This is the second in a series of reflection posts by our outgoing (and inaugural) class of Reproductive Justice Fellows. Click here for the first entry and visit the RJFP page for more information about the program.

Has it already been a year?  Although the bar exam seems like ages ago, it feels like I just moved to D.C. to start my LSRJ fellowship.  My placement was with the National Health Law Program (NHeLP), an organization that works to further access to quality health care for low-income individuals and underserved populations, primarily by providing legal expertise on Medicaid.

Looking back over the year, I am amazed at how much I learned.  When I started at NHeLP, I knew next to nothing about Medicaid.  There was so much to learn – and I was almost certain I would never be able to grasp the complexities in this area of law by the end of my fellowship.

Then, at around six months in, things began to click.  For the remainder of my fellowship, I actively contributed to policy strategy, and I finished research in almost half the time than when I started.  It was also around this time that I began feeling comfortable training and presenting on Medicaid coverage of reproductive health care.  Better yet, others at outside organizations began calling me for advice and input on issues around Medicaid and health care reform.

Now as my fellowship comes to an end and I prepare to transition into my new role as staff attorney, I am looking forward to helping the new LSRJ fellow learn the ropes.  I am incredibly grateful to LSRJ and am proud to have been part of the inaugural fellowship class.  Thank you LSRJ!

Davida Silverman (’10, CUNY School of Law)

2010-2011 RJ Fellow at the National Health Law Program

Thanks to my amazing host organization, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, my fellowship year has been amazing and I am sad it is ending so soon. On any given morning, I am throwing on a pair of heels and walking over to my first meeting. In that meeting, I sit around a conference table with ten other attorneys who know the games in DC; they know everyone in the administration and everyone in Congress. In this meeting, we create a plan for drafting official comments to Health and Human Services encouraging them to consider certain facts about women in the new health care reform. I add information about the health disparities that Latinas face.

Afterward, I grab the metro and pop up to Capitol Hill where I meet another group of activists in front of a Senators office. We gather the briefs we have been writing, confirm our agenda and then go in and introduce ourselves. We sit down with the Senator’s lead attorney to explain our issue. In this particular meeting, the Senator comes in after her vote on the Senate floor and sits down with us. She confirms that she does support this issue, appreciates the information we gathered, and explains that she is interested in speaking on the floor on behalf of women of color on this issue. Great! We let her know that we are prepared to help. Now, we have to go, we have two more meetings. Number two goes well, but the last is horrible and the legislative assistant is less than kind and barely lets us speak at all. There isn’t too much time to dwell on it. I’ve got to get back to the office to work on a memo that is due to my supervisor on yet another issue. It’s now 5:30pm and we have an invitation to see President Obama speak at a galla for immigrant rights, its time to thrown on a dress and make my way to the event. After waiting until the very end of the event to be sure to shake hands with the President, it is time to get home before it all starts again tomorrow.

This has been my life for the last year as an LSRJ Legal Fellow. It has been a non-stop whirl wind of advocacy work. I have had so many once-in-a-lifetime experiences in this one year that they are impossible to count. I have learned from the best about how to advocate for the most disadvantaged people in our communities, especially women and people of color. These skills, and the confidence that came with their practice, have shaped me into the advocate I have dreamed of being.

I am endlessly grateful to my supervisors who integrated me into even the most important pieces of the work the organization does, to the LSRJ staff who were always available for mentoring, and the funders who made this year possible.

Dani Hawkes (’10, University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law)

2010-2011 RJ Fellow at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health

Early Sunday morning, Nancy begins to have excruciating abdominal pain. Immediately, she begins to worry about the health of her fetus. She wakes her husband and he rushes her to the town hospital thirty minutes away. Upon her arrival, it is determined that Nancy is miscarrying and there is no chance her fetus will survive. However, the town hospital (the only hospital within 180 miles), is a Catholic hospital governed by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare Services (Directives), a document developed and enforced by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Directives provide guidance on reproductive health services including surgical sterilization, family planning, emergency contraception, infertility treatment, and abortion. Though the doctors are certain Nancy’s fetus will not survive, they would not treat Nancy. They withhold this information from Nancy and continue to run painful and expensive test on her until hours later they determine there is no longer a fetal heartbeat. Under the Directives, abortions are not allowed even in cases of emergencies or when the mother’s life is at risk. In Nancy’s case, because there was still a fetal heartbeat, even though the doctors knew the fetus would not survive, termination of her pregnancy would be considered an abortion.

Though this story is fictitious, it is the reality of millions of Americans today.  One in six patients in the United States is cared for in a Catholic hospital.  Catholic institutions control 622 hospitals nationwide, the largest single group of nonprofit hospitals in the United States. Five of the ten largest healthcare systems, which operate hospitals and medical centers throughout the United States, are Catholic. A large number of these hospitals are in rural communities where these hospitals are the only health care options for the sick. The Catholic Bishops promote “natural family planning,” which means that no drugs, devices, or surgical procedures can be used to avoid pregnancy. Instead, families monitor the woman’s menstrual cycle and abstain from sex during her fertile phase.  The Directives prohibit almost all reproductive health services: contraceptives that do not promote “natural family planning” are prohibited, most treatments for infertility are not allowed, sterilizations for men and women are banned, and abortion, even in cases of rape, incest, or to save a pregnant woman’s life, is impossible to obtain. Special government exemptions, known as “refusal clauses,” permit hospitals to use religious doctrines as patient care guides while remaining eligible to receive public funding. Almost every state has some sort of refusal clause allowing individual health providers to refuse to provide abortion services. However, some states have religious-based refusal clauses for reproductive services such as birth control and sterilization.

Like Nancy, many women have no idea their local hospitals will not provide certain services to them even if their life is on the line. Further, many women do not know that these hospitals are not being held liable for the consequences of refusing to provide these services or for not making women aware of other alternatives at non religious hospitals. This is an issue that affects women all over the country and needs the attention of women universally. The more people who are aware of these lack of services, the larger an impact we can have on our country to stop merging public and religious hospitals. Reproductive justice will be achieved when women have access to the resources to have children, not have children, or parent the children they have with dignity. This is not achievable when women are being denied specific services because of practitioner’s moral beliefs. This cannot be achieved when women are not being given the information to make responsible decisions over their reproductive health with dignity and good faith in their doctors. Make yourself aware of your local hospital’s policies and your state refusal clauses.

Click here for a state directory of laws regarding reproductive health.

Erika Willis

African American women experience premature births and infant mortality at almost twice the rate of white American women.  When faced with this statistic, the reasons that automatically come to mind are because of socioeconomic inequalities regarding access to healthcare, prenatal care, and a healthy diet.  These inequalities frequently correlate with race.  However, there are increasing studies that point to race being a significant factor in premature births.  Just being a racial minority increases the likelihood of having a premature baby.

The documentary Unnatural Causes, When the Bough Breaks details how being a racial minority, and the everyday prejudices that one experiences, causes a considerable amount of stress to the body. (more…)

As you’ve likely seen covered in the news, several cities have been blanketed with racist and harmful billboards purporting to “save hundreds of thousands of black babies from being aborted every year in the United States…,” a claim that is offensive, outrageous, and, equally importantly, outright ignores the serious reality of health disparities in this country. To learn more, check out the round-up below of some of the more recent blog posts on this issue. If you know of more, put them in the comments! And congratulations to California Latinas for Reproductive Justice (CLRJ), who successfully mobilized and got 3 of the billboards in the Los Angeles area removed!

“Racist billboards come to Oakland. WTF.” from Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice (ACRJ) in Oakland.

“The continuing fight against anti-abortion billboards targeting communities of color” at Feministing.

“One Racist Billboard Comes Down, Another Goes Up” at RH Reality Check.

“Antiabortion Groups Launch Attacks on Latinas’ Health, Rights, and Dignity” by LSRJ’s very own Alex Walden, Reproductive Justice Fellow at Center for American Progress.

OK, we can all admit that things in the world are pretty intense currently, correct? Countries are rising up against their governments, earthquakes are enormous, nuclear plants are threatening to melt down, the world’s economy is in turmoil, and state and federal legislatures in the United States are advancing bills that hurt women. With all that is going on, it seems like a government like ours in the U.S. would prioritize disseminating accurate information, based on sound logic and the best available science. Accurate reporting would mitigate the mania, after all. Right? (more…)

Last week, the Speaker of the House announced plans to introduce legislation that further restricts abortion access in the new health care plan. Last week, the Philadelphia District Attorney, Seth Williams, indicted Dr. Kermit Gosnell on eight counts of murder in the deaths of seven infants and a Bhutanese refugee. These deaths occurred in a clinic that provided abortions to mostly impoverished women, women of color, and immigrant women. The incredibly unsanitary conditions of the clinic, and the horrendous way the women seeking abortions were treated (or more accurately, not treated at all) are described here.

I believe (as do many others) these two events are connected. The events demonstrate that when abortion is used as a pawn in a political (democratic v. republican) chess game, the health and lives of impoverished women, women of color, and immigrant women are put at risk. Even if the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” goes no further, abortion has been more deeply entrenched in the political discourse as a “sacrificial lamb” that can be used to appease a specific group of people.

Reproductive justice activists and lawyers must not only fight against the many barriers women in marginalized communities face in accessing reproductive health care, but also must focus on ensuring that the reproductive health care women receive when (if) these barriers are overcame is safe, effective, and comprehensive. I kept this post short in the hopes of fostering a discussion about what lawyers, law students, community folk, and other RJ activists can do/are doing in response to the existence of clinics like Dr. Gosnell’s.

Lara Shkordoff

Every year, LSRJ hosts five Regional Conferences around the country. Each conference provides LSRJ students, allies, and alums an opportunity to come together to learn about cutting-edge reproductive health, rights, and justice issues, network with one another, and get updates about the programs of LSRJ. Jessica Wilkerson is not only a resident blogger for RepoRepro but the Northeast Regional Coordinator, responsible for putting together the Northeast Regional Conference! Visit www.lsrj.org/events for more information about the Regional Conferences and email info at lsrj dot org to RSVP.

This year’s Northeast Regional Conference is a melding of my two passions and I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to organize the conference this year. The more I explore the intersection of reproductive and environmental justice, the more difficulty I have in separating them.  That tells me that this is a connection worth spending a jam-packed day in late February exploring!
Speaking at the conference are some truly incredible role models. The full day will start with an plenary panel exploring exactly what the movements are and how they intersect. Mia Davis from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics will start us off with a discussion about environmental justice in conjunction with reproductive justice in the context of chemicals in personal care products. Next, Professor Mindy Roseman of the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School will share her many and varied experiences in the RJ world. Professor Betsy Hartmann from Hampshire College’s Population and Development Program will follow with a discussion on the dangers of simplifying the overpopulation rhetoric and how reproductive justice can inform environmental advocacy.  Finally, Angela Hooten of the National Institute for Reproductive Health will share with us the work the organization has been doing with their Urban Initiative program, which has had significant success in blending environmental and reproductive justice activism.

A panel addressing challenges that communities of color face will follow.  Christine Soyong Harley of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum will elaborate on the work she is doing with Asian American communities and the health effects of nail salon work.  Trina Jackson from Alternatives for the Community and the Environment will address areas where African American women are placed, politically and environmentally, at the nexus of the two larger movements.  To wrap up the panel, Elizabeth Barajas-Roman, representing the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Heath, will address challenges specific to the Latina community.

After chapter presentations, a lunch and networking session, and strategic planning with Sabrina from the national office, the next panel will be focused on the work of one particular organization.  Kimberly Inez McGuire, from the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, will present a panel called Politics, Fertility, and Toxic Chemicals: Advocacy at the Intersection of Reproductive and Environmental Justice.
The conference will wrap up with a high-powered RJ networking happy hour. All who are interested in reproductive justice are welcome so please be in touch if you want more information. Two LSRJ National Board members have worked with the LSRJ Alumni Network Committee to organize this incredible event.  I have no doubt that this will be an enriching and empowering day where all of us students can learn more about what it means to speak truth to power.

Jess Wilkerson, Vermont Law School

For many RJ advocates, the Affordable Care Act was a mixed bag. On the one hand, it covers 95% of Americans by 2014, with all sorts of improved quality measures. On the other hand, the Nelson Amendment dealt a severe blow to advocates who felt that this was a real chance to provide comprehensive reproductive health services to women.

But the politics don’t end when the President signs a bill into law. Federal agencies, in this case the Department of Health and Human Services, exercise power in implementing legislation by issuing regulations. The issue confronting HHS now is whether regulations implementing Sec. 2713 of the Affordable Care Act (the Women’s Health Amendment) should include family planning and birth control in the definition of mandated “preventive care.” Advocates are fighting for and against a comprehensive definition, but the decision belongs to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Birth control is preventive care. (more…)

Film actress and television host Ricki Lake, twice pregnant (in real life and also in the movie Mrs. Winterbourne, alongside his royal hotness, Brendan Fraser), brings one of her birth experiences to the silver screen in The Business of Being Born.  Upset with the hospital birth experience the first time, Ms. Lake opts for a home birth the second time (Go Ricki! Go Ricki! Go Ricki!).  Her second son, Owen Sussman (now 9 years old), greets the world in gooey glory about 45 minutes into the movie, so you know it’s good.  The only thing that might have made it better is, as is the case for all movies, Brendan Fraser.

Somewhere between Frontline and Fahrenheit 911, this documentary presents a fact-based albeit slightly sanctimonious (and one-sided) examination of midwifery (mid-whiff-er-ee) and birthing options in America.  The statistics are frequently sobering – the one that really stuck with me was that, in 1900, 95% of all U.S. births took place at home, which was down to 50% by 1938 and <1% by 1955 (where it is today).  The movie partially credits hippy communes with the “rebirth” of midwifery in the U.S., noting necessity and the empowerment aspects of home birth.  (more…)