Gender, Health, and Immigration Detention

The folks over at Latinovations invited me, Senior Policy Analyst here at NLIRH, to write a guest blog for them.  The blog, where I wrote about the experiences with health care immigrant Latin@s have in detention, was posted at La Plaza today:

As a reproductive health organization, sometimes people are surprised to learn that the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health does immigrants’ rights work.  The truth is that immigration and reproductive justice are inextricably tied, and the health and struggles of immigrant detainees is an area that is particularly ripe for action.

To read more about health care and the experiences of pregnant women and transgender persons in immigration detention, make sure to check out the rest of the piece here.

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Sin opciones: Women in Mexico criminalized and endangered by illegal abortion

By Stephanie Rodriguez, Policy Intern

What happens when you are scared to go to the hospital?

This is the reality for thousands of women in Mexico where abortion is still outlawed in most states. Research from around the world has shown us that in places where abortion is illegal, it still happens, yet women are put at risk by underground procedures and the fear of persecution. This is the exact situation in Mexico.

A recent article in the New York Times highlighted this issue, discussing eight women who were jailed on homicide charges from supposed clandestine abortions. The process is shady at best, when evidence is difficult to find. Yolanda Martinez, one of the woman who was freed from jail after serving 7 years of her 25 year sentence stated; “They accuse you of crimes that you never committed.”

Women are afraid to go to hospitals whenever they are confronted with complications throughout their pregnancy because of these laws. It can be difficult to distinguish between miscarriage and complications from induced abortions, creating a culture of fear for women. From Guttmacher Institute:

Abortions in Mexico take place under unsafe conditions, resulting in serious health consequences for women. Seventeen percent of the Mexican women who obtained abortions in 2006 were treated in public hospitals for complications.

To make a bad situation worse, laws are being put in place to prevent even the idea of legalizing abortions. This is in response to the recent decision by Mexico City to legalize early abortions there.

Women’s safety should be our first priority–not driving them underground to unsafe procedures. We are not in a position where we can have women think twice before going to a hospital. We are not in a position to see more women die because they had no other option.

By Stephanie Rodriguez, Policy Intern

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The International Push for the Abortion Pill

By Nicole Catá, Policy Intern

What if the worldwide controversy over abortion could be solved with a small, $1 pill?  That is the question Nicholas Kristof asks in his column, which describes a pill that induces abortions.  He notes two potential benefits of the bill, the first being its easy access for women who may not be able to pay for abortion procedures, even risky ones:

Five-sixths of abortions take place in developing countries, where poor sterilization and training often make the procedure dangerous. Up to 70,000 women die a year from complications of abortions, according to the World Health Organization.

The safe and inexpensive pill could revolutionize women’s health in developing countries and prevent thousands of death at the hands of draconian anti-choice laws due to the second benefit Kristof notes:  misoprostol, a medication initially created to prevent stomach ulcers, is quite difficult for governments to restrict.

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Reintegrating abortion care and cultivating the next generation of providers

By Rita Martinez, Development and Communications Intern

Many in the reproductive rights movement are acutely aware of the divide that exists between abortion providers and mainstream medicine. While the government recognizes a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion, our policies and medical realities don’t show it very well. Not only does the country place a huge barrier to low-income access through the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of public funds for abortions, we also isolate abortion providers, forcing women to seek out stand-alone clinics in order to receive the care they need.

Following the passing of Roe vs Wade, which affirmed a woman’s right to choose, it was predicted that if only half the country’s obstetricians provided abortion care services, clinics would be unnecessary.

Emily Bazelon’s article in the NY Times Magazine best recounts the stifling environment that ensued:

After Roe, the shadow of the greedy, butchering “abortionist” continued to hover, and many doctors didn’t want to stand in it. As mainstream medicine backed away, feminist activists stepped in.

Initially a huge success for women’s rights, these stand-alone clinics soon became poised to further the divide between abortion providers and hospitals. In an attempt to secure abortion providers within mainstream medicine, they had now provided conservatives an opportunity to ultimately remove abortion care from the public’s view.

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Anti-choice “Freedom Rides” Distort the History and Message of Civil Rights Movement

Coordinators of the anti-choice billboard campaign in Atlanta have arranged a “Freedom Bus for the Unborn” that began on July 23^rd in Birmingham, Alabama.  Funded by Priests for Life of New York, this anti-choice operation exploits the historical site across from the 16^th Street Baptist Church where the Ku Klux Klan killed four girls in a bombing in 1963.  Alveda King, the niece of Dr. King and an employee of Priests for Life, will head the anti-abortion campaign in an attempt to lend credence to the “black children are an endangered species” mantra.

These freedom rides warp historical facts to suggest that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King opposed reproductive freedoms.  Much like other anti-choice organizations, the coordinators behind the freedom rides co-opt the language of civil rights, a movement based on expanding the right to make choices about one’s own life, to impinge on the decision-making abilities of black women.  To speak out against these misrepresentations of facts and pro-choice ideologies, three groups – SisterSong, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, and SisterLove, Inc. – organized a counter-protest at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta last Saturday.  Be on the lookout for more counter-protests, or organize one with fellow reproductive justice activists, to combat these freedom rides and put forth a vision of civil rights which empowers, rather than stigmatizes, women of color and seeks to advance, rather than roll back, our freedoms.

By Nicole Catá, Policy Intern

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Take Action: Stop the rollback of women’s rights in health care reform

Stop the rollback of women’s rights in health care reform

Last week, sixty of you joined us for our cafecito to discuss contraception in health care reform. We told you that your voices would be crucial in this fight. Now is the time to take action.

Not only do we need to make sure that contraception is covered as preventative care, but now we also need to push for a lifting of the ban on abortion coverage for women with pre-existing conditions.

Last week the Department of Health and Human Services and the Obama Administration decided to keep women at the margins of health care reform implementation by voluntarily imposing abortion coverage restrictions to women who need it the most, women in high-risk pools. The Administration was also silent on whether or not family planning will be included as a basic preventative care service. We cannot stand idly by as our access to reproductive health care services continue to be rolled back!

Please join us in taking action.

We have two crucial actions today:

1. Demand that contraception be covered as preventative care!

Click here to send a letter to your representatives urging them to sign on to the Dear Colleague letter that will be circulated by Senator Barbara Mikulski and Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Lois Capps.

The letter asks them to support comprehensive family planning services that includes contraception as a key women’s health service under the Women’s Health Amendment.

2. Tell the White House: No abortion coverage restrictions for women with pre-existing conditions

Click here to send a letter to President Obama demanding that he lift the ban on abortion coverage for women with pre-existing conditions.

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Nevada Republican tells pregnant rape survivors to make lemonade out of lemons

By Lucy Panza, DC Policy Intern

In a recent interview, Nevada Republican candidate for Senate Sharron Angle made a rather inconvenient blunder.  She dug herself into a pretty deep hole with her explanation of why pregnant survivors of rape and incest should not be able to access abortion.  As the Huffington Post reports:

[Interviewer Alan Stock]: What do you say then to a young girl, I am going to place it as [a previous interviewer] said it, when a young girl is raped by her father, let’s say, and she is pregnant. How do you explain this to her in terms of wanting her to go through the process of having the baby?

Angle: I think that two wrongs don’t make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade. Well one girl in particular moved in with the adoptive parents of her child, and they both were adopted. Both of them grew up, one graduated from high school, the other had parents that loved her and she also graduated from high school. And I’ll tell you the little girl who was born from that very poor situation came to me when she was 13 and said ‘I know what you did thank you for saving my life.’ So it is meaningful to me to err on the side of life.

Angle’s remarks are equally inflammatory and important.  They are important because, first, they demonstrate the candidate’s extreme views on abortion restrictions in a context where women and girls arguably need abortion care the most.  Second, these remarks are important for the lack of a Democratic response from incumbent Senator Harry Reid’s campaign.  Granted, Reid’s campaign website has a news page devoted to Angle’s radical opposition to women’s health.  But that does not lessen the significance of how Reid will respond this time around.  Despite Reid’s own conservative views on abortion rights, he and his advisers must come up with a statement that places him in stark contrast to Angle’s extremely insensitive and alarming position which, if she is elected, will jeopardize the health of women and girls.  This should not be a difficult or controversial task.

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Abortion restrictions gain momentum while funding for family support is slashed

By Sheila Reynoso, Research Intern

A recent report released by the Center for American Progress, Abortion Bills by the Numbers, written by Jessica Arons and Alex Cawthorne, caught my attention this week. It highlights the increase in state laws restricting access to abortion.

The health care reform bill and President Obama’s Executive Order are making it possible for states to “opt-out” of abortion coverage and pass laws that will prohibit insurance companies from providing abortion coverage in the exchange market.  Three states to this date have passed such laws, with 14 states following suit introducing laws that will either ban, limit, or a combination of both for abortions.

The report also mentions how states have passed laws that place all sorts of absurd restrictions on abortions, including (but not limited to) banning abortions based on the gender or race of the fetus; mandatory ultrasounds; and time frame limitations.  Finally, this article also comments on how much time and effort is spent lobbying for these abortion restrictions while other important legislation and programs are underfunded or cut altogether. Arons and Cawthorne highlight the irony in this:

While state legislators have been busy making abortion almost impossible to obtain for an untold number of women, they have done little to provide women with the support they need to carry their pregnancies to term, have childbirth options available to them, and raise the children they have. States are facing a budget shortfall of about $260 billion over the next two fiscal years, leading to unprecedented cuts to a variety of critical programs for vulnerable families and children, including public health programs and early childhood and K-12 education.

We need better public health programs that will provide education on contraceptive use, public health programs that will support a woman if she chooses to raise her child, and programs that will prevent unintended pregnancies.  I urge legislators to put themselves in a woman’s shoes and look at the reality of the position that these women are in, stop passing abortion laws that prohibit a woman’s right and instead move in a direction that will give women and families better reproductive health options.

By Sheila Reynoso, Research Intern

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Banning Abortion Bans

By Nicole Catá, Policy Intern

On June 1^st, 2010, the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project and Law Students for Reproductive Justice co-hosted a series of panels and discussions called the 2010 Summer Intern Training on Reproductive Rights Law & Justice.  Around 20 students attended the event, which explored current trends in the reproductive justice movement from a legal perspective.  The first, and perhaps the most controversial, activity was called “Next Wave of Abortion Restrictions:  Banning Abortions Based on the Sex or Race of the Fetus.”  Miriam Yeung, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, and Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, Staff Attorney for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, explained that conservative legislators such as Congressman Trent Franks, R-Ariz., are pushing sex and race selection abortion bans in federal and state legislatures.

Given the controversial nature of these proposals, the presenters decided to have each participant stand along a line representing a continuum based on how strongly he or she agreed or disagreed with a particular statement.  It seemed that none of us could come to a consensus about any of the questions:  Does sex-selection abortion rely on or enforce gender stereotypes?  Is it natural to want to balance sex representation in a family?  Is choosing the sex or physical characteristics of a fetus any different from stating one’s preferences on an adoption form?  Many of us stood somewhere in the middle of the continuum, floundering between a simple “yes” or “no.”

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From NLIRH Exec. Director Silvia Henriquez: Building Latina Leaders, Defying Stereotypes & Transforming the 21st Century

Just recently, as I walked to the podium and accepted the Ms. Foundation’s Women of Vision Award, I was in awe. I stood in front of a roomful of leaders, advocates and supporters of the women’s movement to accept an award from Gloria Steinem — who I have revered since I was a young feminist in high school helping my school mates organize for the 1992 abortion rights march. As a 35- year-old Latina with immigrant parents, I never dreamed that one day I would meet Gloria Steinem, let alone accept a leadership award from her.  But now I realize that this moment represents one of the goals of the women’s movement — finding and supporting new and diverse voices to challenge stereotypes and transform the lives of millions of women and girls.

Silvia Henriquez Accepting the Ms. Foundation's "Woman of Vision" Award, presented to her by feminist icon, Gloria Steinem

The Ms. Foundation’s Women of Vision award is given each year to leaders working to advance an equitable society. For many of us who are in the day-to-day fight for women’s advancement, it’s a moment to reflect and celebrate our achievements. So often, we talk about all the challenges women still face—and believe me, there are many. I also can tell you — that looking around at all those faces, I truly understood — that there is real power in the women’s movement. And, despite mainstream media claims to the contrary, the movement for reproductive justice is strong and there is growing recognition that reproductive health doesn’t happen in isolation, and pregnancy and disease prevention programs built on stigma and shame aren’t making anybody any healthier.

Together, along with the Ms. Foundation, other donors, activists and advocates, we are building a foundation of new grassroots leaders: Latinas who are committed to ending poverty and discrimination and to affirming the right to self-determination for ourselves and our families.  Racism, sexism, poverty, xenophobia, educational disparities – all these issues are inextricably connected for Latinas.  Never before has it been so clear that Latinas have a stake in the intersection of social justice, human rights and reproductive rights.

Every Latina activist has a story-some of us claim reproductive rights as our motivation others devote their lives to immigration or environmental justice. Regardless- the women’s movement is diverse and in many communities being led by women of color. But more of us have to tell our story so that we can begin changing the perception of our women and girls and demonstrate our collective strength. These moments of recognition are especially important as many of our communities are suffering in the wake of the egregious Arizona anti-immigrant law, or as some women fight to make ends meet and are struggling to afford the health care they need.

There are 15 million Latinas nationwide.  Whether you choose to volunteer in your neighborhood, you work for a social justice organization or you simply share your unique story, each of us has an opportunity to use that collective power to ensure that our children, partners, and families will enjoy a healthier, more just world. Our time is now.

To tell your story or why you care about these issues, click here.

To learn more about ways you can get involved, click here.

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