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.

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

Historic Health Care Vote: Celebrate and Recommit to Rights of Women, Low-Income People and People of Color

There is absolutely no doubt that last night's House vote for health care reform was historic. True, it fell short in many ways -- by further restricting women's -- particularly low-income women's -- access to abortion, prohibiting immigrants from buying insurance from the exchange, and omitting a public option. But it is a monumental step nonetheless, and we applaud Democratic members of Congress who persevered amidst scare tactics and misguided rhetoric to lay the foundation for significant social change.

Early last fall, as the health-care debate was in full swing, the Ms. Foundation issued rapid-response grants to Raising Women's Voices and Women of Color United for Health Reform to mobilize greater support for and awareness about the urgent health-care priorities of low-income women and women of color, including immigrant women. Yesterday, Raising Women's Voices and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, a founding member of Women of Color United, each welcomed the House vote and recognized elements of their platforms in the final bill:

Raising Women's Voices:

The House of Representatives’ vote tonight for health care reform is a courageous and historic accomplishment. ...In the same way that Social Security and Medicare improved the health and wellbeing of so many Americans, the health reform plan approved by the House tonight will make a real and significant difference in the lives of millions of our families...and communities.

Because of this vote, women will gain health security because insurers will no longer be able to deny insurance coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, like breast cancer; and we will no longer suffer from “gender rating” that insurers use to charge women more than men for the same policies. We will also gain from the availability of affordable health insurance for millions more families and from the guarantee that maternity care will be covered. Screening and preventive services will be available without any cost-sharing barriers.

We owe a debt of thanks to the women who raised their voices -- over many, many years and especially over the last 18 months -- to bring about these important reforms. ...These women insisted that public policy respond to the needs of the people.

With great disappointment, we acknowledge that this victory came at a cost.... The legislation imposes unfair and unnecessary burdens on women who choose to purchase abortion coverage and will expand significantly the pool of women who are not able to purchase coverage for this basic reproductive health care. ... We recommit ourselves to working to eliminate this unjust and punitive policy which prevents low-income women from receiving the comprehensive reproductive health care they need.

...On balance we look back at the woman's vision for quality, affordable health care developed and issued by Raising Women’s Voices and see that the bill takes very substantial steps toward those goals. Read RWV's full response here.

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH):

NLIRH commends Congress and the Administration for continuing to push for much-needed health reform and we are pleased to see that some critical pieces affecting our community have been addressed in the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act.

...[T]he reconciliation package will cover an estimated 9 million uninsured Latinos and increase funding for community health centers, which is a lifeline for many in our neighborhoods. In addition, 4.4 million Americans in Puerto Rico and territories will receive $6.3 billion in new Medicaid funding, increased flexibility in how to use federal funding, access to the Exchange and $1 billion in subsides for low-income residents.

We understand that this legislation is not perfect. NLIRH has deep concerns about Latino immigrants and their families who will be left on the sidelines even as 31 million currently uninsured Americans celebrate the end to their long wait for reform.

...If Heath Care Reform passes, efforts to address the following priorities must commence immediately:

* Fix Nelson: the two-check provision is unworkable and will enact some of the most egregious and detrimental setbacks to abortion rights since the seventies.

* Include immigrant women: over half of all immigrants are women, and 53% of all immigrants are from Latin America.

* Parity for Puerto Rico: though the reconciliation provisions are better than what the Senate proposed, residents of Puerto Rico are still a long ways away from receiving Medicaid and other federal health care support at the same level as other states of the Union.

If health reform passes, NLIRH will celebrate.... But we will also renew our commitment to fight for the human right of all people - regardless of legal status or zip code - to health, dignity and justice. Read NLIRH's full response here.

Stop Stupak!

This Wednesday, December 2, hundreds of women, including Ms. Foundation grantees, will head to Washington, D.C. to rally and lobby against a potential rollback of women’s basic rights that would deny abortion coverage to millions of women who currently have it and to millions more who lack access today. Click here for more information on the Stop Stupak Campaign.

It is extraordinary that in 2009 women’s right to reproductive care of their choosing is on the chopping block again. The Stupak Amendment is wrong and regressive, and goes well beyond reinforcing the Hyde Amendment—already harmful in its own right—despite what mainstream media is saying. As the Senate debates its health care bill, we expect them to do better. It is simply unacceptable—and contradictory—to trade away women’s access to reproductive services under the guise of expanding care. And who will be most impacted? Ultimately, all women and their families, but disproportionally low-income women and women of color. Once again, Congress runs the risk of creating another exclusionary policy when we should be striving for inclusive and equitable solutions—and most certainly within the context of the stated goals of health care reform.

Our health care grantee organizations Communications Consortium Media Center, Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need and Women of Color United for Health Reform are on the front lines mobilizing to prevent Stupak or a similar Senate amendment from becoming law. Together, they continue to elevate the voices of low-income women and women of color for truly inclusive, equitable reform.

Ms. Foundation Health Care Grantees On the Move

Ms. Foundation grantees Raising Women's Voices and the Women of Color United for Health Reform continue to work collectively to mobilize women nationwide on behalf of health care reform and lift up women's support and solutions for change in Washington, D.C. and at rallies, town halls and on airwaves across the U.S. These two groups received support from the Ms. Foundation in August for a last-minute push to ensure the voices of women--especially low-income women and women of color--are amplified in the health care debate.

Today, in an unprecedented call organized by Women of Color United (a coalition headed up by the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and the Black Women's Health Imperative), over 400 women of color activists discussed the need for just and inclusive reform in a conversation with Tina Tchen, Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and Executive Director for the White House Council on Women and Girls and Caya Lewis, Outreach Director for the Health and Human Services Office of Health Reform and Former Health Staffer for Senator Edward Kennedy.

Recently, RWV co-founder Lois Uttley did a series of interviews with radio stations around the country on stations like WBAI in New York City; WHON in Richmond, Indiana; WIZM in La Crosse, Wisconsin; WGCV in Columbia, South Carolina; KXCI in Tucson, Arizona; KSFR in Santa Fe, NM; and on the Bev Smith show which airs in major cities nationwide. Last week, Women of Color United organized 28 activists in eight key states (AK, AR, FL, IN, ME, NC, ND, SD) to help place op-eds in their local papers.

Both groups have just released valuable new resources. Women of Color United issued "Health Reform Imperatives for Women and Communities of Color" and a fact sheet about women of color and the need for reform. RWV issued "What Women Want vs. What Women Get," a quick and easy analysis of the health care bills on the table and eight straightforward talking points for key improvements. The talking points are below and online [pdf]; there's also a longer version [pdf] with more detail -- check them out, pass them along, and RAISE YOUR VOICE for just and inclusive health care reform!

Raising Women's Voices
From Our Kitchen Table
What Women Want: The Health Reform Edition

1. Health coverage should start at birth and end at death, with no interruptions. We shouldn’t lose it when we change jobs, get divorced or move from one state to another.

2. Make it affordable. Use a sliding scale. Everybody should pay something, but some of us can pay more than others. Offer subsidies for those who can’t pay very much.

3. Make it fair. Don’t charge women more than men. Don’t let insurance companies refuse to cover people because they have diabetes, cancer, asthma or any other “pre-existing condition.”

4. Make it simple. Tell insurance companies to stop tricking us into buying policies that don’t cover the care we need. There should be no hidden clauses or surprises.

5. Make it better. Give us the high quality care that this country is capable of delivering, instead of extra tests and unneeded services that feed the bottom-line for drug companies or for-profit hospitals and medical systems at our expense. And fix the system so that poor people, people of color, people with disabilities and LGBT people get high quality care too.

6. Keep politics, politicians and ideology out of the decisions about which benefits should be included. This is health care, people!

7. Cover everybody! Stop arguing about whether we should cover undocumented immigrants or force legal immigrants to wait five years to be eligible. If they are living here as our neighbors, we want them to be healthy. Fixing the immigration system is a separate issue.

8. This should be a wellness system, not a sickness system. Sure, we want to have medical care when we get sick, but better preventive care and stronger public health measures in our own communities can help us stay healthy.

Learn more and find out how to add your voice to the debate on the Raising Women's Voices and Women of Color United websites.

Support Reproductive Health, Justice and Reform

The Ms. Foundation for Women has long supported women of color and those with low income to advocate for policies that improve their lives and those of their families and communities. Today, as the health care reform debate poses new threats to reproductive health care coverage, please join us in committing to the reproductive justice movement, which works to ensure that all women across race and class can exercise their reproductive rights. Any gift you make to the Ms. Foundation for Women before November 15th will be worth twice as much, thanks to a generous $100,000 challenge grant.

Help create more policy wins like these of our grantee partners:

• ACCESS/Women's Health Rights Coalition, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, the Dolores Huerta Foundation and ACT for Women and Girls defeated Proposition 4, a parental notification initiative, on the California ballot in November 2008.


• During the 2009 legislative session, West Virginia Free ensured that none of more than 40 anti-choice laws were passed by the state legislature.


• Since 2008, Migrant Health Promotion has secured access to public transportation for several rural, isolated immigrant communities in South Texas, enabling hundreds of women farmworkers to access reproductive health and family planning services.

Make a gift today and double your support for reproductive justice for low-income women and women of color.

Ms. Foundation Celebrates Sotomayor Confirmation

The Ms. Foundation for Women celebrates the historic confirmation of Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the next Associate Justice on the Supreme Court, truly a defining moment for the nation. In particular, we commend the leadership of both President Obama and the U.S. Senate in increasing the diversity of our nation’s highest court. We believe that Judge Sotomayor’s life story, her deep involvement in her community, and her strong commitment to public service will inspire countless young women of color across the country to fulfill their aspirations and reach their dreams.

Sara K. Gould
President & CEO

Reproductive Health: Once Again, Ripe for Conservative Compromise

With the health care reform debate in full swing, it's become frighteningly clear that key elements of reproductive health care are in danger of being barred from whatever package emerges from Congress. The National Women's Law Center, a Ms. Foundation grantee, today wrote, "Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee are demanding the introduction of health care reform language that will strip women's access to abortion." And it's not just Republicans. As Time Magazine reports, a group of conservative House Democrats sent a letter at the end of June to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stating that they "cannot support any health-care-reform proposal unless it explicitly excludes abortion from the scope of any government-defined or subsidized health-insurance plan."

Anti-choice demands from both sides of the aisle would have dangerous implications for women--and their families, and their communities. They would further cement the deeply discriminatory Hyde Amendment, which since 1976, has prohibited the use of federal funds to cover abortion, with an overwhelming impact on low-income women and women of color. They could also prohibit coverage of abortion for millions of women who are now guaranteed it by their private health insurance.

So, once again, women's health and human rights are framed as a "wedge issue" and as such, considered ripe for compromise. And it isn't just women, of course. As Raising Women's Voices, another Ms. Foundation grantee at the forefront of the health care debate, writes, "If conservatives get their way on health reform, we will soon have quality, affordable health care for all --- except for women, terminally ill patients, gays and lesbians, people with HIV and anybody else conservatives don't like!" And let's not forget that women's health is intimately connected to the health and economic well-being of children, families and communities. Nobody can afford to let this pass.

The Senate Finance Committee is meeting this week. Take action by contacting your senator at help_comments@help.senate.gov if s/he is on the Committee (find out here) and urge her/him to refuse such politically-motivated exclusions and ensure access to comprehensive reproductive health services for all women.

Ms. Foundation Grantee Calls for ICE Raid Moratorium

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials rounded up almost 600 assembly plant workers on Tuesday in the small, rural town of Laurel, Mississippi in the largest raid on a single workplace in U.S. history. Local communities are reeling in its wake, as families have been torn apart, the plant’s operations suspended, and a climate of fear has settled over surrounding towns.

Upon surveying the humanitarian crisis the raid has created, Ms. Foundation Grantee Mississippi Immigrants' Rights Alliance (MIRA) is calling for a moratorium on such actions and asking supporters to join them in contacting federal legislators [find yours here] to demand a stop to the attacks on immigrant families and workers.

Of the 600 or so workers caught up in the raid, approximately 100 have been allowed to return to their homes to care for children or for other humanitarian reasons. Over 475 individuals, however, are being held four hours away in a federal facility in Jena, Louisiana where they await deportation hearings.

In addition to providing legal assistance and coordinating volunteer lawyers to provide services to the detained workers, MIRA is working with local organizations to provide basic necessities to families. Since breadwinners have either been detained or confined to their homes, many families now lack even access to food. MIRA has set up a relief fund to support affected families and the work of volunteers at http://www.yourmira.org/.

A Closer "Look" at Women Voters

Did anyone catch the sad irony of the way the New York Times Magazine presented Linda Hirshman’s article, “16 Ways of Looking at a Female Voter” last Sunday (2/3/08)?

One of the most disturbing things about the piece—in the online and print versions, though it’s more stark in print—was that there was not one significant visual image of a woman voter alongside the text. While one could write a thesis and more about the absence, and misrepresentation, of women in the media, this was especially stunning given that the article was supposed to be a literal “look” at female voters.

For those who don’t have the article in front of them, the only visual markers throughout the piece were small photos of women’s disembodied hands placing a ballot in a box. I couldn’t help thinking that while Hirshman ostensibly sets out to address the motivations and thinking of women voters, the omission of photos of real women only perpetuates their invisibility as real political actors.

Unfortunately, the irony of the title also extends to the absence of a thoughtful and in-depth “look” at “what we know and don’t know about gender and politics.”

This is surely not all we know and don’t know about gender and politics. Hirshman’s reliance on disembodied data and minimal-to-no context—as well as her odd interpretation of some of the data—paints a pretty disparaging picture of women. After scanning the extremely short takes on how women think, readers can only conclude that women don’t think all that much. And that what they do think doesn’t really matter. According to the article’s sources, women on average have less knowledge and interest in our country’s political life than men; they read the news far less than men; they will decide whether or not to support Clinton solely on the basis of her gender; and when they do vote, their voting power won’t decide elections. As Hirshman writes, “with the possible exception of 1996, women have never voted a candidate into the White House when men thought the other guy should win.”

Then there’s the extraordinarily cursory mention of race and class—less than two short paragraphs under the heading, “Race Matters—and Class, Too”—with zero mention of the ways in which racial discrimination and economic inequality prevent women from fully participating in voting booths and at policy making tables.

As we are well aware at the Ms. Foundation, women—especially women of color and low-income women—continue to be marginalized in the political arena and widely excluded from centers of power and decision-making. How can an article about women voters ignore this fact? In any analysis of women’s political participation, the relationship of race and class to gender is key. And this speaks not just to Hirshman’s article, but to the majority of coverage of this year’s primaries which has consistently sought to analyze gender, race and class in isolation, or worse yet, to pit them against one another.

So, while giving a nod to women’s power by conceding that “when women do come forward they alter the political landscape,” the article’s less than one-dimensional picture of a “female voter” further marginalizes women’s participation in the political arena—particularly women of color and low income women—and undermines the crucial role women play in developing and implementing policy solutions on grassroots, state and national levels.

The Times, as is true for media nationwide, owes it to all its readers to provide a more in-depth, sophisticated and nuanced examination of gender, race, class, public policy and civic engagement. It must also commit to incorporating a full range of women’s voices and perspectives—throughout the election season and beyond.

And one more thought: If you read this issue of the Magazine cover to cover, aside from a couple of advertisements, the only images of women you’ll find are in a 14-page fashion spread of young, white women in surreal, nymph-like dress. Is this the only way we’re permitted to look at women—even if the title of an article on women voters suggests otherwise? Meanwhile, the same issue of the Magazine profiles Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France, and includes no fewer than nine pictures of him in action, touring the world! What’s wrong with this, well, picture?

Sara K. Gould
President & CEO

The Primaries: Yes, Gender Matters...A LOT

Let’s put aside the question of whom to support in the Democratic primaries. Instead, let’s look at some of the most challenging issues facing our democracy that were raised by Gloria Steinem, co-founder of the Ms. Foundation for Women, in an op-ed in yesterday’s New York Times (1/8/08), "Women are Never Front-Runners."

They include:

“Why aren’t we ready to break the gender barrier?”

“The caste systems of sex and race are interdependent, and can only be uprooted together.” And finally,

We have “a talent pool limited by sex, race, money, powerful fathers, and paper degrees.”

Yes, money and pedigree are on the list, too, even though this country likes to blur our own class structures by highlighting the opportunities our free market system has to offer “everyone.” Class, like race and gender, creates significant barriers to equal and meaningful participation in our democratic process.

So, if our commitment to progressive social justice is real, we must at once address race and gender and class as we strive for an equitable and inclusive democracy.

At the Ms. Foundation, we support over 200 community-based and national advocacy organizations across the United States that represent, and work on behalf of, low-income women and women of color. Through our 35 years of support for women’s full participation in our society, we have seen over and over again that our grantees have powerful solutions to the myriad crises facing communities nationwide. But while fighting for policy and culture changes that benefit us all, they continue to face reinforcing barriers of racism, sexism and poverty–making them the most marginalized citizens in our democratic process.

Just take Hurricane Katrina and the ongoing disaster in the Gulf Coast. Low-income women of color were disproportionately affected by the storms and subsequent housing, health care and unemployment crises. But while their experiences make them uniquely positioned to devise and implement policy solutions, they remain largely excluded from decision-making tables.

In her op-ed, Gloria Steinem addresses the barriers women face by asking us to imagine an African American woman—with the same credentials as Barack Obama—running for president. “Could [she] be a viable candidate to head the most powerful nation on earth?” Ms. Steinem asks. Not likely. That’s because, she goes on to say, “Gender is probably the most restricting force in American life, whether the question is who must be in the kitchen or who could be in the White House.”

Let's now add class to the mix. Let's imagine a low-income, African American woman, single mother of three, running for public office. A woman with scarce resources and time, yet whose knowledge, leadership and commitment would drive significant policy changes that would benefit all members of her community, city, state or country.

The fact is, while small numbers of low-income women of color have won a seat at policy tables —our grantees are a testament to that—most continue to be excluded from decision-making processes—and at great cost to us all. So as we take a look at the field of presidential candidates before us, let's not forget that the combined, often inextricably linked barriers of race, gender and class persist nationwide. Just how deep and pernicious these barriers are should be of great concern to everyone if we hope to realize a just and truly participatory democracy in 2008 and beyond.

By Sara K. Gould
President & CEO