As a child of the 80s, I realize there are many fights I’ve been lucky enough to miss because of the throw down activism of generations of women before me. From the right to vote to Title IX to Roe, women have been paving the way so that my generation and those that follow are not treated differently simply because we have vaginas.

But low and behold, in 2012, we are revisiting a fight that few of my generation ever thought we’d have to engage in: the fight over birth control.

When I was deciding what college was best for me, I looked at schools based on the types of degrees they offered, the quality of the faculty, the professor-student ratio, financial aid availability and more. I ended up attending Georgetown University because of its School of Foreign Service and the Jesuit ideal they espoused of “men and women for others.” While I, a spiritual yet unreligious student, was concerned about going to a Catholic school, I was reassured that the University did not push its faith on its students; it was only there if we wanted it. In fact, in my four years there, the closest thing to Mass I attended was the Convocation.

What I didn’t realize was that while Georgetown prided itself on diversity and inclusion of many faiths and beliefs (we had a rabbi and imam on campus as well), it nonetheless imposed its faith on female students by denying them access to birth control in its student health plans. Condoms were also not to be distributed on campus, except in our free speech zone, or “Red Square,” and by the rogue group H*yas for Choice (not officially affiliated with the university, hence the * that came from a lawsuit).

While students (Catholic and non-Catholic alike) at Georgetown have been fighting back against these restrictions for years, the fight has now gone national as the Catholic Bishops have decided that religious-affiliated employers and universities should be able to impose their interpretation of a religion on their employees’ and students’ health insurance.

To follow most of the media’s coverage on this, you’d think that the Obama administration is force-feeding the pill to Catholic Bishops when in fact, not only do actual churches NOT have to cover contraception, but you, as an employee or student at a religious-affiliated institution, don’t have to access this benefit.

Health insurance exists because it’s incredibly expensive to buy anything out of pocket-including contraception. Birth control can cost around $50 a month. About half of women struggle to pay for what can total $600 in a year. Making contraception accessible means that women are more likely to use it. Shocking, I know. And considering the fact that half of pregnancies in the United States are unintended and we have the highest teen birth rate in the developing world, you’d think access to contraception would be something we’d all agree on (especially those who fight to take away access to abortion services AND complain non-stop about low-income women accessing services like welfare, food stamps and WIC).

When I was at Georgetown, I had friends on the student health plan who were sexually active and went without contraception. After working with students at Boston College, I learned of a phrase that their sexual health group spent their time fighting against, “pull and pray” as in “pull out and pray you don’t get her pregnant.”

Because that’s what happens when you take away access to contraception.

Just because you attend school or work at a religious-affiliated institution does not mean you have to comply with the belief system of that institution. On the college-level, many of these schools brag about their religious diversity as a way to recruit new students-especially student athletes. Could you imagine what would happen to Notre Dame’s football team or Georgetown’s basketball team if they insisted that all students be Catholic? Yeah, right.

The thing is that the media is making this a much bigger deal than it actually is. Just because the Catholic Bishops are pissed does not mean every other Catholic or person of faith is pissed. In fact, new polling data show that the majority of Catholics support the Administration’s decision. When will the media highlight that?

Or what about the fact that in December the House held a hearing on this issue and a representative from the Catholic Healthcare Association had to admit that some of its hospitals already cover contraception.

At my alma mater, while students are denied contraception through their health plans, employees are not.

And in 2009, almost 90% of students at Boston College (70% of whom identify as Catholic) voted to make birth control prescriptions available from their student health services.

The point is, to Americans and especially young Americans, this decision is a big deal in the right direction. To listen to the Catholic Bishops as if they represent the views of all Catholics or people of faith is absolutely absurd.

Like I said before, I’m a child of the 80s. I in no way thought that birth control would be my fight and frankly I’m pissed as hell that it is. I don’t want the next generation of women to have to check into whether contraception is available or not when applying to the college or job of their dreams. It’s 20-freaking-12. We should be long over this fight, but please believe that young women will not back down.

by Trina Scott, Senior Program Manager, Young Women of Color Empowerment at Advocates for Youth

National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day is a national HIV testing and treatment community mobilization initiative targeted at Blacks in the United States and the Diaspora. Watch the video below on how young people can get involved and protect themselves. We'll also be tweeting facts and resources throughout the day via #NBHAAD — follow us and retweet!  

African Americans experience disproportionate rates of HIV and AIDS. In their lifetimes, 1 in 16 black men and 1 in 32 black women will be diagnosed with HIV; and African Americans make up 14% of the population but account for 44% of all new HIV infections.

Why the disproportionate rates?

According to the CDC:

"Blacks do not engage in more risky behavior than members of other racial/ethnic populations. Many of the factors that place blacks at higher risk for chronic diseases also place them at increased risk for HIV. For example, social and economic realities prevalent among blacks — such as higher levels of poverty, racial discrimination, limited access to health care and housing, and higher rates of incarceration — are associated with  increased HIV risk." 

In fact, studies have found that African Americans are more at risk for HIV and STIs even when they have the same or fewer risk behaviors.  

So what will turn the HIV epidemic around for African Americans? It will take a combination of approaches.  That's why there are four focal points of this year's NBHAAD: education, testing, involvement, and treatment.  

"Educationally, the focus is to get Blacks educated about the basics of HIV/AIDS in their local communities. Testing is at the core of this initiative, as it is hoped that Blacks will mark February 7th of every year as their annual or bi-annual day to get tested for HIV. This is vital for those who are sexually active and those at high risk of contracting HIV. When it comes to community and organization leadership, getting Blacks involved to serve is another key focus. We need Black People from all walks of life, economic classes, literacy levels, shades and tones as well as small and large communities to get connected to the work happening on the ground in their local areas. Getting those living with HIV or recently-tested positive for the virus connected to treatment and care services is paramount. We have learned that you can't lead Black people towards HIV/AIDS education, prevention, testing, leadership or treatment unless you love them. And, we can't save Black people from an epidemic unless we serve Black people."

Advocates considers redressing HIV disparities among African Americans to be one of our most important goals and a vital part of advocating for young people's reproductive and sexual health.  Through policy initiatives and through our work with the Young Women of Color Leadership Council and the Youth of Color Initiative, Advocates supports policies and programs which will not only provide young African Americans with the information and tools they need to protect themselves from HIV, but help dismantle structural barriers to prevention and treatment (including poverty, racism, and unequal access to information, employment and health care).

Check out and share our resources on youth of color and HIV, including:

Youth of Color — At Disproportionate Risk of Negative Sexual Health Outcomes

Understanding Disparities in the HIV Epidemic: How Social and Cultural Forces Lead to Unequal Risk for African Americans/Blacks

Young African American Women and HIV

Advocates' Research Guide:  the Reproductive and Sexual Health of Youth of Color

And don't forget to watch the video, share the video, like us on Facebook, follow, and retweet! 

by Denicia Cadena, Young Women United
Photos provided by Gabriella Lemas-Sanchez

On Tuesday, January 24th Young Women United rocked the New Mexico Capital with Show Some Love, a day of action for young parents. Our message echoed through the roundhouse: young parents deserve respect, trust, and recognition. With over 50 young parents from across New Mexico, this day was about centering the voices of young families and their allies in pushing for change. YWU has always understood that negative and inaccurate descriptions about young parents and their children have a harmful impact on these families. Too often, young families living under stigma and shame don’t have the resources they need to thrive.

Young parents want our state to know--our families deserve better than this. As a step forward, young mamas from many parts of New Mexico collectively wrote a legislative memorial to establish a NM Day in Recognition of Young Parents. YWU is also proud to support ACLU of New Mexico in their memorial, which will establish a task force to assess and eliminate barriers that pregnant and parenting teens face in completing their educations. Read the memorial here.

Show Some Love built momentum for these memorials and created a space for young parents to speak up and speak out. Our press conference pulled a captive audience to hear these parents share the strengths of their families. Our legislative visits connected these young people to some of the state’s most powerful legislators.

More...

This blog was originally posted for ACRJ.

“I want you to cuddle me while I fall asleep. That’s what mommies and daddies are for.”

I kept my daughter, Maddie, home from preschool yesterday to see if we could kick her persistent cold. All morning I had juggled streaming Netflix with phone meetings. Now I was trying to convince her to take a nap while I began drafting a blog piece on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, writing in my head until I could get her settled and return to my computer.

I was distractedly making coaxing sounds and bargains with her—yes, you can nap in the living room….no, you can’t drink milk on the couch--but I wasn’t really paying attention. I was mostly thinking about what I wanted to say about Roe, abortion, and reproductive justice when she cut through my mental chatter with, “cuddling—that’s what mommies and daddies are for.”

I have had two abortions—one when I was 21 and another when I was 30. Each was both clear and complex in its own way, and each brought its own complicated feelings and waves of relief.

More...

Our Youth Activist Network Manager Julia just sent out this call-to-action. Will you take a minute and join our virtual march for women's right and lives?

Dear Advocate-

From January 20 to 27, Advocates for Youth is joining the first-ever Trust Women Week, an online mass mobilization for women's lives and rights. This unique collaborative campaign is working with MoveOn.org and more than 50 organizations across the nation, including coordinating partner, the Trust Women/Silver Ribbon Campaign, to let legislators know that reproductive health, reproductive justice, and reproductive rights are at the top of our agenda and should be at the top of theirs, too. In this collaborative national action, messages from "virtual marchers," as the online participants are known, will be packaged and delivered directly to members of Congress, governors, and state legislators to underscore that Americans trust women to make their own decisions about their bodies and their lives.

Your Voice Counts! CLICK HERE to join the TRUST WOMEN WEEK Virtual March for Women's Lives and Rights.

Trust Women Week overlaps with the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and reasserts our firm commitment to reclaiming the future of reproductive decision-making in 2012. For the next seven days, we will be honoring women's experiences and voices by featuring a different story from the 1 in 3 Campaign. As you may know, the 1 in 3 Campaign is a grassroots movement to start a new conversation about abortion — telling our stories, on our own terms. Together, we can end the stigma women face each and every day and assure access to the full range of basic health care, including abortion.

Please join us in this collaborative week of action by sharing stories from the 1 in 3 Campaign on Facebook and Twitter — and by joining people from across the country for the Trust Women Week online march. One million participants are expected to join in this virtual freedom march, and a real-time online map will show the location of the virtual marchers.

Join the march TODAY! Add your voice to the TRUST WOMEN WEEK Virtual March.

I just joined the march! Will you?
Julia

by Ryann Dubiel, Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights

Editor's Note: This post was originally published on RH Reality Check.

With the recent decision by the Department of Health and Human Services to over-rule evidence-based recommendations by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow sale of Plan B One-Step over the counter, we once again witnessed the failure to prioritize women’s reproductive health, the continued politicization of access, and evidence of a disconnect of awareness by our policymakers of how increased access to this product would affect millions of women of all ages regardless or race or immigration status.

Latinas represent the population with the highest rate of women without health insurance; seeing a provider and accessing birth control is not an option for many women. Latinas also face a disproportionate number of barriers to EC. Under current rules, women face many barriers, including the requirement of a government-issued ID, residency in rural areas, high costs of the product, and lack of insurance. These rules disproportionately affect Latinas, their families, and immigrant communities in accessing birth control options.

We know that unintended pregnancy has serious economic and social costs, as well as costs to the woman, her family and the community.[i] In Colorado, 39 percent of pregnancies are unintended.[ii] These numbers are higher for women of color: for Latinas (47 percent), and African Americans (53 percent).[iii] And many of these unintended pregnancies affect our youth. We have found that one of the most effective ways to improve the success rate of female students in completing their education is to ensure they have access to comprehensive sexuality education, and to affordable medical care, including contraception, so they can make informed decisions about their sexual health.

Despite Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s work on numerous initiatives that positively affect Latinas’ reproductive health, she failed to work to understand the impact this decision would have on Latinas. This failure makes us question her awareness of the changing demographics of this country, and her commitment to family planning and women’s reproductive health. We encourage our amazing strong partners and other individuals embedded in this fight for reproductive justice to continue raising our voices, and ask the President to overturn this decision.

---

[i] U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2000, November). Healthy People 2010. 2nd ed. With Understanding and Improving Health and Objectives for Improving Health. 2 vols. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

[ii] Archer, L. et al. (2011). How Healthy Are Colorado Women of Reproductive Age? An Evaluation of Preconception Risk and Protective Factors. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Retrieved 17 August 2011, from http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/hs/pubs/Preconception3.pdf

[iii] Palacio, M. et al. (2009). Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities in Colorado 2009. Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Office of Health Disparities. Retrieved 20 August 2011, from http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/ohd/ethnicdisparitiesreport/HD%202009%20Low...

So, Congress introduced its appropriations bill late last night to fund the federal government through the end of the 2012 fiscal year. There's good news and bad news.

GOOD: Your calls to Congress made a difference! Even though new abstinence-only-until-marriage funding was reintroduced, they will only receive $5 million. That's a step in the right direction.

BAD: We've seen this before. The Community Based Abstinence Education (CBAE) fund was launched with only $20 million, but its annual funding was scaled up to more than $110 million in just a few years. $5 million is just the beginning.

By now we all know that the majority of Americans oppose an abstinence-only approach to sex education. What makes this worse is that Congress has been raging for months about slashing unnecessary spending and cutting the deficit. $5 million for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs is like taking a match to taxpayers' money and simply lighting it on fire. (Actually, it's even worse than that. Research has shown that these programs have no impact on teen behavior – and they also forbid students from learning about contraception and condoms.)

Our elected officials are fond of saying that "the people" know how to spend their own tax dollars better than politicians in Washington do, and for once we couldn't agree more. So let's turn it over to you.

TELL US: WHAT WOULD YOU DO WITH $5 MILLION?

Click here to join the conversation on Facebook.

"Like" us on Facebook, and post comments, photos, or videos on the Amplify Facebook Page explaining how you'd help people with $5 million — rather than fund failed abstinence-only programs. Download a template HERE!

Click here to join the conversation on Twitter.

Let us know by tweeting @AmplifyTweets and using the #InsteadOfAbOnly and #5mil hashtags.

I can't wait to see all of your amazing ideas – and don't worry, we'll make sure to pass them along leaders on Capitol Hill!

I am absolutely outraged with President Obama for supporting the Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ decision to enforce age restrictions on Plan-B One Step (emergency contraception) for individuals 17 years of age and younger.

Essentially President Obama is afraid that 10 and 12 year old girls will take/use Plan B (the morning-after pill) without supervision or guidance and get hurt. President Obama is afraid that young girls/women can go inside a drug store alongside bubble gum and batteries and buy a medication, which if not used properly could potentially have an adverse affect. President Obama says, "And I think most parents would feel the same way."

President Obama, I think you are wrong. I believe most parents would rather have their daughter have unrestricted access to PlanB than to find them pregnant. It is already difficult to have conversations about sexual activity with one’s parents. Plan B is most effective if used within 72 hours of unprotected sex. If a young person who is sexually active has had difficulty talking about sex for their entire upbringing, why would President Obama assume the young person would come up with the courage to have this conversation within recommended time frame?

So if the young woman cannot have this conversation with her parent/guardian so she can get Plan B, then where will she go? It only makes the situation more difficult, and I believe this will lead more young women to make more difficult decisions in the future.

Why are we punishing young women for engaging in sexual activity? I believe President Obama decided to oppose the FDA’s recommendation because he is worried political opponents will accuse him of "giving young girls permission to have sex." But his fears won’t stop young people from having sex – and it won’t stop them from needing Plan B. President Obama needs to understand that people are sexual beings and sex is an action that occurs, and young people engage in sexual activity. He is trying to not make Plan B be a panacea for young women who choose to have unprotected sex. I understand this, however, he needs to provide another option, and there is no other option on the table at this moment for young women 17 and under.

The fact is that he is hoping that young people will communicate with their parents regarding their sexual life is a difficult feat in itself, and could potentially lead to young women having to turn to abortion because the former option of preventing pregnancy through the option of Plan B has already been taken off of the table.

In these economic times when all we hear from Congress is budget woes, we have received word that Congress is trying to bring back dedicated funding for abstinence-only-until-marriage programs that Congress' own studies show just don’t work. We need to take action NOW to ensure that abstinence-only-until-marriage programs do not receive dedicated federal funding in the Fiscal Year 2012 budget.

Please take a couple of minutes to CALL the White House and the House and Senate Leadership:

Senate Majority Leader Reid - 202-224-3542

House Minority Leader Pelosi – 202-225-0100

President Obama - 202-456-1111

Script you can use for calls:

“My name is _______ and I’m from ______, __ (city, state). I’m calling to make sure there is no dedicated funding for abstinence-only programs in the final Labor-HHS bill. These ineffective programs have no place in a bill that should focus our limited dollars on evidence-based and cost-effective programs. Please do not provide any dedicated funding to abstinence-only-until-marriage programs in the Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriations negotiations. Thank you.”

Hey Everyone!

Exciting news! Applications to become a Great American Condom Campaign Spring Semester SafeSite are now open!

The Great American Condom Campaign is a youth-led grassroots movement to reduce unintended pregnancies and the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections by normalizing condom use on college and university campuses. Students from across the country apply to become SafeSites, individual condom distribution points, and upon selection receive a box of 500 Trojan condoms to distribute to their peers. SafeSites are also tasked with educating their peers about safer sex and advocating on campus and within their community for the sexual and reproductive health and rights of young people.

During the fall of 2011, 1,000 SafeSites distributed more than 500,000 condoms to students on 782 campuses. SafeSites were established in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Condoms were distributed:

Sound like fun? Apply for the GACC NOW!

We receive more applications than we can accept, so make sure your application stands out! Be clear about how you will distribute condoms and why you want to be part of the GACC. To learn more about the GACC and the awesome work of previous SafeSites, visit the GACC Facebook Page.

Applications to be a Spring Semester SafeSite are open through January 6th, 2012. It only takes 10 minutes to fill out an application, so start now!

Do it for your country!

***If you were a SafeSite last semester (Fall 2011), don't forget to complete the Fall 2011 SafeSite survey that was emailed to you last week.