Em-URGE-ing Voices

Posts Tagged: healthcare access

We Are Gay & We Are Pregnant: How Unpregnant Combats the Stigmas Surrounding Abortions

***SPOILERS MENTIONED. This past weekend, while in my humble dorm room eating a bag of frozen cotton candy grapes, I decided to start my 7-day free trial on HBO and watch the recently released movie Unpregnant starring Barbie Ferreira and Haley Lu Richardson. I remember quite vividly when the trailer first came out and based on my initial reaction and Twitter’s; I thought I had an idea of what type of movie I’d soon be watching; another coming of age film that’s centered around teen white girls.  And yes, it was precisely just that. But I wasn’t entirely disappointed. In this movie, we follow 17-year-old Veronica (played by Haley lu Richardson,) as she and her friend, Bailey (played by Barbie Ferreria), travel across state lines to the nearest abortion clinic…. Read more »

What Student Activists Should Take Away From Mizzou

The University of Missouri is having a historic fall semester of immense social change. A series of student and faculty demonstrations against systematic racism at the university just forced their president to step down. Happening at the same time, graduate students protested health care cuts the university had made. This resulted in the unionization of graduate workers and direct action taken by the faculty council to fix it. The momentum built by the student efforts is influencing colleges across state boarders including in my home state, Kansas. Kansans and Missourians have a rivalry that dates back to Bleeding Kansas, when towns burned over the slavery debate. Missourians and citizens of the then Kansas-Nebraska territory battled over whether or not slavery would be part of the Kansas economy. The Kansan abolitionists… Read more »

Anti-Choice Propaganda Hurts Texas

Monday, October 19th 2015, Texas decided to eliminate funding to Planned Parenthood. This is why I’m pissed off. Texas largely based this decision off of the highly-edited and misconstrued videos created by an anti-choice group. Seriously. The Texas government made a decision (that affects thousands of people) off of propaganda internet videos. In the statement issued by Governor Greg Abbott’s office, it mentions this in the very first line. Following the release of gruesome videos filmed at Planned Parenthood facilities, including Gulf Coast in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott announced his LIFE Initiative to provide greater protections for children in the womb and prevent the sale of baby body parts. Unfortunately, this isn’t an episode of The Twilight Zone; this is Texas politicizing women’s healthcare. (Planned Parenthood doesn’t solely focus on… Read more »

Save the person not the “boobies”

Congratulations, America, you’ve successfully sexualized breast cancer. Breast Cancer Awareness Month is something with such phenomenal intentions, the idea of raising money and awareness about something that affects so many lives and tears families apart and hurts so many is truly beautiful and inspiring. Until we made it about boobs, not the strength those struggling with cancer. If all you care about is someone being able to keep their breasts so you can further sexualize their body please exit now. Here is the biggest flaw in that: in a lot of cases, breast removal surgeries literally SAVE PEOPLE’S LIVES. In addition to that the “save the boobs” theme of breast cancer awareness excludes men who have breast cancer from the conversation and does nothing to raise awareness for them. America… Read more »