Attacks on Latinas’ abortion access not slowing down in 2012

The past few years have been really hard for Latinas—sure, everyone has been affected by the bad economy, but we’ve had to deal with having our families torn apart and our rights to control our own bodies and make our own decisions consistently under attack. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that will change in 2012. In December 2011, the “Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act” (PRENDA) was introduced, and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health—as well as many others who support women and communities of color—hoped the bill would vanish when the clock struck midnight on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen and at the end of last week, the mark-up of this bill was finished and it was voted out of the House Judiciary Committee. Next stop: the floor of the House of Representatives.

What could be so wrong about a bill named after civil rights heroes? In truth, everything is wrong with this bill!

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When women stand up, women win!

YOU are powerful because you stand for women’s health.

We just heard that the Susan B. Komen Foundation will revise its decision to terminate service contracts with the affiliates of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The Komen decision, as it stood, would have disproportionately impacted low-income women, who are disproportionately Latinas and women of color. Folks across the country raised their voices in support of Planned Parenthood, who provides essential health services to women and help decrease racial and economic health disparities.

Komen’s decision to revise demonstrates the power that you hold when you stand up and speak out in support of women’s health.

TARA SCHLEIFER is powerful because she shared her story.

Yesterday, Tara, a 42- year-old woman from Haymarket, Virginia, testified before the Virginia State Senate about her personal experience with a high-risk pregnancy.

She testified because the Virginia General Assembly had proposed legislation that would ban abortion procedures after 20 weeks of fetal gestation, allegedly on the basis that at this stage a fetus can feel pain. Bans on abortions prior to fetal viability are unconstitutional, yet the Virginia state government still considered proceeding with this ban based on this concept of “fetal pain.”

Tara’s testimony, however, highlighted the crucial reasons why politicians should not be allowed to interfere in this personal, medical decision.

At 17 weeks, Tara learned that her fetus, if brought to term, would suffer “a number of debilitating health conditions, including a heart defect that would have required multiple surgeries.” After weeks of research and discussion, she concluded that “having the baby would not only subject him to more suffering, but would leave the family financially and emotionally bankrupt and unfairly detract from the parenting of 3-year-old son Isaac.”

Laws like the 20-week abortion ban would completely erode Tara’s ability to make the best decision for her and her family. The ban would also inevitably endanger women’s health and lives, as complications in pregnancies are not uncommon.

Because of Tara’s testimony, the bill died in a vote. Republican Sen. Harry Blevins of Chesapeake, whose abstention made the bill unsuccessful and who had just previously voted for an ultrasound law, stated, “I don’t feel like I have the ability to make a decision as difficult as the one that young woman made.”

Laws that ban abortions after 20 weeks of gestation are particularly devastating to Latinas, who face myriad barriers to seeking the abortion care they need. Latinas are more likely to have difficulty with transportation, receiving child care, and financial resources, which inevitably cause delays in seeking abortion care. Latinas who live in rural areas or states with very few abortion care providers face substantial barriers to seeking timely care.

Hopefully, Tara’s story can inform other state and federal lawmakers. Currently, similar post-20-week abortion bans are being proposed in states and in Congress. In Florida, HB 839 is being sponsored by Rep. Daniel Davis (R), and in Congress, Trent Franks is proposing this ban for the District of Columbia.

We thank Tara for her courage and strength. Tara’s story reminds us that we are all powerful, because our lives, our stories and our voices matter.

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Personal Reflections on the Roe v. Wade Anniversary: From choice to voice

by Hannah Joseph, NLIRH  Policy Intern

What did January 22nd mean to me as the anniversary of Roe v. Wade?  I am a new policy intern working for NLIRH between semesters in college.  This position represents my first official advocacy position in reproductive rights outside of my college campus.  As part of the cohort of women born after 1973, for me, abortion has always been a protected right and an assumed possibility. Without even having to think critically about whether I would choose to have one myself, I was able to assume that having an abortion would be a possibility for me.  Does this make me “casually pro-choice”?

This question was brought to mind when reading the recent NewsWeek article that identifies a lack of intensity in young pro-choice advocates.  This sentiment is consistent with the common political trope that that young people do not care about reproductive health.  According to a NARAL survey from early 2011, 51 percent of young voters (under 30) who opposed abortion rights considered it a “very important” voting issue, compared with just 26 percent of abortion-rights supporters.  The young respondents did not view abortion as a right in need of defenders.  Does this “intensity gap” mean that the pro-choice movement is losing its young supporters?

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New poll on Latino views on abortion challenges misconceptions and stereotypes

The results of a new poll conducted by Lake Research Partners on behalf of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and the Reproductive Health Technologies Project have been released, showing strong support for abortion rights amongst Latina/o voters.

“This is a watershed moment for the Latina/o community as it provides, for the first time, hard data which defies long held stereotypes about Latina/os and reproductive health,” said NLIRH Executive Director Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas. “This poll underscores the important role of Latino/as in the national debate about access to reproductive health care.”

Indeed, the poll is groundbreaking, and the results an important affirmation of Latina/o support for reproductive justice issues. Amongst others, important findings from the  poll include:

• A strong majority – 74% – of Latina/o registered voters agree that a woman has a right to make her own personal, private decisions about abortion without politicians interfering.
• Most Latina/o voters seem willing to disagree with church leaders on the legality of abortion, with nearly seven in ten agreeing that abortion should remain legal despite the position of the church.
• A majority of Latina/o voters agree that money should not determine access to abortion

The findings firmly reject stereotypes of Latina/os as anti-choice or unable to distinguish their political beliefs from their religious affiliation, and should be an important consideration to elected officials trying to capture the ever-growing and powerful Latino vote.

Take a look at the rest of the data from the poll and the methodology behind it at NLIRH’s website!

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State laws taking effect in the new year restrict abortion, enforce immigration

State lawmakers were busy last year, resulting in nearly 40,000 new state laws taking effect in 2012.  Given the political climate of the past few years, it is unsurprising that many of these focus on immigration enforcement:

Alabama, with the country’s toughest immigration law, will require all employers who do business with any government entity to use a federal system known as E-Verify to check that all new employees are in the country legally.
Georgia is putting a similar law into effect requiring any business with 500 or more employees to use E-Verify to check the employment eligibility of new hires. The requirement is being phased in, with all employers with more than 10 employees to be included by July 2013.

In addition to draconian immigration measures (that are, by the way, destroying the economies of the states in which they have been passed), a parental notification law is going into effect in New Hampshire. An Arkansas law requiring facilities performing non-surgical abortions to be subject to the same Health Department inspections as facilities performing surgical abortions has also just gone into effect.

Laws going into effect this year means that people begin to be affected right away, as is the case for a 93-year-old woman in Tennessee, who will not be able to vote for the first time in decades due to her identification card not matching new voter ID requirements in the state.

It’s not all bad news however – California passed a state version of the DREAM Act, which expands eligibility to scholarships to undocumented youth in the state. California also passed a policy requiring educational curricula in the state to go into the societal contributions of LGBT persons and persons with disabilities, a much-needed recognition of the vast contributions of these communities to our movements for  social justice.

Last year was indeed busy, and this year shows no signs of slowing down – watch out, keep informed, and always stay engaged. Palante!

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What do the election results mean for Latinas?

Latinas face a unique and complex array of reproductive health and rights issues that are exacerbated by poverty, gender, racial and ethnic discrimination and xenophobia. We believe that in order to substantially improve the reproductive health of Latinas and protect their rights to exercise reproductive freedom we must strive to affirm human dignity and the right to self-determination. To that end, we are happy to report that yesterday’s November 8^th elections moved in a positive direction in addressing some of the key areas of concern for Latinas health and wellness.

In Mississippi voters defeated a personhood ballot initiativewith a conclusive 55 percent of the vote.The initiative would have banned common forms of birth control, criminalized abortion even in the case of rape, incest, or life endangerment of the mother, and outlawed common IVF procedures. Colorado rejected similar measures in 2008 and 2010. Voters that hold a range of personal views about reproductive health issues including abortion agreed that this was an extreme intrusion on medical privacy.

Mississippi already places a great burden on families to obtain one of the most common medical procedures for women. The state has tough abortion laws, with only one clinic available in the entire state to perform the procedure. The state also requires parental or judicial consent for any minor to get an abortion, mandatory in-person counseling and a 24-hour wait before any woman can terminate a pregnancy. Now, hopefully, Mississippi can work on other issues, such as the fact that they have some of the highest rates of unintended pregnancy and STIs including HIV/AIDS in the country.

While a handful of states are likely to face similar “personhood” ballot measures in the next election, we are optimistic that voters will continue to reject these intrusions on reproductive health, justice, and liberty.

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National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health stands with Mississippi for No on 26

As the only national organization advocating for the fundamental human right to reproductive health and justice for Latinas, their families and their communities, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) stands in solidarity with Mississippians who oppose Proposition 26, which would undermine the rights and health of Latinas and all women:  from those wanting to plan and space their pregnancies to women who want to carry their pregnancies to term healthfully.

On Tuesday, November 8^th 2011 Mississippians will go to the polls to vote on a proposition that is being described as one of the most serious threats to a woman’s right to make decisions over her reproductive health. Proposition 26, also known as, “The Personhood Amendment” would amend the Mississippi state constitution to include in its definition of “persons” all human beings from the moment of fertilization, cloning or functional equivalent thereof.  Life, under the proposed amendment, would begin at the moment that a human egg is fertilized.

NLIRH recognizes that by defining a fetus as a “person,” and endowing the fetus with the legal rights and privileges of personhood, the state strips away the rights of women to be the central authorities in all decisions about her reproductive health and choices, even in cases when her life is threatened or endangered.

• Proposition 26 would outlaw abortion, a medically-safe and legal procedure that three in ten U.S. women will obtain by the age of 45, of which 25% are Latina. Abortion is sometimes necessary to protect the life and health of the pregnant woman.

• Proposition 26 could outlaw the use of many forms of contraception, including “the pill”, intrauterine devices and the morning-after pill.  In fact, many forms of contraception, including “the pill” work to prevent pregnancy by making the uterus inhospitable to a fertilized egg. Latinas already face myriad challenges to accessing birth control; Proposition 26 would reverse whatever rights and access Latinas in Mississippi have to safe and effective methods of contraception.

• Proposition 26 could also strip away a doctor’s ability to utilize best practices to treat ectopic pregnancies and place strict limitation on in-vitro fertilization to treat infertility.

• By lifting the fetus’s rights to those of personhood, Proposition 26 complicates a doctor’s oath to protect the life and health of his or her pregnant patient, which can have serious consequences for the patient’s health.

• Proposition 26 is misguided: the biological reality is that most fertilized eggs never develop into human begins. Granting these entities with legal rights of personhood goes too far.

The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health advocates for a standard of care that will provide Latinas with options to make decisions about their reproductive health and care: these options must be supported by medically accurate information and free from biased and coercive policies and practices.

Proposition 26 relies on biological and reproductive misinformation to undermine whatever reproductive rights and options Latinas and all women have: rights and options necessary to determine her life’s course, her participation in family and society, and her health.

We urge you to stand with us and Mississippians to vote NO on Proposition 26.

This blog post is part of the HERvotes Mississippi Personhood Amendment Blog Carnival. For more information about Proposition 26 and how to help Mississippi defeat the proposition, please visit Mississippians for Healthy Families.

For more information about the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health here.

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Coming out as undocumented as a tool for system-wide change

 By Luis Vargas, Community Mobilization Intern

Last week, Pulitzer-Price winner Jose Antonio Vargas declared  that he is an undocumented immigrant in a New York Times piece, and, as expected, the media has been wondering about whether he will be deported.  It’s not so much the scandal that Vargas’ piece has caused in the media that makes the article compelling, but, admirably, because he is the first to come out as an undocumented in such large media platform. His coming out follows in the footsteps of the many in the undocumented youth movement that mobilized around the DREAM Act, and themselves came out of the shadows in regards to their immigration status. But more importantly, his actions show that even individuals can put pressure on the system, even if it can cost you everything.

“I’m done running. I’m exhausted. I don’t want that life anymore,” states Vargas.

Sharing his story was a way to let go of his frustration, but sharing his experiences in this way was also a brave act, a way to put pressure on the immigration system.  If Vargas believes that it is possible to create some kind of change in the immigration policies, or to challenge them, then it can be said that to share one’s stories with the public is one way of showing how easily the immigration system is flawed.

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Stephanie J. Alvarado: It’s Time to Be Pro-Access!

National Field Organizer at NLIRH Stephanie J. Alvarado has an article in the Huffington Post about why she is Pro-Access.

The word ‘abortion’ is always one that stirs debate. But it shouldn’t. Here’s why.

I was recently asked if I was pro-life, or if I was pro-choice. You know what I answered, “I’m pro-access.” I’m pro-access because terms like ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-choice’ are antiquated and assume that all women have a choice to begin with, when in reality, many women have limited access to reproductive health care because so many restrictions are set in place. Women should be supported to actually have a choice to begin with, and the fact that we’re in the 21st century, still having this debate, is something that I find remarkable.

As a 24-year-old proud Latina woman and daughter of immigrants, I am part of the fastest growing demographic in our country. It’s why I’m so passionate about the issue of abortion, and why I devote my days to protecting a women’s legal right to choose in my work with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health — the only national Latina health and reproductive justice organization in the United States.

Some people ask me if I’ve had an abortion, and if that’s what led me to this line of work. To that I respond ‘no,’ but here’s what drew me to devote my time to one of our nation’s most divisive issues. Since I was 14 years old, I have always recognized my agency in fighting for social justice issues in my community. From being a young student organizer until present day, my life has always been connected to fighting for those who are marginalized and underserved. I am motivated and strengthened by the stories that our activists share with me on a daily basis about the constant struggle it is for them to be able to attain quality and affordable reproductive health care. It is a fight faced every day simply because we are women.

Read the full article here.

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NLIRH denounces racist anti-choice billboard campaign targeting Latinas

After it was reported that a group called Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles is planning on putting up billboards around Los Angeles claiming that “The most dangerous place for a Latino is in the womb,” NLIRH released the following statement denouncing the effort.

“These offensive billboards are nothing more than political ploys designed to stigmatize Latina women and communities of color and restrict access to reproductive health care.

“The organizations promoting these ads are focused on sensationalizing unintended pregnancy and abortion care, and cutting even more women off from the reproductive health care they seek.

“We should be doing all we can to support women making the best personal reproductive health care decisions for themselves and their families.

“As the only national Latina reproductive health and justice organization, we are outraged by these condescending ad campaigns.  These offensive ads have no place in our communities.”

Historically, racial and economic disparities limit quality health care options for Latinas and communities of color, including family planning services. Studies show that African American women and Latinas are more likely to be uninsured or underinsured and often lack basic access to birth control and comprehensive sex education due to fundamental structural inequities in society.

The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health stands in solidarity with other reproductive justice organizations, such as Trust Black Women and California Latinas for Reproductive Justice in condemning this campaign.

Stay tuned for updates about this offensive campaign and ways you can take action.

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