Farmworker rights activist censored because of abortion views

Contributed by Raquel Namuche 

Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America and all around respected advocate of human rights, was recently uninvited from speaking at a catholic school in California.  It seems like she was scheduled to speak as part of a day commemorating Cesar Chavez, but was uninvited due to pressure from parents who were worried about Huerta’s pro-choice stance.

Are these parents really worried that Huerta would discuss her thoughts on abortion when she was specifically scheduled to speak on “100 Women Who Have Shaped America?”  I don’t think Huerta would have chosen this particular forum to express her pro-choice sentiments.  This goes a little deeper: 

Last December, parent Steve Loftus’ son told him about an assignment to write a report on Huerta after the teacher had praised her. On Dec. 6, Loftus wrote the principal, Sister Eva Lujano, to complain about the inappropriateness of the assignment. He concluded his letter saying, “I have supported Catholic education at OLG and in the Diocese of Fresno in the past, but this situation makes me seriously question continuing my children’s education in the diocesan school.” Loftus said he received no response.

Loftus told California Catholic Daily he was serious about pulling his children out of Catholic schools if this kind of scandal persisted. “I’m paying for a Catholic education and that’s what I expect to get,” he said. ‘They should be teaching our children to be members of the Church Militant.’

Does all the organizing work Huerta has done on behalf of farm workers mean nothing to someone who is anti-choice simply because she believes in a women’s right to choose?   It’s sad to see that the parents of these students couldn’t see pass through Huerta’s personal beliefs and let their children get the opportunity to hear from one of the most influential activists of our time.  

UPDATE: The LA Times has an article about this issue.

Contributed by Raquel Namuche

Welcome NAPAWF to the blog world!

A sister organization, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) has just launched a new blog. Welcome to the blogosphere, NAPAWF! You can check out their blog here.

Spotlight on Crisis Pregnancy Centers

Contributed by Raquel Namuche, Community Mobilization Intern Britney Spears’ younger sister was recently seen visiting a crisis pregnancy center (CPC) in Mississippi.  If you look at the sign of the CPC she visited, it clearly says they offer “non-medical services.” Unfortunately, not all CPCs follow this kind of honesty in advertising. Luckily there are advocates trying to change that. 

Enter Maryland, whose General Assembly is currently considering legislation that would require crisis pregnancy centers to accurately inform their clients about their services and intentions.  The bill was introduced by Democratic delegate Roger Manno and calls for CPCs to provide their clients with disclaimers that state the CPC is not “required to provide factually accurate information” and that any information provided “is not intended to be medical.”  If passed, this bill would hopefully stop the deceitful tactics CPCs use to prevent freedom of choice in the state of Maryland.

A recent investigative report released by NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland Fund exposes some of the disturbing practices of 11 CPCs in Maryland.  The report found consistent use of false information, biased counseling, and delay tactics. 

CPCs appeal to low-income women by offering free services, some of which can be costly in the private sector, such as ultrasounds. They also often target minority populations and exploit specific vulnerabilities in order to dissuade women from choosing abortion. One investigator, who posed as a Latina immigrant, was told, falsely, that it would be “very, very difficult” for her to obtain an abortion if she was not a legal resident of the U.S.

There are definitely a lot of barriers that prevent immigrant Latinas, especially those who are undocumented, from accessing abortion services, but to question someone’s legal status and use it as a persuasive scare tactic is wrong and illustrates that legislation preventing CPCs from misleading clients must be passed.

Maryland’s General Assembly session ends on April 7, so the bill introduced by Manno still has a chance.  The bill is scheduled for a hearing in the House Health and Government Operations committee on March 14.  Committee hearings are open to the public.  You can go here for directions on how to testify in front of a committee.

Similar legislation has also been introduced in the New York State Assembly.

Contributed by Raquel Namuche, Community Mobilization Intern

Welcome two new bloggers!

We’d like to give a warm welcome to our two newest Latina Institute bloggers, Edith and Raquel. Both are working with NLIRH through internships this spring and we are happy to have them blogging with us!

Happy International Women’s Day everyone! Look out for weekly content from both Edith and Raquel. To learn more about them, go here.

HPV vaccination for boys stirs up controversy

This NYT article discusses people’s reactions to the HPV vaccine being made available for boys, which apparently might be approved as soon as 2009. Taking the angle of whether parents of boys would be willing to vaccinate their children to prevent the women with whom they will have sex from getting cervical cancer – the headline is Vaccinating Boys for Girls’ Sake – the article makes a few important oversights. 

First, the article comments only briefly on warts caused by HPV, and though they are addressed as a serious concern they seem only secondary to cervical cancer; while, understandably, cervical cancer is a more serious concern – in that it is life-threatening – warts are not trivial and their prevention should work as a major selling-point for this vaccine in boys.   Secondly, this article works mostly under the assumption that all boys are heterosexual.  What gets lost with this assumption are risk-factors that are far more threatening than warts, as HPV is a major risk factor in penile cancer and anal cancer – cancers most commonly seen in men who have sex with men. 

In trying to cover its political bases by obscuring the fact that Gardasil prevents HPV (a sexually transmitted infection) Merck might have marketed itself into an uncomfortable hole, as boys clearly have a personal stake in this too - regardless of their lack of a cervix, and even regardless of their altruistic feelings for them.

Contributed by Veronica Bayetti Flores

Sign Up for Our Instantes Newsletter!

If you haven’t yet, please take the time to sign up for our Instantes E-Newsletter, as well as action alerts, events and important news about Latina’s reproductive health and justice!

Click here to go to our home page, and sign up at the right hand side. NLIRH respects your privacy; we will not sell, rent or give away your information to anyone.

Challenges facing immigrant health

An article in today’s Washington Post does a great job of explaining the many barriers that face immigrant’s when it comes to health and health care.It’s written by a nurse who works at a Mobile health unit in Maryland and her perspective is very indicative of the situation around the country.

She outlines to complicated barriers that face this population:

• It’s hard to get immigrants to take advantage of available services.
• Medication issues can complicate care.
• Language barriers take many forms.
• The poor health of many immigrant patients is aggravated by poverty.
• Immigrants need access to mental health, dental health and specialty services.

For more about immigration and it’s connections to health, click here.

Come Join Us at Feministing.com’s “Roe v. Wade Anniversary Extravaganza”

Party on, Wade: Roe v. Wade Anniversary Extravaganza

Hosted by Feministing.com

Thursday, January 31st, 2008
6:00 pm
Link Lounge
120 E 15th St New York 10003
(At Irving Pl)

NLIRH has signed up as a co-sponsor, as well as:
NOW-NYC
NARAL Pro-Choice New York
Pro-Choice Public Education Project (PEP)
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health
Choice Matters
Radical Women
National Institute for Reproductive Health
RH Reality Check
New York Abortion Access Fund (NYAAF)

Report from the Border: Abortion Access

This post comes from Nicole Diaz, our outgoing Regional Field Intern in the Rio Grande Valley of Southern Texas.

Working for a U.S. Congressman this past semester I was drawn to watching how he voted on legislation dealing with the family, health care and reproductive health for women in particular. I found it interesting that two of his votes seemed contradictory to one another. In one instance he voted to restrict interstate transport of minors to get abortions in the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act (Bill H.R. 784). The bill included punishment language of up to one year in prison for those convicted of transporting a minor over state lines to have an abortion. Yet three years previously he supported a bill that withheld funding from federal, state, and local funding to health providers who don’t provide abortion information in the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act of 2002 (Bill H.R. 4691).

This voting record suggests that the Congressman is in favor of informing our youth of their options yet not if allowing them to exercise their right to an abortion if that means crossing a state line. It continues to be a serious issue that despite the right to have an abortion in this country, the scarcity of providers can make it difficult to obtain one.

While working with La Red de Abogacia de Latinas in South Texas I looked into the closest abortion provider in our region, which happens to be 147 miles away in Corpus Christi, Texas. Local Congressman should be more concerned with meeting the reproductive health care needs of women in the area.

Traveling 2 hours and 40 minutes from South Texas to Corpus Christi to meet with an abortion provider is a barrier for most women, and in particular the women I work with, most of whom are without access to a car.

NARAL has a new report out on the Status of Reproductive Rights around the United States called Who Decides? Check it out and see how your state matches up on a variety of reproductive rights issues.

Friday, January 25th: “Beyond Roe: Reproductive Justice and Sterilization Abuse in the Latina Community”

If you are in the New York City area, come check out our event:

Beyond Roe: Reproductive Justice and Sterilization Abuse in the Latina Community

NLIRH board member Dr. Elena Gutierrez will discuss her new book, Fertile Matters: The Politics of Mexican Origin Women’s Reproduction, and how racism and fears surrounding immigration and Mexican-origin women’s so-called “hyper-fertility” led to their coerced sterilization. Opening remarks, as well as the Q&A and discussion that follows, will draw connections between abortion and the involuntary sterilization of our communities, demonstrating how state policies and court decisions hinder reproductive autonomy and fuel our movement for reproductive justice.

Friday, January 25, 2008 6 pm – 8 pm
New York University Wagner School of Public Service
Puck Building
295 Lafayette Street, 3rd Floor
(corner of Lafayette and Houston Street)
New York, New York 10012

Subway: B/D/F/V to Broadway-Lafayette St; 6 train to Bleecker St; or N/R to Prince St

Refreshments will be served! Books will be available for purchase and time will be allotted for book-signing by author Dr. Elena Gutierrez.

Sponsored by NLIRH and the Women of Color Policy Network.

To RSVP, please email Taja at intern2[AT]latinainstitute.org or call 212.422.2553