abortion

New Los Angeles full spectrum doula project

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I got word of a new full spectrum doula project starting up in Los Angeles. They are looking for members. Check out the info below!

1.  If a doula is interested in working as a birth doula or a full-spectrum doula (or both), please email us at info@ladoulaproject.org.
2.  Requirements: doulas must be able to take at least one pro-bono birth per month and be willing to meet the clinic volunteer guidelines (more information on that when we send them the application.)
3.  Doulas must be aware that we are an organization that works with the full-spectrum of pregnancy.  If they are only comfortable working with births at this time, that’s fine, but they must be aware of that association.

And you can download the flyer here.

Yay for new full spectrum projects!

New York Abortion Access Fund needs your help

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NYAAF is going broke. NYAAF is one of the many abortion funds around the country that have served as a grassroots safety net for folks of all incomes who can’t afford the abortion procedures they need. NYAAF needs your help. We’re in a recession, which means way more need from folks looking for procedures.

You may be thinking, but I don’t live in New York. Why should I support NYAAF and not my local abortion fund? Well, ideally, you’d support both. But, the women who come to New York City for abortions are from all over the country, because NYC is one of the more permissive states when it comes to abortions and has a wealth of providers (comparatively). So people who need them later in their pregnancy (maybe because they didn’t realize they were pregnant, because they were trying to scrounge up the thousands of dollars to afford the procedure, because they were afraid to tell their partners/friends/parents) have to come to NYC, from all over the country, for their procedures.

Think about it. On top of the procedure costs, there are travel costs as well. Many of these people look to NYAAF for help–they are really a fund that serves folks needing abortions from all over the country.

The other great thing about NYAAF is that it’s volunteer run–which means almost all of what you donate goes straight to the folks who need it. Barely any administrative costs.

That’s where you come in. I just donated $25 to help NYAAF. Can you chip in?

It’s been a tough year for everyone, and especially low-income folks whProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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e health care plans don’t cover the procedures they need (thanks Henry Hyde).

If you’re in NYC, there is a happy hour tonight next week to raise funds. Or if not, you can donate here.

In response to the Slate abortion doula article

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So I was interviewed a few weeks ago by Marisa Meltzer (author of two books on feminism) for an article for Slate.com about abortion doulas.

The title is: What’s an Abortion Doula? They’re strangers who will hold your hand while you go under the knife.

To Marisa’s credit, there is a chance she had nothing to do with the title. I’ve written articles before where the title that was slapped on was one I had never seen.

But, that possibility aside, what a terrible title. The first part that pissed me off was “while you go under the knife.” What a sensationalist way to talk about abortion!!! Many of them don’t even involve “knives” or scalpels, as they are called by medical professionals. Most abortions are done using a manual vacuum aspirator, which uses a canula (long tube that suctions) not a knife. But the technicalities aside, it’s such a sensationalist way to talk about abortion. You’d think this might be an anti’s article about abortion doulas.

Then, she says this:

Even as a pro-choice feminist, when I heard about abortion doulas my first thought was: Are women really so fragile that they need to hire a complete stranger to hold their hand at the doctor’s?

Though I don’t share Doula Lori’s views, abortion doulas seemed a little unnecessary to me. Doulas don’t do anything during an abortion that a friend or clinic worker couldn’t do.

I can’t really understand how it can be feminist to say that women are FRAGILE if they need or want a support person during a medical procedure. Especially a medial procedure like an abortion or a birth. Let’s shame women for what they need! That’s totally feminist.

And if abortion doulas weren’t necessary (because a clinic worker or friend could play the role) then why are clinics in NYC banging down the doula project’s door? If these folks weren’t fulfilling a need they wouldn’t have a project. That’s the thing–the doctors and clinics like having the doulas there, and so do the women. That’s all that matters.

She ends the piece, thankfully, on a less dismissive note.

The success of the New York doula project has inspired women in other cities to mimic their efforts. There are groups in Asheville, N.C., Greensboro, N.C., and Seattle organizing abortion doulas, and the L.A. Doula Project will be opening in a clinic this spring. Pérez puts the whole thing into perspective for me with a story about her brother having emergency appendicitis. “I totally was his appendicitis doula,” she laughs. “My job is [to ask], ‘What can I do to make you feel better?’ ” What woman going through a fraught experience wouldn’t want that?

You can read the whole piece here. I’m glad that doulas who work across the spectrum of pregnancy are getting attention, but it’s frustrating not to be able to control the message.

Speaking in NYC: Reproductive Justice in Action

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I’m speaking at a great event next week in NYC, at Barnard College. If you are in NYC, you should check it out.

It’s a panel with Mary and Lauren, the two other co-founders of the Doula Project (and current coordinators!) as well as Aishia Domingue from the Brooklyn Young Mother’s Collective. It’s going to be an interesting conversation.

Reproductive Justice in Action
Aisha Domingue, Mary Mahoney, Lauren Mitchell, and Miriam Pérez
Panel Discussion:
Wednesday, 3/3, 6:30 pm
Sulzberger Parlor, 3rd Floor Barnard Hall

This panel will feature a group of reproductive justice activists and birth doulas who work across the spectrum of pregnancy, birth, and women’s health, connecting the traditional reproductive rights movement with new social justice activism that considers the complete physical, political, and economic well-being of girls and women. Birth doulas, as trained sources of physical, emotional, and educational support, work to empower women and support their reproductive choices. How does childbirth fit into the discussion around reproductive rights, a discussion that is often based around access to abortion and contraception? How can the reproductive justice framework help us consider institutional barriers, such as racism and poverty, that have limited women’s empowerment and decision-making when it comes to their reproductive health?

I’m also speaking at a couple of other places in the next few weeks, including Smith College, University of Iowa and University of Minnesota. Check out the details here, and if you’re interested in bringing me to speak email me.

Worried about women of color? Thanks but no thanks anti-choicers. We’ve got it covered.

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I have another piece up at RH Reality Check today. Apparently it’s my week for publication! This one has a lot more opinion and snark than yesterday’s. I was responding to the recent efforts on behalf of the anti-choice community to argue that abortion is being used by groups like Planned Parenthood as a form of eugenics against women of color.

Latinas and other women of color don’t need to be protected by paternalistic ideologues motivated by a political agenda that disregards the needs of women of color and their families. So thanks for your concern, anti-choicers, but I think the women of color advocates working within the reproductive justice movement have got it covered. We’re working in those clinics you attack, we’re helping to shape policies and provide services in our communities, services that allow us to decide what our needs are.

We know whom we can trust to make decisions about family creation: women themselves. We don’t need limits on what services we can access.  And we don’t need your ideological bullying.

The next time one of your crisis pregnancy centers, one of your dramatic billboards, or one of your bogus pieces of “sex and race selection” legislation actually works to support women through whatever choice they make for their families—we’ll talk.

Read the rest here.

Making the radical a reality

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There is a great article up at RH Reality Check, written by Mary Mahoney, one of the founders of The Doula Project. I’ve written about the NYC-based Doula Project before, and am honored to have been one of the founders.

All the credit for what the project has become goes to co-founders Mary and Lauren, who took some very early stage ideas about providing doula care to folks having abortions and turned it into this amazing project which supports people throughout all stages of reproductive life, including abortion, fetal anomalies, miscarriages, adoption and birth.

I think this project takes doula care to its natural end–we’re there to support pregnant folks, through any and all decisions.

The Doula Project has served over 500 pregnant people since the fall of 2008, guided by the mission of providing free compassionate care and emotional, physical and informational support to people facing birth, abortion, fetal anomaly, or miscarriage. The foundation of our project is built on meeting pregnant people where they are, something I’ve taken with me from working four years in the reproductive justice movement. This connects to our belief that pregnant people should be trusted to make the choices that are best for them and that their experiences and the memories of those experiences should be honored.

Doulas hold a unique position in health care as non-medical lay people who are there solely for the pregnant person. The birth doula movement has certainly grown over the past few years, and innovative and radical projects have expanded care for pregnant people who might otherwise not receive it, such as young mothers and women in prison. During this time, The Doula Project has been building on a new model of doula care: one that supports pregnant people having abortions and choosing adoption.

Read the whole article here and check out the Doula Project here.

UPDATE: There is another great article about the Doula Project in the Brooklyn Link.

“The idea that a woman maintains her human rights, even when she’s pregnant, is a radical new idea.”

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The title comes from Lynn Paltrow, of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, on this segment of GRITtv. Also on the segment is Silvia Henriquez, Executive Director of National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

Video after the jump.

Continue reading →

How Personhood USA and their bills will hurt all pregnant women

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A new video from the fabulous National Advocates for Pregnant Women, about the new crop of personhood bills that are popping up in states around the country and why they are bad for all pregnant women–whether you are terminating your pregnancy or not.

This is the type of legislation that birth advocates and abortion activists need to rally together and fight against, because they will limit all our choices–from abortions to home births. If we give fetus’ rights that compete with the mother’s, we’re all in danger.

On the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade

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From RH Reality Check:

RH Reality Check: What is the significance of Roe to you and to the women you serve?

Miriam Perez, Senior Advocacy Associate at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health:

For the women we work with, many of whom come from countries in Latin America where abortion is still criminalized, Roe has the potential to have a huge impact on their lives. Roe has the potential to make reproductive health services just like any other healthcare need a woman has, it has the potential to make a usually clandestine procedure safe and accessible. Unfortunately for them, the Roe decision has been weakened and diluted by subsequent legislation. The Hyde Amendment, in particular, has seriously stunted the potential of Roe. Because of these laws, we have a long way to go for low-income and immigrant women to really feel the full affects of this historic Supreme Court decision.

RH Reality Check: Is Roe enough? What does our country need in addition to Roe to ensure reproductive justice for all women?

Miriam Perez:

Roe isn’t enough because privacy is not enough. That narrow legal framework has only barely protected our legal right to access the procedure. It says nothing about access, about funding, about autonomy and barriers. It says nothing about justice. It has not addressed those who based on moral and religious convictions try to limit the health care women can receive. It has not addressed those who want women’s bodies to be manipulated in service of a religious agenda and who want the fetus’s rights to be placed about those of the mother. We need a lot more than a shaky legal framework to stand on if we want to achieve reproductive justice.

Read other advocates comments here.

New York City Abortion Doula Project Launched!

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I’m really excited to be writing this post, announcing that NYC has a new abortion doula project. I’ve written about the idea of abortion doulas before (see these old posts). Also I wrote an article for RHReality Check a year or so ago about some other abortion doula projects around the US.

Doula care is expanding across the United States as more people become familiar with the concept and more women seek out their services for labor and delivery. As this expansion continues as a part of the wider movement to change the standards of maternity care in the United States (by lowering intervention rates, increasing midwifery care and educating women about birthing options), there are doulas trying to apply their skills to another arena of women’s reproductive lifecycle: abortion care.

While I was living in New York City, I connected with two other doulas, Mary and Lauren, about the idea of starting an abortion doula project in NYC. I thought it could be a great way to provide this service (on a volunteer basis) to women receiving abortions in New York City, and also serve the political purpose of broadening the scope of doula care. We worked together on the foundations of this project up until I left NYC in February and I am happy to say that the project is almost up and running! They are going to be training a group of women in a few weeks and have begun providing support to women receiving abortions at Bellevue Hospital.

Stay tuned for more updates about the project, and a Radical Doula profile about Mary!

Interested in learning more about the project or getting involved? Email marymATprotectchoiceDOTorg.