Posts Tagged: reproductive justice
The Other “F” Word: Enough Mansplanation
“Feminism: a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche The use of language and the connotation attached to words we use can be quite divisive. The word feminism, in itself, has become a word many men are turned off by. Gender, sexual orientation, and race have a default image response to the oppressed group, but we never examine the other half of the equation—the privileged group. I definitely benefit from male privilege myself. I still have trouble checking my privilege and acknowledging my faults, but we are all still venturing in our own feminist journeys and there’s still a lot to learn along the way, especially for me.
Why Should This 21-Year-Old Woman Care about Paternity Leave?
So often the conversations around reproductive justice focus solely on what happens to a person and their (sometimes potential) fetus before birth – contraception, abortion care, safe sex, and sex education. Especially as a young person who is in no rush to start a family, what matters most me today is access to the contraception and abortion care which will enable me to make informed and conscientious choices about my future family life. At age 21, on the cusp of graduating college and moving on to “the real world,” babies weren’t high on my Christmas list and they won’t be for quite awhile.
Having the Reproductive Justice Talk with Your Parents
Most of my activist friends, myself included, have developed political values leaning far left than those of their parents possess and raised them with. And, particularly when considering reproductive justice activism, this can cause rifts between you and your parents. I know it’s been a struggle for my red-state residing, devoutly Catholic parents, ever since I announced I was a big ol’ pro-choice queer feminist. Many of friends with not-so progressive parents just tend to shut that aspect of their life out in order to order tension and strife. Unfortunately, depending on your parents, or your dependence on them, sometimes this might be necessary. However, I also think, while it’s hard, it’s also necessary to push those boundaries a bit and reside in uncomfortable spaces.
The Truth Behind the So-Called “Culture of Life”
Something that has been getting under my skin recently is the preservation of “life” at all costs by anti-choice activists and politicians. No matter what the circumstances, no matter how painful or risky it is, all “life” must be maintained. So-called pro-lifers have become so obsessed with making sure that a heartbeat is sustained that they’ll ignore the circumstances surrounding it. In fact, that is the entire flaw around being anti-choice. The intricacies and complexities of a person’s life are completely ignored. This goes beyond just the choice to terminate a pregnancy.
The Truth about Teenage Pregnancy Rates
Have you heard the news? Pregnancy, birth, and abortion rates are at an all-time low for women ages 15-19. This recent statistic most likely surprises a lot of people. People often have the perception that teenage pregnancy is an “epidemic” among millennials, because we are clearly the most irresponsible and self-centered generation. Recently, I have had several conversations about pregnancy rates in the US. Because of the work I do in reproductive justice, I’m asked about “all of these girls who get pregnant in their teens” (a cringey way of asking about teen pregnancy regardless). I often ask, “What do you mean? Teenage pregnancy is at an all-time low compared to the nineties.”
Immigration and Reproductive Justice: Fighting for Family Rights
This has been an exhausting and draining week for many UT-Austin students, myself being one. National headlines covered the Texas University’s Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) student organization that hosted a “Catch an Illegal Immigrant Game.” This game involved volunteers wearing pins with “illegal” on them and if students “caught” them and brought them back to a YCT member, they would receive a $25 gift card. Their goal was to create a dialogue about immigration…right.
Some Words for the Man Who Told Me I Should Be Ashamed
The summer of 2012, I was a public affairs intern at Planned Parenthood Advocates of Kansas and Mid-Missouri. I’d just finished my freshman year, and two months before the plan had been to get a job as a barista back home, to live yearning endlessly for my college town, where even if it’s not perfect, is at least a place where the pro-choice bumper stickers don’t get scraped off my car. But somehow in my feminist awakening
“I Work at an Abortion Clinic” – Life as an Advocate
“What do you do for a living?” This is not always the easiest question, especially if you work at a health clinic that provides abortion care. Recently I read this article about people who work at abortion clinics (presumably patient advocates and doctors) being pressured to leave their jobs by anti-choice groups. In many ways, pressuring patient advocates to leave reminded me of my own position as an advocate at a domestic violence shelter, and
Responsibility and Reproduction: Abortion as Radical Self-Care
What is the typical picture that anti-choice politicians paint of a person who chooses abortion? She is a cisgender straight woman (of course). She consented to sex with a cisgender straight man (of course), which means she that she consented to becoming pregnant. She’s not married, nor does she have children. She’s young and irresponsible. She should have known better than to have sex! The anti-choice view behind sex is pretty obvious: Don’t have sex unless you’re married, because obviously
Here’s Hoping Janet Yellen is Good for Youth Employment
So, Janet Yellen was nominated by President Obama on October 9 to be the next chair of the Federal Reserve. That sound you hear, it’s the glass ceiling cracking. Before President Obama nominated Janet Yellen, he was considering Larry Summers. The Larry Summers who thinks ladies and their lady brains can’t cut in STEM fields. When I thought a guy who’s not only sexist but also not a very good economist might be in charge of our central bank, I was all:
