Womenstake

Reproductive Justice Prevails in Kentucky. Yes, I said Kentucky.

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center

I am happy to report that the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the state cannot use its criminal endangerment statute to prosecute women for using drugs while pregnant. We submitted a brief in support of Ms. Ina Cochran, who was charged with wanton endangerment because her newborn tested positive for cocaine exposure. Prosecutors across the nation have attempted to criminalize women’s acts during their pregnancies. 

The trial court dismissed the indictment against Ms. Cochran, but the Attorney General’s office successfully appealed, allowing the prosecution to proceed. Ms. Cochran then appealed to the Kentucky Supreme Court and it ruled that the trial court correctly dismissed the indictment. We wholeheartedly agree with the Court's rationale: while drug addiction during pregnancy is a serious problem, it should be handled within the health care system, and not the criminal justice system. 

Environmental Justice and Reproductive Justice: Stop Scapegoating Women

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center

This post is the first in a series about the intersections between reproductive justice and other social justice movements.

Recently the anti-choice movement has been pushing the message that the real progressive position is to oppose abortion and birth control. The most recent iteration of this strategy to create divisions among social justice advocates is the argument that birth control is harming the environment. This was promoted by a coalition of anti-birth control groups last Saturday at "Protest the Pill Day." The groups claim that the "Pill Kills the Environment." The protest organizers say that "Studies in the United States, from California to Maryland (including the Potomac River), have revealed that some male fish have been feminized by the vast quantities of synthetic estrogen in the water." We all know that birth control contains female hormones...so, birth control must be killing the environment, right?

Um...not really. Birth control pills barely contribute to the amount of estrogen in the environment. First of all, 99 percent of the estrogens excreted by humans have nothing to do with contraceptives. Second, human excretion is not the main source of estrogen in the environment. Far more synthetic estrogen in the environment can be traced to industrial farming practices than to medications of any kind, let alone hormonal birth control specifically. 

Breathing Easy with the Pill

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center

I know the Pill isn’t every woman’s birth control of choice, but it’s always been perfect for me. I experience every good “side effect” that it has to offer. Well, imagine my surprise when I saw a study showing a link between asthma and the pill. The study concluded that some women’s hormone fluctuations contribute to their asthma symptoms. The Pill reduces those fluctuations, and appears to reduce women’s asthma symptoms.

I used to have asthma until about age 20. I thought the once-a-day Dunkin Donuts habit I developed during college could be credited with curing my asthma. No, I wasn’t having daily Boston creams. I started drinking coffee every day, and coffee is a known bronchial dilator. But there’s another daily habit I acquired around that same time. I thought the Pill just made me (figuratively) breath easy by being incredibly effective at preventing pregnancy. Now I find out that it might (literally) make me breath easy.

Happy anniversary to that easy-breathing, skin-clearing, cramp-stopping wonder called The Pill.

Why the Pill Makes Me Feel Like Dancing

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center

The year was 1979, and the most popular record in Teaneck, New Jersey was the Gap Band’s “I don’t believe you want to get up and dance,” also known as “Oops Upside Your Head.” Go ahead and click the link and try NOT to dance. I dare you. We played the album in the basement on a stereo that was the size of a Mini Cooper. I also had an 8-track on the side. This song introduced me to the Pill with the following lyrics:
 
Jack and Jill went up the hill to have a little fun,
Stupid Jill forgot her pill and now they have a son

Because I was fascinated with all things me, I really paid attention when this song mentioned my name. I also put one and one together, and figured that "a little fun" was sex and that since forgetting the Pill resulted in a son, then remembering the Pill would mean sex with no babies. Score one for the funky-fresh double-dutching roller-skating 9-year-old. I wasn’t as cool as my 16-year old big sister, but I had cracked the grown-up code. And yes, I still hum the song, every night when I remember my Pill.

Good Riddance to Horrible Legislation: The Georgia Race and Sex Selection Bill is Dead (for now)

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center

I am thrilled to report that Georgia S.B. 529, the “Race and Sex Selection” Bill is DEAD. The bill would have made it a crime for providers to perform an abortion based on the race or the sex of the fetus. It is based on the faulty premises that (1) women have abortions because of the race of the fetus and (2) sex selection exists only because of the availability of abortion. 

The groundwork was laid by a billboard campaign around Atlanta which promoted the idea that abortion is "genocide" against the Black community. While Black women do have higher abortion rates than other groups, the very notion that a Black woman is deciding to terminate her pregnancy with some insidious "genocidal" motive is beyond insulting. And are we really naïve enough to think that people who oppose reproductive choice for Black women actually have some interest in the wellbeing of the Black community? The campaign’s theory that abortion clinics are disproportionately placed in Black neighborhoods to somehow "entice" women to have abortions is not only factually inaccurate, but presumes that we Black women do not have the capacity to seriously consider and evaluate our own life circumstances and whether or not to become parents. 

Health Reform: A Victory for Reproductive Justice

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center

As an organization that supports abortion rights, we’ve considered health reform a bittersweet success. The bill that was signed into law yesterday (and the Executive Order regarding abortion) will certainly not advance abortion access. It can be argued that abortion access will actually be harmed by Health Reform if insurers respond by dropping abortion coverage that they previously included.

Nonetheless, I am going to celebrate Health Reform, because it advances the cause of Reproductive Justice. One of my very first postings here at womenstake.org was on Reproductive Justice, so here is a quick refresher. The Reproductive Justice movement was started by Women of Color to address concerns that had long been neglected by the mainstream reproductive rights community. The Reproductive Justice movement places reproductive health and rights within a social justice framework. The movement supports the right of individuals to have the children they want, raise the children they have, and plan their families through safe, legal access to abortion and contraception. In order to make these rights a reality, the movement recognizes that Reproductive Justice will only be achieved when all people have the resources, as well as the economic, social, and political power, to make healthy decisions about their bodies, their sexuality, and their reproduction. 

A Very Special Girls and Women in Sports Day

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center

This year’s National Girls and Women in Sports Day (Feb. 3) is pretty special for me. I am reflecting on a recent trip my dad made across the country to see his granddaughter play some of her last high school basketball games. My amazing niece Dara is graduating, and doesn’t plan to play organized basketball in College –although according to her granddad, she could if she wanted to! My nieces, born in 1991 and 1995, don’t think it’s any big deal that they play high school basketball. I am a bit (ahem) older, so I know moments like these wouldn’t be possible without Title IX.

Once upon a time, there wouldn’t have been a game for my dad to go to. Once upon a time, before schools were forced to make serious investments in girls’ sports programs, tournaments, facilities and coaches, only a boy’s game would have been worth the trip.

I am grateful that these “once upon a times” now seem like they are in a “land far far away.” This is only because of the hard work of advocates, parents, and my awesome colleagues in the Education group here at NWLC. Because of their hard work, girls have an equal opportunity to make their granddads proud.

Happy National Girls and Women in Sports Day and a big shout out to Dara and her teammates at Lake Travis High, especially the members of the Class of 2010. Go Cavs!

Illinois Joins Other States that Allow a Short-cut to STD Treatment

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center 

We spend a lot of time here at Womenstake.org complaining and criticizing, but occasionally we stop and applaud states for implementing policies that actually make sense.

As we ring in the New Year, Illinois becomes the 22nd state to pass what is called “expedited partner therapy” for sexual transmitted diseases. Baltimore also has such a provision.

These laws allow a health care provider to write a prescription for medicine to treat the partner of a person who has tested positive for an STD like chlamydia or gonorrhea. So: Bob goes to the doctor and tests positive for an STD. Bob gets a prescription or medicine to treat the STD, and the doctor also writes a prescription or gives Bob enough additional medicine to treat Bob’s partner or partners without the doctor having to see them also. 

Bob’s chances of re-infection are lowered, and the partner(s) is less likely to spread the STD to someone else. Just an aside: Let’s hope this also comes with some counseling on using condoms to reduce the future risk of getting an STD.

Brilliant, simple, elegant; policy-making at its finest.

Happy New Year Illinois!

It's Official! New York Governor Signs Bill Prohibiting Pregnant Inmates from Being Shackled

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel,
National Women's Law Center 

Not many people are aware of the practice of shackling prison inmates while they are giving birth.  The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists notes that it makes the birthing process far more difficult, and endangers the pregnancy by hindering the doctor’s ability to assess the pregnant woman’s condition.  If you can’t begin to imagine how degrading this must be, read here about one woman’s experience.

We previously reported on the anti-shackling bill that passed both legislative houses in New York and we’ve been anxiously waiting to see if the governor would do the right thing. Fortunately he has, and the cruel and inhumane practice of restricting the movement of pregnant inmates has been forbidden in one more state. This makes New York one of only a handful of states to forbid the use of restraints on inmates during labor and birth. Federal prisons revised their policy to prohibit shackling in October.

Not surprisingly there isn’t one reported case of an attempted escape by a woman who is in labor!  We are working with a coalition led by the Rebecca Project for Human Rights to ban this practice in every state’s prisons and jails.

Happy Women’s Equality Day!

by Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel, 
National Women's Law Center 

The year that women gained the right to vote is firmly planted in my head.  It happens to be the year my grandmother, Hazel Virginia Moore, was born.  Putting aside the whole Black folks couldn’t vote until several decades later thing, I still have to marvel at how different my life as a woman is from hers, simply based on when we were born.  My basketball playing nieces, Dara and Jada, are also likely to think about their own grandmother’s life in the same light.  Girls in my mom’s Class of 1957 cheered on the sidelines, but couldn’t get in the game. 

I am taking this day to send up a prayer of thanks to my grandmother, and to everyone who has fought for equal opportunity for all.

Happy Women’s Equality Day.