding for abortions, was established.)

Read more »

Grantee Seeks a Broader View of Family Values – Share Your Story

Ms. Foundation grantee Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice is looking for 5,000 "Strong Families" willing to share their stories of challenge and triumph, as they push to reframe our understanding of the American family and fight for policies that benefit us all.

After more than two decades of the Right dominating debate over "family values," ACRJ says it's time for a new conversation about what our families actually look like and what their real needs may be. The Strong Families Initiative is a 10-year-long campaign rooted in the Reproductive Justice movement that seeks to dramatically change the cultural and political fabric of the U.S.

Read more »

Alaska Quashes Abortion Access for Young Women

The fight for reproductive freedom in Alaska has just reached its boiling point.

Last week, Alaska voters passed an initiative requiring that the parents of women aged 17 and under must be notified before any abortion procedure takes place. The new law also puts in place a 48-hour waiting period between parental notification and performance of the procedure.

While it's true that this new legislation does not require parental consent (an earlier law that did was deemed unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court), and while it does allow for a judge to bypass the required notification, the law nevertheless places young women -- and their doctors -- in a precarious situation.

Doctors who fail to notify the parents of an underage patient seeking an abortion could face "felony charges and a prison sentence of up to five years." And for the young women affected by the new law, accessing an abortion just got one step closer to next to impossible. Not only is the measure likely to frighten a good number of young women away from even considering having the procedure (I have to tell my parents? Or stand in front of a judge? Forget it) and thus force them into teen parenthood, it will also inevitably put young women's lives at risk. Many could find themselves homeless if their parents disagree with their choice. Others could find themselves battered or dead for exactly the same reason.

Abortion may still be legal in Alaska, but voters have now made it a potentially harmful, even deadly, procedure for the young Alaskan women whose families may have different views then their own about a woman's right to choose. Remember what it was like to be 16 years old: how many of us -- facing threats of violence or even just parental disapproval -- could say we'd have had the strength to follow through under these conditions? Probably very few -- and that is exactly what anti-choice advocates are hoping for.

(It's worth noting that Joe Miller, who's locked in a recount battle for the Republican nomination for one of Alaska's Senate seats, was a strong supporter of the ballot measure; Miller was endorsed by the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and other far right notables. Lisa Murkowski, the Republican incumbent, may end up losing her seat in the Senate because she refused to take an outspoken stance in support of the measure.)

Alaska is one among dozens of states where forces on the right are rolling back access to abortion while its legality is maintained in name only. Just days before the vote in Alaska, we wrote about exactly that threat, and noted how past and current grantees like Advocates for Youth and SisterSong -- not to mention organizations like COLOR and NLIRH -- are doing the hard work of pushing back against these restrictive measures around the nation. We support these organizations because we believe in their power to turn back the tide of anti-choice legislation making its way across our nation; help us help them by making a donation to the cause today.

Donate now and a special matching grant will double your support -- dollar-for-dollar -- for reproductive justice organizations led by women of color.

Access to Abortion is the Fight of the Future

If you've been looking for a clear elucidation of the difference between fighting for "reproductive rights" and "reproductive justice" -- and why a focus on the latter is increasingly important -- you may want to read Amanda Marcotte's excellent article running on RH Reality Check today.

Framing the conversation around a recent episode of "Mad Men" that featured an abortion, Marcotte explains that, unlike in days past, hinging our current battle for reproductive freedom on protecting the right to abortion just isn't enough. The fact is that anti-choice activists are finding more and more ways to restrict access to abortion, even as the right to it stays nominally in place. This chipping away at our ability to actually access abortions (think of the Hyde Amendment, or any of the many restrictions currently winding their way through state legislatures) is particularly damning for low-income women and young women -- who often lack the resources to pay for abortions, or any of the attendant expenses that may come along with them (when, for example, you're forced to travel out of state to find a provider who might even perform the procedure).

Marcotte doesn't just blame anti-choicers for moving us back to a time where only women with resources could access abortion, even if it was illegal. She also faults the pro-choice movement for failing to capitalize on opportunities (like the most recent health care debates) to increase access for women without resources. The price for those strategic failures will be paid by the millions of young women and low-income women who know better than anyone else that these rights mean precious little when you are denied the opportunity to exercise them.

If we want to make sure that we all have the ability to make the same set of determinations about our bodies and health, then the fight on the reproductive health front must be about ensuring access as much as it is about anything else. "We must view abortion rights less as a thing in and of themselves," Marcotte suggests, "and more as a means to the end of access."

That's a notion the Ms. Foundation has been working to make a reality for decades. Over the years we have helped grow a national reproductive justice movement that places reproductive rights and health within a broader social justice context -- and elevates the voices of those who are most affected by failed policies, but least heard in the national debate: low-income women, women of color, immigrant women and LGBTQ individuals. Our past and current support of organizations like Advocates for Youth and SisterSong (both of which Marcotte lauds in her article) exemplifies our commitment to building a world where all individuals are equally able to make their own choices regarding their reproductive health -- not just the privileged few.

We've said it before and we'll say it again: no woman should find herself forced to forgo an abortion because she can't afford one, can't find a licensed provider, or is intimidated out of the procedure. Take the time to read Marcotte's article, and add your voice to the conversation about where the fight to protect our reproductive health goes from here.



Photo: Christina Hendricks as Joan Harris in Mad Men.

Ms. Foundation Grantees Organize National Week of Action for Reproductive Justice

Want something to cheer about? How about this: it's Latina Week of Action for Reproductive Justice!

Organized by an amazing group of Ms Foundation grantees -- the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice and the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights -- this first annual Week of Action is an effort to raise awareness about how the fight for reproductive justice impacts Latinas, and to engage the community in actions and events that help protect the reproductive rights of women everywhere.

In addition to hosting a blog carnival about Latinas and contraception (which you are invited to participate in), the week's organizers have also planned live events in cities from New York to Texas to Minnesota to California.

And of course, you can also participate in the fight to ensure that all women have affordable access to birth control and other reproductive services by taking action online. Encourage your Congressional representatives to "ask the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to support comprehensive family planning services that include contraception as a key women’s health service under the Women’s Health Amendment."

The Week of Action runs until August 15th; stand up for reproductive justice today!

Help support organizations and programs fighting for our reproductive rights! Donate now and a special matching grant will double your support -- dollar-for-dollar -- for reproductive justice organizations led by women of color.

Access Denied: Women in Blue States Struggle to Obtain Abortion Services

Think that just because you live in a state that puts progressives in office you've got relatively unfettered access to abortion and other reproductive health services? Time to think again.

To prove just how restrictive some so-called "Blue states" continue to be when it comes to our reproductive rights, RH Reality Check and the ACLU have teamed up for a "Reproductive Justice Roadtrip" across the state of Illinois, documenting the barriers and challenges women face when trying to access reproductive health services in the Prairie State.

Today's first-person entry into this debate comes from Amy S., a resident of the Chicago suburbs who learned at 25 weeks gestation that her fetus had a "catastrophic brain malformation" -- one that would result, if the fetus was carried to term, in a short life filled with excruciating pain. Amy chose to end her pregnancy, but finding a facility that would comply with her wishes within the state of Illinois turned out to be impossible:

What I had to do [to terminate this pregnancy] shocked and astounded me. In a "blue" state, I never imagined that I would be told my OBs could not induce labor at my local hospital... UIC, Rush, U of C, Evanston, Northwestern, Lutheran General, and my local hospital, Delnor, all said no. I was too far along at 25 weeks. At least at Lutheran General, it got before the ethics committee, but they said no because I was not "their" patient. Where did that leave me? Dr. Tiller's clinic in Wichita, Kansas. Dr. Tiller who was killed last year.
The fee had to be paid in cash, up front. All told, including travel, it cost us $6000. Blue Cross denied my claim as out of network. I appealed and they denied it again.

Amy and her family had the means to ensure that she could indeed end her pregnancy as she wished. Many, if not most, women would have been denied that opportunity because they simply couldn't have afforded it. The notion that any woman should have to go to such extreme means -- financial, logistical and emotional -- to defend her own right to choose strikes us as simply unacceptable, and offensive, so many years after Roe vs. Wade became the law of the land.

We applaud RH Reality Check and the ACLU for shining a light on the many, complex ways the fight for reproductive justice impacts women's lives -- and we urge you to learn more about the laws in your own state and how the debate is unfurling at the federal level. As we speak, there is legislation winding its way through Congress that would seek to make permanent the provisions of the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding of abortion services (currently the amendment has to be reaffirmed by a congressional vote every year; this new bill would set the law in stone). Measures like these make accessing reproductive health services more difficult for all women, but they have an undue and disproportionate impact on low-income women and women of color -- who are literally trapped by the economic barriers that stand between them and their right to decide the fate of their own bodies.

We're so glad Amy was able to make the decision that was right for her. Here's to the day when every woman in America has access to the same set of choices.

The Ms. Foundation for Women has been working to support reproductive rights, health, and justice since our inception -- and together with our grantee partners, we are dedicated to ensuring that stories like Amy's are increasingly rare. To see some of our grantees' work in action, check out Family Planning Advocates' website, or visit the National Women's Law Center's "Reproductive Choices" page.

Help support these organizations and programs today! Donate now and a special matching grant will double your support -- dollar-for-dollar -- for reproductive justice organizations led by women of color.

NPR Spotlights Plight of Shackled Pregnant Women

Back in May, we alerted you to an important article written by Tonya Williams of SPARK Reproductive Justice Now on the practice of shackling jailed pregnant women throughout labor and delivery.

Now, after recent decisions in Washington state and Arkansas found that the practice violates the civil rights of incarcerated women -- and in light of a class action suit pending in Illinois involving as many as 150 female prisoners -- NPR has picked up story, running a piece late last week that quotes an expert in the field referring to the practice as "tantamount to torture."



You can also read a condensed version of the audio piece, featuring commentary from Malika Saada Saar of the Rebecca Project, a Ms. Foundation grantee working to raise awareness and reform policies like these that impact the human rights of women nationwide. Remember: reproductive justice is about more than just access to birth control and abortion; it's about ensuring that we are all free to make any number of decisions about our bodies, health and sexuality -- no matter what our circumstances.

For a limited time, your donation to support women of color-led reproductive justice organizations will be matched one-to-one. Make a gift of any size and double your dollars for reproductive justice. [Learn more about this unique opportunity.]

No-Cost Contraceptives a Possibility Under New Health Insurance Rules

Each year, 3 million unplanned pregnancies occur in the United States. Though there are any number of complicated reasons why women find themselves facing parenthood unexpectedly, one of them is quite simple: the cost of contraception.

With the roll out of new health-care mandates in the fall, however, an opportunity may arise to finally take the cost burden out of the picture for many women. The overhaul will force new insurers to provide a number of preventive care services to women at no cost -- and according to a recent Washington Post article, activists for reproductive justice are working to ensure that contraception becomes one of the no-cost services every insured woman qualifies for.

The article, which quotes spokespeople from the National Partnership for Women and Families and the National Women's Law Center -- both Ms. Foundation grantees -- notes that even the $20 -$50 co-payments currently required by many health plans that do cover contraception can often prove too much for young and low-income women. The goal, then, would be to remove cost barriers from access to birth control on the consumer side (as is done with "well-baby" visits for infants and young children, for example), which also protects the bottom lines of insurers and employers -- by helping prevent pregnancies that cost thousands of dollars to cover, versus the relative pennies contraceptives cost.

Predictably, religious and other conservative groups are opposing the measure, some on the basis that, "Fertility is not a disease to be cured." The final decision about whether contraception will make the grade as a covered service will be based on the recommendations of the Health Resources and Services Administration, which may take up to a year to come to a decision -- but from where we stand it's a no brainer: no woman should find herself facing an unwanted pregnancy because she can't afford birth control. The government has it within its power to make sure this is never the case; asking insurers to provide full coverage for contraception strikes us, quite simply, as the right -- and rational -- thing to do.

VIDEO: Kirbie Platero: Champion for New Mexico's Youth

As we gear up for this week's Gloria Awards, where we have the privilege of honoring grassroots women activists and philanthropists who ignite change in communities nationwide, we wanted to share the inspiring story of one such awardee from last year's gala: Kirbie Platero.

At just 20 years of age, mother, artist, and full-time youth activist Kirbie is living proof that the future of the reproductive justice movement is alive and kicking – and in good hands.

The 2009 recipient of the Marie C. Wilson Young Woman’s Leadership Award, Kirbie has played a leading role in the comprehensive sex ed movement in New Mexico. An outspoken member of Ms. Foundation grantee group Young Women United, Kirbie helped lobby the departments of health and education in her state, as well as the Albuquerque Public School Board, to adopt standards calling for medically accurate, comprehensive sexuality education – leading the way for New Mexico to eventually become the 15th state to refuse federal abstinence-only funding.

A survivor of sexual assault as a child, and now raising a young son born in 2007, Kirbie’s life circumstances haven’t always been easy. But what this video below makes clear is how powerfully she’s translated her own experiences into a passion for providing others with the resources they need to make informed and safe decisions about their own lives.



Please join us in paying tribute to yet another amazing group of grassroots women activists like Kirbie at this week's Ms. Foundation's 22nd Annual Gloria Awards: A National Salute to Women of Vision, Thursday, May 20 in New York City. Purchase your seat online now! And stay tuned for more powerful stories to come as we share the voices of our 2010 awardees.

Another Voice on Young Women and Reproductive Justice

In an article in the Indypendent, Kasia Gladki -- a part-time web and media assistant with the Ms. Foundation and a freelance multi-media producer -- adds her perspective on the race, age, and class questions raised by a recent Newsweek piece on reproductive justice (see an earlier post on this topic by Ms. Foundation's Desiree Flores).

Gladki's article condemns the limited perspective that continually sidelines the voices, passion, and amazing work of women of color and low-income women and weakens the debate within the reproductive rights community.

It wasn't only younger women that were disregarded by traditional organizations like NARAL. The reality is that any constituency that doesn't fit the feminist profile defined by white, upper-middle-class champions of the 1970s women's movement is excluded from the discourse… Women of color and low-income women were simply absent from NARAL's study and the subsequent debate.

She challenges traditional reproductive rights organizations to engage these powerful women, heed their voices, and truly acknowledge their role as committed advocates; because only then can the movement counter a right-wing backlash and remain a vital force in the fight for reproductive justice.

As the dynamics of race, class and labor in America continue to change, it's imperative that the voices of minority and low-income women be heard in the reproductive-rights debate. Only then will the movement reflect all the dimensions of justice that belong to a feminism for our times.

Amen.

Shackling Incarcerated Pregnant Women is a Reproductive Justice Issue

Few people can claim that childbirth is easy. For most women, it turns out to be a painful, sometimes scary, but ultimately bearable means to a joyous and long anticipated end. But for women in state prisons across this country, childbirth has taken on a whole new level of terror and shame. Why? Because they’re often forced to labor, and give birth, in chains.

Though such practices violate international standards of practice and have now been banned in federal prisons, forty states still permit the use of shackles during the childbirth process. Thankfully, a handful are now moving to repeal that policy – due in large part to the activism of local organizations and individuals who understand the practice for what it is: an inhumane and unnecessary means of stigmatizing and shaming women in prison, the majority of whom, it’s important to note, have been jailed for non-violent offenses.

Ms. Foundation grantee SPARK Reproductive Justice Now! has spent more than two years researching and documenting the experiences of incarcerated pregnant women in the organization’s home state of Georgia – a state that does permit the shackling of pregnant women in its prisons. Detailing the conditions under which female prisoners in Georgia experience labor and delivery, Tonya Williams, a program director at SPARK writes on RH Reality Check,

…Incarcerated pregnant women across the state of Georgia have been and continue to be subjected to shackling by the wrists, ankles or around the belly on their way to the hospital, during labor and delivery and in recovery. Dehumanized, shamed by the visible signs of their bondage, and oftentimes unable to receive the holistic and essential pre- and postnatal care and nutrition needed, pregnant women in Georgia must confront a painful reality. They have become a part of the modern day chain gang.

Williams’ article (which also highlights the work of Ms. Foundation grantee The Rebecca Project) is an important entry in the conversation about the rights of the incarcerated – and it offers a critical reminder that reproductive justice is about securing the right for all of us to “make sustainable and libratory decisions about [our] fertility, bodies, genders, sexualities, families and lives.” When women in state prisons are routinely physically restrained – against international convention and federal policy – during the most personal and intimate of human experiences, it becomes clear that the link between “reproduction” and “justice” has been badly broken. Organizations like SPARK, The Rebecca Project and another Ms. Foundation grantee, National Advocates for Pregnant Women, are hard at work crafting innovative solutions to problems like these; we applaud them for shining light on an often hidden segment of the fight for reproductive justice, and are proud to support their work.

Responding to Newsweek: Young Women Lead a Vibrant Reproductive Justice Movement

The title of a recent Newsweek article alone -- "Remember Roe! How can the next generation defend abortion rights when they don't think abortion rights need defending?" -- would ruffle the feathers of most reproductive rights advocates; the argument within has set off a flurry of discussion and counterpoint nationwide.

In "Remember Roe!" Sarah Kliff makes a disconcerting assertion that young women of the post-Roe v. Wade generation are apathetic towards reproductive rights and therefore, potentially responsible for current and future rollbacks. Our experience with advocates across the country paints a very different picture -- particularly when you start asking the question, "Which young women?"

For over 20 years, the Ms. Foundation for Women has witnessed firsthand the innovative leadership of women in their late teens, 20s and 30s who are directing organizations and using creative, community-based strategies to increase the number of people voting for reproductive rights. With these women we have worked to build a broader, more diverse constituency for reproductive rights, health and justice, supporting local and state groups led by and for young, low-income women and women of color. Groups like Choice USA or Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR) in Denver or advocates like Kirbie Platero of Young Women United in Albuquerque, New Mexico who represent a passionate, talented and vibrant movement for reproductive health, rights and justice.

These young advocates are increasingly successful because they understand that one size does not fit all -- that past "tried-and-true" approaches to reproductive rights advocacy might not speak to everyone, especially today. They're creating new strategies that meet their communities where they are at. They're bringing people traditionally written off as unlikely allies or lacking political power into the reproductive rights movement. They're making links between abortion rights and issues like sex education in schools, jobs, LGBTQ equality and the environment. And they're broadening their messaging to go beyond "pro-choice" or "pro-life" in order to reach many more people for whom these terms are outdated.

For example, in November 2008, COLOR helped defeat by a slim margin a Colorado state ballot initiative on fetal personhood by launching a Spanish-language media campaign that tailored messages to a Latina/o audience and building partnerships with labor and racial justice groups to expand the base of support for reproductive justice in that election and beyond.

Young women -- and their families and communities -- still care intensely about reproductive rights, they just need to be engaged in new ways. And we must support their efforts now more than ever -- not only in election years. Young women and the organizations they lead need serious, ongoing investments that will enable them to conduct community organizing and advocacy on a far bigger scale than what they've had the capacity to do thus far. Indeed, it's well past time that we all place our trust in young, low-income women and women of color whose strategies and solutions will ensure the reproductive rights movement is relevant, strong and sustainable for generations to come.

Desiree Flores
Program Officer
Ms. Foundation for Women

Insidious and Racist Anti-Choice Campaign Brews in Georgia

Georgia has recently been bombarded by a full-frontal assault of anti-choice propaganda and an attempt to demonize abortion providers as perpetrators of race-based crimes.

Over the last month in Atlanta, about 80 large billboards that depict a seemingly distressed child and the bleak message, “Black Children are an Endangered Species,” have been posted throughout neighborhoods with a majority African American population; the billboards direct people to the website, TooManyAborted.com, which links abortion and reproductive health providers to eugenics and racially-motivated population control. The implication is more than a little disturbing -- it’s dangerous. Like a smear campaign gone haywire, the billboards’ backers, Georgia Right to Life, the Radiance Foundation, and Operation Outrage, use blatant disinformation tactics to vilify and demonize advocates for reproductive health and choice.

Women’s health advocates are fighting back. Ms. Foundation grantees, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW! and SisterSong, are part of a coalition of organizations aggressively challenging the billboards’ message. [Support their efforts here and here.] The fact is that of the 15 abortion providers in Georgia only four are located in predominantly African American neighborhoods. What's more, Georgia’s relatively high abortion rate among African American women accounts in part for the reality that the state, and Atlanta specifically, acts as a hub for women seeking abortion services from neighboring states where accessibility to safe and legal abortions is becoming increasingly rare.

Ultimately, of course, it is the underlying unequal access to health and education that have the most devastating impact on the sexual and reproductive health of women of color. On February 12, SisterSong’s Heidi Williamson told NPR’s Morning Edition [see player below] "The enemy is not black women, the enemy is poverty. The enemy is uninsured children and not properly funding education so that we can make sure there are comprehensive sex education programs and pregnancy prevention programs."

And these billboards are only the surface of the problem – the exterior face of a full-on legislative racist and sexist campaign against abortion. The billboards’ creators are all strongly supporting recent legislation, Georgia House Bill 1155, which seeks to ban the alleged solicitation of women of color by abortion providers. According to SisterSong [see their fact sheet and talking points (pdf)], the bill’s language is “inflammatory” and its premise “unfounded.” It would delay and complicate access to essential health services by requiring that all providers prove that they are not ”soliciting” African American women, and it would effectively challenge the legality of abortion by amending the racketeering laws to include abortion providers—classifying them as “organized crime”.

The billboard and legislative campaigns represent a tandem assault on the minds and bodies of women of color in Georgia. They both use inflammatory accusations and condescending propositions [see this great piece on RH Reality Check] to obscure the underlying issues that force many low-income women and women of color to make difficult decisions about their pregnancies. In fact, they assume that African American women are not capable of making independent decisions regarding their health; they capitalize on the anti-choice contingent’s crusade to limit sexual health education; and, most frighteningly, they manipulate this knowledge gap for their own purposes. As SPARK says, “Black women know what is best for our lives, our families, and our communities and are capable of making these decisions without a coordinated assault by organizations that are not genuinely committed to addressing the host of social issues confronted by the black community.”

To support the campaign against the billboards (which, in another twist, are owned by CBS Outdoors, the outdoor advertising division of CBS Corporation, which has increasingly been tooting the anti-choice horn) or the legislation, check out SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW! and SisterSong for action alerts.

Read more about the one-sided media coverage and the efforts of Loretta Ross (SisterSong) to speak back.

A Threat to Reproductive and Media Justice: The Super Bowl Saga Continues

Despite an impressive no-holds-barred campaign led by the Women's Media Center (WMC) and other national organizations, CBS continues to hold on for dear life to the $2.5 million ad revenue promised by the Focus on the Family anti-choice Super Bowl ad. There's been a significant amount of coverage of this dispute in mainstream media, but what seems to be missing is mention of the fact that while yes, this is about reproductive rights and justice, it's about media justice, too.

As we noted before, WMC, Planned Parenthood and other advocates are taking CBS executives to task for overruling a long-held policy "prohibiting advocacy ads, even ones that carry an 'implicit' endorsement for a side in a public debate" in favor of Focus on the Family's harmful, divisive anti-choice message. In 2004, when its anti-advocacy policy was still in place, CBS turned town an ad by the United Church of Christ intended to demonstrate that all people -- including LGBTQ people -- should be welcome in church because it ostensibly promoted gay marriage. Just this year, however, coinciding with their acceptance of the Focus on the Family ad, CBS rejected an ad for a gay dating site and another featuring a "flamboyant" ex-football player because, CBS claimed, it "had the potential to offend a significant number of people." And an anti-choice ad doesn't?

Hypocrisy, bias and dollar signs are written all over this. CBS responded to criticism about the Focus on the Family ad by inviting ads expressing an alternate point of view, seemingly trying to express its neutrality in the abortion debate (or transparently garner more ad revenue -- there's no doubt CBS is struggling). But, as Jehmu Greene, President of WMC, writes, its decision to air the anti-choice ad belies such neutrality, aligns CBS -- and the NFL -- with an incendiary organization, and suggests more dangerous liaisons between conservative groups and corporate media in the future:

CBS' decision to debut its new policy of accepting advocacy ads during the Super Bowl by climbing in bed with a right-wing, anti-woman, homophobic organization -- and the NFL's explicit endorsement -- indicates a clear bias. That this unprecedented break from a longstanding tradition of relative political impartiality comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision bestowing person-hood on corporations is a real threat to fair representation in the media.

As major networks continue to face declining ad revenue and weakening influence in the media market, who knows what strange -- or likely -- bedfellows they'll seek? Perhaps, Jodi Jacobson of RH Reality Check writes, with both Focus on the Family and CBS in need of a financial boost, theirs is "a marriage made in conservative heaven." A frightening thought, and a rallying cry for reproductive justice, social justice -- and media justice, now.

Photo: Not Under the Bus