Repro Health Hub

In many prisons and jails throughout the country pregnant women are routinely shackled during labor and delivery. Surprisingly, California, Illinois, and Vermont are the only states to have passed anti-shackling legislation.

Prison and jail protocols require ankle shackles and, until recently, stomach restraints. Access to Reproductive Health Care in New York State Jails, a New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) report released last March, argues that shackling violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. Shackling seems especially ridiculous when we consider that the majority of women are in custody for non-violent crimes.

A few months ago the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) finally decided to prohibit “face-down four-point restraints and restraint belts that directly constrict the area of the pregnancy.” Further amendments to the shackling policy are in the works. Policies in state jails vary extremely. According to the NYCLU report, only three New York jails have written procedures concerning the shackling of pregnant women; of those three, only two forbid it.

The Second Chance Act of 2007 (HR 1593) was recently passed into law and requires the Attorney General to submit a detailed report to Congress on correctional facility policies regarding the restraint of pregnant women. Facilities must also report on “the reasons for the use of the physical restraints, the length of time that the physical restraints were used, and the security concerns that justified the use of the physical restraints.” The bill should become effective by next spring.

In the past thirty years, the number of incarcerated women has increased by 800%–and women of color are the fastest growing prison population in the US. Groups like the Rebecca Project and the Prison Doula Project are fighting to ensure that pregnant women are never shackled and even to provide for a positive labor experience. We need to respond responsibly with additional anti-shackling legislation and appropriate health care for the safety of these women and their newborn babies.

By Samantha Hurley

While 3.5 million pregnancies are among women ages 19–29 and one-third of all HIV diagnoses are made among young adults, many people in this age group are uninsured and lack regular health care.

According to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund, 13.7 million young adults, ages 19–29 were uninsured in 2006, an increase from 13.3 million in 2005. What’s even worse is that low-income young adults, especially young adults of color, are disproportionately uninsured. 53 percent of Hispanics and 36 of African Americans in this age group lack insurance, compared to 23 percent of whites.

Many young adults go without coverage because they lose it as soon as they graduate from college. In the year following their undergraduate graduation, 34 percent are uninsured at least part of the time. Those who do not wish to further their education after high school are also cut from their health care policies. 60 percent of young adults who do not enroll in college full-time lose coverage under a parent’s policy around the age of 18. To avoid becoming uninsured, some graduates resort to creative methods. According to a Wall Street Journal article, one college grad enrolled in an online university simply so he could stay on his parent’s insurance plan as a student.

What’s most upsetting about this data is that young adults, and particularly young women, are left without coverage to receive regular preventative and reproductive health care. Having no insurance, young adults are either burdened with the costs of health care or forced to go without. More than 60 percent of uninsured young adults opted out of getting health care they needed in the past year due to high costs. This includes failing to fill prescriptions, skipping treatments, and avoiding the doctor all together. Presumed to be a strong, vital source of life, young adults are becoming a larger demographic within the uninsured, overlooked as a group of people that both need and deserve good health care.

By Samantha Hurley

Tomorrow marks the final day of the first annual National Week of Action for Reproductive Justice!

The week-long event was created by the Third Wave Foundation, a “feminist, activist foundation that works nationally to support young women and transgender youth ages 15 to 30.” In collaboration with members of the national coalition supported by the organization, the week was celebrated with various special events (workshops, lectures, trainings, you name it!) hosted by local grassroots organizations around the country. A big thank you to everyone who was involved in making the initiation of this empowering tradition a huge success!

Check out this inspiring video Third Wave produced for the occasion!

We’d like to recognize one of the groups involved in this fabulous week that has been working hard in the name of reproductive justice for over ten years! Sistersong is a collective of grassroots organizations that mobilize, educate, and create change for women of color. Through public policy change, advocacy, and education, Sistersong works to bring progressive change regarding reproductive and sexual health and rights, including ensuring accessible health care, accurate information, and available resources for women in all five of the ethnic populations they represent.

Reproductive Justice is described as the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, social, environmental and economic well-being of women and girls, girls, based on the full achievement and protection of women’s human rights.

- Sistersong

So if you missed this past week’s events, be sure to check their homepage for many more opportunities to be involved and see what other reproductive justice happenings are going on near you!

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Since the spring of 2007, women of New Orleans have had a new place to access much- needed, affordable women’s health services. The New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic (NOWHC), a project of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence New Orleans, opened its doors in May of 2007 with the mission:

“To equip marginalized and underserved women with the means to control and care for their own bodies, sexuality and reproduction through a holistic, community-centered well women approach to healthcare which integrates sexual health and reproductive justice.”

Their opening came in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which left many previously marginalized and underserved women with even less access to basic women’s health services. Not surprisingly, recovery efforts have been slow (one year after the storm, all the public family planning and STD clinics remained closed leaving 15,000 without care). However, the New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic has been proactive—not waiting for a previously lacking healthcare infrastructure to be rebuilt. 

Instead, they are challenging the accepted norms of sub-par care and offering an alternative comprehensive model of care to the women of New Orleans, regardless of their ability to pay. Since opening less than two years ago, NOWHC has served over 350 clients, offering a sliding scale for services through their Women’s Health Fund. The sliding scale at NOWHC puts health services within the reach of many women who otherwise could not afford them. Currently NOWHC offers a range of women’s health services including pap smears, pelvic exams, testing and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy testing, preliminary obstetric visits, and contraceptive services. Recent partnerships with the Latino Health Outreach Project and CAMP ACE have also allowed for Spanish language services as well as free HIV testing at the clinic on a weekly basis.  

In addition to the health services offered, NOWHC is more than a place to access affordable care. As Shana Griffin, organizer with INCITE! New Orleans explained in an August 2006 interview:

“It’s more than providing healthcare services it’s also about challenging the conditions that limit our access and our opportunities, such as poverty, racism, gender-based violence, imperialism, and war. We see it as more than just a clinic, we want it to also be an organizing center that can meet immediate needs while also working for racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice.”

If you’re interested in advancing the goals and efforts of NOWHC, send an email to nowhc_info@yahoo.com for more information on ways you can help. 

The Center for Disease Control has just published a new report, and we don’t like the results one bit. According to the CDC, 1 in 4 teenage girls in the U.S. has a sexually transmitted infection. Here is a breakdown of the findings according to the Wall Street Journal: 

“An estimated 3.2 million girls ages 14 to 19, or about 26% of that age group, are infected, and the rate is highest among black girls, the study found. Nearly half the blacks surveyed had at least one sexually transmitted infection, compared with 20% among both whites and Mexican-American teens. The vast majority — about 18% — were infected with strains of human papillomavirus, or HPV, that can cause genital warts and cervical cancer, the CDC said.”

The 2008 National STD Prevention Conference in Chicago, where this important information was officially announced today, provided revealing information about contraceptive use and STI testing among young girls. The CDC released findings from a separate study that showed that even though most (82%) sexually active 15 to 24 year old women received contraceptive or STD/HIV services, only 39% receive both which indicates that many women at high risk are not receiving necessary prevention services. 

So why, exactly, are these numbers so shockingly high?  

What many people, including Planned Parenthood of America, consider the root of the problem is the lack of comprehensive sex education. “The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure and teenage girls are paying the real price,” the organization’s president Cecile Richards said. 

What is probably most staggering is the racial disparity these studies show. Of the total amount of chlamydia cases, young black women were found to make up nearly half of the cases. The director of the CDC’s STD prevention division John Douglas points to limited access to health care as a possible cause, an obstacle that creates delays in seeking care, fewer doctors visits, and is completely unacceptable. 

How do we combat these STI rates? With the help of organizations like the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States (SIECUS). The advocacy group has a strong record of providing accurate information and comprehensive education about sexuality, sexual health, and sexual rights. For the past 40 years SIECUS has been pushing for effective public policy in sex-related issues and created much needed (as the CDC has shown) reliable sexual health information for educators, health professionals, and communities around the country.

Don’t have plans the first weekend of April? Craving some inspiring talk about reproductive and social justice? Then you should take a trip to Amherst, Massachusetts! Hampshire College (haven for the free spirited, pro-active and socially conscious) is hosting a free weekend conference called From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom.  

The event is part of a project by the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program, “a reproductive rights organization that trains, educates, and inspires new leaders, organizers, and supporters nationwide.” The action-packed weekend will be full of great opportunities to participate in workshops, hear some great musical performances, and listen to some awesome discussions about reproductive freedom in the context of other social issues such as racial equality, health care reform, economic justice, and LGBTQ rights (to name a few!).  

From Abortion Rights to Social Justice:
Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom
April 4-6, 2008
Hampshire College, Amherst, MA 

 It’s free, so register now!

U.S. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana finally got his discriminatory bill passed on February 26, 2008, a bill that essentially does nothing but verify that pro-life politicians have the wrong idea on how to decrease abortion rates.   

The Vitter Amendment limits abortion funding by Indian Health Services (IHS), which is the government-funded source of health care for Native Americans.  The Hyde Amendment already prohibits Indian Health Services from providing funds for abortions, as it does for federally funded Medicaid, except in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment.  Basically, the Vitter Amendment was put into place to absorb the language of the Hyde Amendment into a more specific context, if in fact Hyde becomes overturned in the future.   

Vitter explains his amendment as an effort to “close the loophole” of the Hyde Amendment, which “has allowed [abortion funding] to continue in certain instances.”  However, the amendment maintains the same three exceptions as under the Hyde Amendment. As a redundant bill, the Vitter Amendment does nothing to introduce new anti-abortion legislation, nor does it do anything to actively address the fact that Native American women have some of the highest teen pregnancy rates.  Worst, Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted. 

Good work on not assessing the matter at hand and taking away help from women that need it the most, Vitter.  American democracy at its finest. 

 With so much positive and progressive work going on around the country, those of us at the Repro Health Hub would like to take a moment out of each week to give the spotlight to some of the awesome organizations that are working hard to promote equality and reproductive health, rights and justice by initiating our Hero of the Week!   Without further ado, our first Hero of the Week is (drumroll please!)… 

The Pro-Choice Public Education Project!   Based out of  New York City, the project is an empowering resource for young women looking to develop their leadership skills and become more active in the promotion of reproductive justice. Just check out their mission statement: 

To educate young women and the organizations that serve them about reproductive health, rights, and justice in order to develop a new generation of leaders. 

Aside from leadership development and effective pro-choice campaigning, the Public Education Project (PEP) also conducts research initiatives in reproductive health. Their latest undertaking (which comes out this spring! We can’t wait!) will focus on African-American,  Latina, and Asian Pacific Islander women and provide a quantitative study on these populations’ perspectives regarding reproductive health, rights, and activism.  Be sure to check out their website for volunteer opportunities near you or to download some of their great campaign material! 

A big cheers and thanks from your friends here at the Repro Health Hub!

The fabulous Amanda Marcotte interviews writer, blogger, doula and Senior Advocacy Associate of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, Miriam Pérez, on RH Reality Check.

Pérez’s blog, Radical Doula, covers a range of issues, including reproductive justice, pregnancy, birth, sterilization, menopause, LGBT issues, abortion, and more. Make sure to check out the interview to find out more about her work!

The New York Times recently covered the story “Surgeon General Sees 4-Year Term as Compromised.” Former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona said the Bush administration would not allow him to speak or issue reports on emergency contraception and sex education among other issues. When public health issues are not disclosed to the public for political rather than scientific reasons, we can be grateful to the many community-based organizations filling this informational void and working to protect the publics’ health. 

The promotoras (community health educators) of   the Dominican Women’s Development Center (DWDC) are a group of 10 women living in Washington Heights, NY who are filling the public health informational vacuum.  Luz Bermudez, a promotora, has been living in Washington Heights for over 40 years. After attending a community gathering on the high risk and prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Washington Heights and Inwood,  Luz said, “I signed the contract to become a promotora, - I knew I  needed to become more deeply involved, I knew that the information I shared could save someone’s life.”

A true leader, Luz was quick to recruit more promotoras. “I got involved because of Luz”, said Argentina Cruz, “I have known her for 16 years, she is my friend and we have always been involved in community work.” Luz and Argentina walk the streets of Washington Heights in red t-shirts that read, Got Condoms? – Latinas Get Real, and are warmly and enthusiastically greeted as “Las Señoras de los Condones” (The ladies with the condoms).   

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