Image above is from the Repeal Hyde Art Project.

It’s been one week since I attended the Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP) conference in Amherst Massachusetts. The CLPP conference is an incredible experience that offers activists the opportunity to explore reproductive health issues from a social justice lens. Workshop titles range from “Using Theatre as a Tool for Intergeneration Movement building” to “Expanding the Doula Model of Care into Abortion Clinics and Prisons” to “The Political, Policy and Public Health Landscape of HIV/AIDS”. It is a conference that truly integrates cultural advocacy, arts, direct service, and political engagement into its workshops and its vision of building a stronger movement for reproductive freedom. Each year, I leave the CLPP conference reenergized and committed to the work I do, as well as reflective on some of the different themes and ideas that come up during the conference.

This year I find myself returning to a theme that Marlene Gerber Fried, a long time advocate for abortion rights and access, said in her opening remarks at the conference, “ Refuse to let others who do not care about all women define our battlegrounds”. As a movement we have engaged in numerous fights this year ranging from personhood in Mississippi, to TRAP laws (Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers) in Virginia, to the Heartbeat bill in Ohio to now even birth control. Nevertheless, there is one battleground that we continue to neglect, the battle over federal funding for abortion.

Often cast as the biggest loser in our fight for abortion rights, our movement and allies sometimes see the fight for federal funding for abortion as one not even worth engaging in. Last year while challenging the attacks on family planning and Planned Parenthood, we used talking points like no federal funding is used to provide abortion care except in cases of rape, incest, or if the life the woman is danger. This talking point, while true, demonstrates how we lost control over the battleground. We have accepted the loss that no Federal Funds are used for abortion and we even used this as a main talking point to defend current access to family planning. Similarly in 2009 during the healthcare debates Obama stated, “You know, I laid out a very simple principle, which is, this is a healthcare bill, not an abortion bill. And we’re not looking to change what is a core principle that has been in place for a very long time, which is federal dollars are not used to subsidize abortions.” Statements like these from our allies and movement leaders not only reaffirm our loss, but as panelists on the Strategic Action Session on Abortion Access pointed out, they also make it more difficult for our movement to fight back against the Hyde amendment, the piece of legislation that prohibits federal funding for abortion services.

The Hyde amendment, in my opinion, is one of the worst pieces of anti-choice legislation in existence, because it puts additional burdens on low income women, young women and women of color. Dr. Carhart wrote that prohibiting federal funding for abortion “puts women in the most dire of situations. They have to choose between paying their rent or being pregnant, feeding their children or being pregnant, pawning their car or being pregnant. The Hyde amendment has the ability to destroy lives, the lives of the women who it restricts from obtaining the abortions they need, the families of the women who it hurts, the spouses, children, sisters, parents and everyone's lives who are touched by the women we know.” As a movement, by not fighting back against Hyde we are accepting that low income women will not have the same access to abortion care as middle and high income women. It is time for our movement to step up and not accept that Hyde is the status quo, because no movement should ever leave behind the most marginalized members of its community.

Today, many great people and organizations have taken on this fight. In particular, The National Network of Abortion Funds has stepped in and provided assistance to people seeking funding for abortion while continuing to fight against restrictions to abortion funding. This week across the country they are hosting bowl-a-thon fundraisers. Click here to find one near you and help make abortion accessible to all women in your community by signing up to bowl or donating to a local team.

As a movement, we must join the National Network of Abortion Funds and engage in the fight for federal funding for abortion. It is a battleground that we cannot afford to neglect.

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.

Hi All-

Check out these fabulous pictures of SafeSites receiving 500 condoms through the Great American Condom Campaign. 

The GACC is a youth-led grassroots movement to make the US a sexuallhy healthy nation.  Each year, GACC members give out one million Trojan Brand condoms on college campuses across the United States, educate their peers about sexual health, and organize to improve the policies that affect young people's health.

 

  

                 

To see more pictures, visit the GACC Facebook Page. Be sure to post more on Facebook or share your distribution stories with us on Amplify!

Today 3 women, Leymah Gbowee, Ellen Johnson, and Tawakul Karman, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. According to the New York Times, they were the first women to win the prize since 2004 and three out of only 15 women to ever be awarded the prize during its 110 year history. The decision to award 3 women is not only unprecedented, but sends a clear signal from the international community that women play an integral role in creating peace around the world.

Not only was I overjoyed by the international recognition of women’s roles in the fight to establish peace, but I also feel very honored to have personally met Leymah Gbowee, one of the winners. Leymah is a Liberian activist who successfully organized a women’s peace movement that was integral in bringing an end to a 14 year civil war and electing the first female president in an African country, Ellen Johnson (one of the other award winners). Through her organizing, Leymah broke down religious barriers and brought Muslim women and Christian women together for the common goal of peace. In her new book, “Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War” she writes: "The women of Liberia had been taken to our physical, psychological and spiritual limits. But over the last few months, we had discovered a new source of power and strength: each other. We’d been pushed to the wall and had only two options: give up or join up to fight back. Giving up wasn’t an option. Peace was the only way we could survive. We would fight to bring it." The women demonstrated their power through non-violent tactics including a sex strike and peaceful demonstrations where they demanded in her own words that the “government and rebels had to declare an immediate and unconditional cease-fire; the government and rebels had to talk; and we wanted an intervention force deployed and sent to Liberia.” Ultimately they were successful. The story of the women’s movement for peace in Liberia is captured in the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell. See trailer below.



I had the honor of meeting Leymah during a showing of the Pray the Devil Back to Hell at UMass Lowell. Reflecting upon the film, Leymah hoped that women and young people from around the world would see this film and be inspired by the reality that “normal” people have made revolutionary changes in their countries.

This week Gini Reticker, the director (who is also my aunt), of Pray the Devil Back to Hell, held a screening in DC of her new project, a five-part series called: Women War & Peace premiering on PBS Tuesday nights at 10:00pm Oct 11, 18, 25, Nov 1 & 8. Pray the Devil Back to Hell will be included in this series and showing on Oct 18th. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/women-war-and-peace/ When asked what she hoped people would take away from these films, Gini Reticker said she hopes that people will start asking, “Where are the women?” She expanded that she hopes that the public will demand that our news stations cover the stories of women in war torn countries. She suggested that when you follow what women are doing, you often find they are organizing for peace in courageous ways. She emphasized that there are many women like Leymah out there organizing for peace in seemingly impossible conditions, but we almost never hear their stories. It is up to the public to change that and demand that women’s voices are heard. Check out the series this coming Tuesday!

A couple months ago I had the opportunity to interview Deborah about women’s experiences seeking abortions prior to Roe v. Wade. During the interview, Deborah shared her story of helping a fellow college student drink tea and turpentine to induce an abortion after visiting a doctor in 1970. See the interview below:



After the interview I asked Deborah why she chose to share this story, and she responded that this story, like many others, is part of the fabric of women’s lives. Women, she stated, faced and continue to face difficulty accessing basic health care services. It is through sharing our stories and our experiences that we give voice to the need to change this.

One month after interviewing Deborah, I attended an abortion speakout where a young person shared a similar story. They cited numerous challenges to accessing safe and legal abortion care including: inadequate funding, lack of parental consent, and significant discrimination from the health care system because they identified as transgender. Unable to access the care they needed and wanted, they decided to self-induce an abortion by drinking paint thinner from their parent’s garage. As they explained the effects of the paint thinner on their body, I was not only deeply saddened but also angry. I could not believe that I was hearing the same story from a peer my age. I was frustrated that the health care system refused to acknowledge that trans youth have abortions. I was frustrated that this young person could not ask for consent from their parents and could not obtain the money needed to have a safe and legal abortion. I was frustrated that as a society we have created laws that limit this person’s choice to ingesting paint thinner. Overall, I was deeply saddened that although as a movement we have made significant advances, some young people are still drinking turpentine.

The reality for some young people, like the person in my story, is that the formal legality of abortion had little effect on whether or not they could access safe abortion care services. Limitations to this access such as the Hyde amendment have institutionalized clear boundaries of who has access to safe abortion care and who does not. Low-income people, rural people, undocumented people, trans people, etc. face significant barriers to accessing safe and legal abortion care.

And despite the lack of access for many of the most marginalized people in our society, many leaders in the women’s rights movement continue to make statements that affirm the acceptance of they Hyde amendment. For example, this past year leaders have defended their work by assuring that no federal funding will go to abortion care. I wish that these leaders could also stand up and say, "And this is wrong. We need federal funding to support abortion care services so that this service is available to all people regardless of socioeconomic status." It is time that as a movement we all come out against discriminatory pieces of legislation like the Hyde amendment that leave some people with little choice but turpentine.

I also want to acknowledge and thank the many communities that are doing radical work to improve access to abortion care. Thank you to the abortion funds, the clinic escorts, the providers, the abortion doulas, and everyone that makes access possible. I also want to thank Deborah and others who have come forward with their abortion stories as we fight for access for all people.

Today Amplify is joining the National Women's Law Center and Planned Parenthood as a contributor to their Birth Control Blog Carnival. A number of wonderful organizations and writers are participating — you can find a compilation of all of the reflections and analyses on the NWLC's blog.

As you’ve probably seen in the news, the Institute of Medicine, a non-partisan organization, recommended that birth control, HIV and STI counseling and screening, and domestic violence counseling and screening should be considered preventative care services, and thus be covered at no cost under people’s health insurance plans. If the Department of Health and Human Services accepts these recommendations, these services will be available without co-pays.

Earlier this year, in anticipation of the impending decision by the Department of Health and Human Services of whether or not these services would be covered under the Affordable Care Act, young people took action. They collected signatures, hosted events, conducted speak outs and recorded testimony in support of no-cost birth control. They advocated on behalf of themselves and their peers for their right to accessible sexual health services. In doing so, young people sent a clear signal that cost should not stand in their way to accessing the sexual and reproductive services they need to stay healthy. 

      

The Institute of Medicine’s recommendations were a major step forward in securing access to no cost birth control and other sexual health services. Nevertheless, we still need your help to ensure that the Department of Health and Human Services hears our voices. Sign the petition to show your support of no cost birth control.

This year our reproductive health has faced unprecedented legislative attacks:

1. Congress has threatened to defund Panned Parenthood, stripping over 2 million young people of vital reproductive health services including STD testing, cancer screenings, and access to birth control.

2. New anti-choice legislation has been introduced that would allow private hospitals to refuse to perform abortion services in all cases, even if the woman’s life were in danger.

3. Since January, there have been over 400 pieces of anti-choice legislation introduced in the states including a recent bill that passed in South Dakota forcing women seeking abortions to visit a crisis pregnancy center, staffed by non medical professionals who use scare tactics and false medical advice to convince women not to have abortions.

These pieces of legislation conflict with everything we at Advocates for Youth stand for. They threaten our RIGHT to medically accurate information and services. They demonstrate a lack of RESPECT by assuming we cannot make our own decisions about our reproductive health. And, they undermine society’s RESPONSIBILITY to provide young people with the tools they need to safeguard their sexual health. We cannot stand for this!

On Thursday April 7th please join Advocates for Youth along with many other reproductive health organizations, activists, and young people as we tell Congress: AMERICA IS BETTER THAN THIS!

Rally Details:
Time: 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Location: On the National Mall, directly in front of the Capitol, in front of the Reflecting Pool between Third and Fourth Streets


Lobby Visits:
Lobby visits will be occurring throughout the day. Coordinate your congressional appointment with your local Planned Parenthood affiliate.

We hope you will join us!

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

In case you forgot, 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 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 rights of young adults.

During fall semester, 1,000 SafeSites distributed over 500,000 condoms to students on 679 campuses. SafeSites were established in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Condoms were distributed at a health fair at Concord University, a Halloween Dance at Baldwin-Wallace College, all over campus at UMass Amherst and more! SafeSites partnered with RAs to do educational programs for residents and they also distributed condoms and safer sex information for World AIDS Day.

Sound like fun? Apply for the GACC NOW!

We often 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, go to www.amplifyyourvoice.org/gacc.

Applications to be a Spring Semester SafeSite are open through January 3, 2010. It only takes 10 minutes to fill out an application, so start now! If you have any questions, please email julia@advocatesforyouth.org.

Do it for your country.
Julia

PS: If you were a SafeSite last semester (Fall 2010) DO NOT fill out a new application. Instead, please complete the Fall 2010 SafeSite survey that we emailed to you last week.

PPS: At this time, the GACC is only open to college students going to school in the United States, but check out www.amplifyyourvoice.org to learn about other ways you can get involved in sexual health advocacy!

The Washington DC Department of Health launched a “DC Rubber Revolution” campaign to destigmatize condom use and make condoms more accessible to DC residents. Residents can visit the website at www.RubberRevolutionDC.com to request condoms, take quizzes, and learn some interesting facts on condoms. I along with many other residents welcome this campaign as DC has the highest rates of people living with HIV/AIDS in the country. Adrian Fenty states, “The District is proud of its aggressive approach to address this issue, and we hope to build on our success as one of only two cities in the country with a public sector condom distribution program that has provided more than 3.5 million free condoms last year.” While I agree with Adrian Fenty and am proud of what he calls an ‘aggressive approach’, I can’t help but pause and think about the fact that 30 years after HIV/AIDS was first recognized by the CDC, condom distribution is still considered aggressive and continues to be rare and up for debate.

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