NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland—one of our Urban Initiative grant recipients—has been tirelessly advocating to pass a bill that that would require Baltimore’s crisis pregnancy centers to post disclaimers saying they don’t provide birth control or abortion referrals or face fines.
In a statement, NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland applauded this landmark legislation:
Our research shows that CPCs often use false and misleading information to dissuade women from considering their full range of reproductive health options, including birth control and abortion. This legislation simply requires CPCs to post a sign informing potential clients that they do not refer or provide for birth control or abortion - a statement that CPCs do not deny.
On Monday, the bill passed the second reading in the Baltimore City Council by a vote of 12 to 3. It now moves on to a third and final vote. If passed, it would be the first law in the nation of its kind.
At first glance, parental involvement laws–either notification or consent–for abortion do seem like common sense measures in the best interest of young women. But, with a little more consideration and analysis, we know that’s not how the world works. Parental involvement laws can put young women at risk after a pregnancy is disclosed. A 16-year-old woman had no previous history of physical abuse. Yet when her brother and father discovered her pregnancy, they beat her severely.
On October 22-23, the third Urban Initiative Regional Summit was held in Chicago, IL. Hosted by the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health (ICAH), the Summit brought together more than 150 advocates from 14 cities and eight states across the Midwest.
Recognizing the wonderful work ICAH has done over the years working for adolescent health in the state and the great potential of the Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health to promote real policy solutions to urban reproductive health challenges, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution to review the goals and outcomes of the Summit.
We’re thrilled the City of Chicago is committed to improving reproductive health and recognizes the importance of fostering collaboration between advocates, elected leaders, and public health officials in cities across the country to create and implement a proactive, local agenda to do so.
Go here to read the full resolution on the Urban Initiative website.
After weathering eight years of conservative attacks, the pro-choice community held high hopes that the Obama Administration, bolstered by democratic majorities in Congress, would signal an end to partisan bickering over federal funding for comprehensive care and the tedious national obsession with abortion.
With that optimism scattering to the four winds of manufactured political controversy, the National Institute for Reproductive Health is organizing the Urban Initiative for Reproductive Heath, four regional urban summits to bring providers, policymakers, activists, funders and legislators together to share effective program strategies and localized incidence data.
“There is a limitless potential to create change for women’s health at a local level,” said NIRH president Kelli Conlin at a Sept. 23 kick-off event in Denver. “What people here realize, much more clearly than people out East or in Washington, is that not everything has to be a knock-down, drag-out fight. You can get things done without burning down the house.”
Seeking common ground was a frequent theme throughout the discussions on sexuality education, underserved populations, and the intersection of reproductive freedom and economic self-sufficiency. Check out the whole piece to read about the lessons learned by our partners from Missoula, MT to Portland, OR.
Next, we’re headed to Atlanta for the Southeastern Regional Summit on Sept. 30-Oct. 2, followed by Chicago, Ill., (Oct. 21-23) and Los Angeles, Calif., (Oct. 29-30). Visit the Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health website to stay up-to-date!
Reproductive health advocates have recently engaged in a search for “common ground”—an agreement that will transcend ideological discord. In her recent article on RH Reality Check, the National Institute for Reproductive Health’s Amy Boldosser writes that real common ground can be found at local levels, where municipal policy-makers and community-based leaders are responding to the needs of their cities. And the National Institute’s Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health can help them get there.
Amy writes,
Rather than focusing on the broad ideological debates, local officials on both sides of the abortion issue have found common ground by responding to the needs they see every day in their communities. Along the way, they have improved not only the reproductive health but the overall health and potentially the economic outlook for the people they represent.
Cities across America experience poor reproductive health outcomes. Regardless of ideological disposition, community stakeholders are interested in improving AIDS incidence rates, decreasing unintended pregnancy, and eliminating infant mortality. A multi-year project, the Urban Initiative is helping create and promote real policy solutions to address the reproductive health challenges facing cities today. By creating partnerships between elected officials and advocates at the city and county levels, the Urban Initiative advances an agenda that promotes policies and programs focused on improving reproductive health outcomes.
Amy concludes,
The quickest route to common ground is where the interest isn’t to debate whether abortion is right or wrong but to take action on issues that affect us most. The most effective common ground is when communities come together to prevent teen pregnancy, stop the spread of HIV and STIs, provide pre-natal care and reduce infant and maternal mortality, eliminate environmental toxins, address racial and ethnic health disparities, and improve care for low-income families who are disproportionately lacking health care access. This common ground starts where we all live, where the grassroots work takes place, where all politics is local.
The Urban Initiative is helping to create reproductive health care programs and policies that can be responsive to the needs of a specific community. By keeping the locale’s best interest in mind, the Urban Initiative bypass any ideological debates that may pop up.
While the law does not require that teens receive consent from a parent, even notification can create unnecessary and dangerous barriers to accessing reproductive health services for young women. Parental notification laws assume that teens can safely involve their family in the decision to terminate a pregnancy—which is sadly not always the case. Also, most teens already involve their parents in their decision to terminate a pregnancy. For the small minority who do not involve parents in this decision, it is usually for good reason, like in cases of abuse or incest. And, like other abortion restrictions—such as mandatory counseling and waiting periods—parental notification restrictions tend to result in more second-trimester abortions.
The American Medical Associate reports that some young women will go to extreme and unhealthy lengths to keep pregnancies secret, including running away, obtaining illegal abortions, or self-inducing abortions. Over half of young women who do not involve a parent in their decision to seek an abortion cite fear of abuse or eviction. Requiring parental notification or consent can expose young women to these risks.
Parental notification laws like this one are just another restriction designed to prevent women from accessing their legal right to an abortion—and end up doing more harm than good.
Conlin added that “it is critical that women have fast, easy access to this back up method of birth control.” Over-the-counter access for all women and greater public knowledge about EC would help ensure that every woman can take advantage of this convenient back-up birth control method when the unexpected happens.
Yesterday we blogged about a special report on Crisis Pregnancy Centers from RH Reality Check and the Feminist Majority. Today you can hear advocates from the Feminist Majority Foundation, CPC-Watch, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS), and Advocates for Youth discuss the harmful tactics and consequences of these fake clinics on a media conference call. Check it out here!
Under the Bush Administration more than $1 billion in federal funds was poured into abstinence-only-until marriage programs. A large portion of these funds have gone towards so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). In a fascinating special report, RH Reality Check, the Feminist Majority Foundation, and Stuart Productions document the deceitful tactics of these fake clinics.
Under the guise of comprehensive women’s health clinics and often with taxpayer dollars, CPCs use shame and misinformation to proselytize against abortion and contraception. After attracting young women—often college students and low-income women—to their facilities with the promise of free pregnancy tests and “accurate information about your pregnancy options,” CPCs use scare tactics, misleading information, and outright lies about the consequences of abortion to dissuade women from seeking one. As the video below shows, the blatant deception is often shocking.
While President Obama has called for an end to federal funding of ineffective abstinence-only programs and a return to scientifically accurate sex education, it is now up to Congress to act. In the next couple weeks the House Appropriations Labor Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee is conducting hearings on its FY 2010 spending bill.
Now is the time to tell House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. David Obey we cannot continue funding failed abstinence-only education programs and fake CPCs that are harming young women and men. Follow the link above to take action now or call Representative Obey’s office directly at 202-225-3365.
To read the whole special report at RH Reality Check, go here.
The mantra “think local” took center-stage yet again today—this time, for reproductive rights advocates in the D.C. area. The House Appropriations Committee just voted to lift an anti-choice measure which has prevented the District of Columbia from using its locally raised funds to provide abortion for low-income women for almost every year since 1988. The Appropriations Committee vote was an important first step in defeating the ban which has limited care for D.C. women for almost two decades.
Next week, the bill will face the full House of Representatives for a vote and anti-choice advocates are expected to put up a fight. The measure will also be taken up by the Senate next week. Washington, D.C. is currently the only area where Congress has ultimate control over the locality’s spending and operations.
