activism

Some thoughts from Intentional Motherhood

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The event that I helped to organize was an apparent success! We had a good turn out, a got quite a few birthday wishes and we hopefully made good money for the DC Abortion Fund. Jill Morrison, from the National Women’s Law Center graciously put her comments into a blog post. She’s great. She spoke about the connections between abortion rights and birthing rights, and really brought it home with her discussion of two court cases (she is a lawyer, after all).

I am thrilled that the DC Abortion Fund is hosting an event to celebrate a book that enhances women’s ability to make pregnancy and birthing decisions.  Let’s face it, some don’t think that abortion supporters can be all rah-rah about the childbirth thing, but we really are. But this isn’t just because we think pregnant women are incredibly gorgeous and we’re the first in line to coochie-coo. It’s because we share common goals with those who support a woman’s pregnancy and birthing choices. Sometimes it is really difficult to make the connection between abortion, pregnancy and birth, but I think one case really brings home the point.

Read the full post here.

Upcoming DC Event: Intentional Motherhood

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I’m excited to announce this upcoming Washington DC event for three reasons. One, I helped to organize it. Two, it brings together two of my favorite topics, birth and abortion. Three, it happens to fall on my birthday! If you are in the DC area, you should come to the event, and wish me a happy birthday.

Intentional Motherhood: Connecting Abortion, Pregnancy, and Birth
Considering the full range of women’s reproductive rights:

The right to affordable birth control.
The right to parent.
The right to choose abortion.
The right to midwifery care.
The right to determine a birth plan.
The right to prenatal care.

Our Bodies Ourselves has provided indispensable information on women’s health and sexuality for more than 40 years. Their newest book, Our Bodies, Ourselves: Pregnancy and Birth addresses the questions and needs of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and the “fourth trimester” of early motherhood.

The DC Abortion Fund is excited to host a a book signing and discussion to explore the many connections between these issues.

Featuring
Judy Norsigian, Executive Director, Our Bodies Ourselves
Alexis Zepeda, Board Member, DC Abortion Fund
Jill Morrison, Senior Counsel, National Women’s Law Center

Wednesday May 28, 6:30 pm
Hawk ‘n’ Dove, 329 Pennsylvania Ave SE
Capital South Metro

Suggested Donation: $20

All Proceeds Benefit the DC Abortion Fund


If you have questions or are interested in co-sponsoring this event, please contact Betsy Illingworth at betsyillingworth@yahoo.com or Dina Morad at dinamorad@gmail.com

I have yet to read the new OBOS book, but so far I have heard good things about it. After reading What to Expect When You’re Expecting during my thesis work in college, I know we are in desperate need of good pregnancy books that don’t scare women. It’s also a good book because its pretty affordable–only $15! We will be raffling off some books at the event, and Judy Norsigian will be there to sign copies.

Hope you can make it!

Help a Woman’s Shelter Rebuild after Arson

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This story comes from Andy Ternay, who has been writing and blogging about this situation to help the Pretty Bird Woman House, a woman’s shelter raise enough money to rebuild. The shelter was kept open by donations from the online community last May, and recently it was ravaged by arson and ruined. The shelter is on the Standing Rock reservation, part of the Lakota Native community.

The community and the shelter have a long history that you can read about here, but the bottom line is that they need more money to reach their goal of $70,000 that they need for the house and security system. They are more than half way there, and today Andy and others are pushing for the last portion. See the bottom for how to donate.

Continue reading →

Making the connection between pro-choice activists and birth activists

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Lynn Paltrow, the Executive Director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women and a pioneer in the reproductive justice field, has a great article in TomPaine today which eloquently clarifies why there needs to be more coalition work between abortion rights activists and birth activists.

Both pro-choice advocates and birthing rights advocates are challenged by decreasing access to services: the former struggles with the fact that 87 percent of all U.S. counties have no abortion providers; the latter struggles against policies at over 300 hospitals around the country that deny women who have previously had c-sections the right to even try delivering vaginally.

And both have been negatively affected by growing claims of “fetal rights.” While these are advanced as part of the campaign to outlaw abortion, they have begun to effect the lives of women who personally identify as “pro-life.” Christian fundamentalists have been told that they must have unnecessary c-sections to protect the rights of the fetus; pregnant women opposed to abortions have been arrested as child abusers in the name of fetal rights for things they did or did not do during pregnancy.

Read the rest of the article here.

Feministing guest post: On Being a Radical Doula

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I’m re-posting my feministing guest blog here, because it does a good job of explaining why I use the term radical doula, and why NAPW‘s recent Summit to Ensure the Health and Humanity of Pregnant and Birthing Women was so amazing–and fit very well with the essence of what it means to be a radical doula. Thanks to Jessica Valenti for giving me the opportunity to guest blog, and as a result deciding to create my own.

During the pre-conference training organized by Be Present, Inc, I stood up and introduced myself as a radical doula. This was a designation that I came to assume for myself through an understanding that my beliefs (which seemed to me completely logical and altogether natural) placed me apart from a large part of what I have come to call the “birth activist” community (midwives, doulas and advocates who work toward changing the standards of care for birthing women in the US). This conference highlighted many of the ways my politics are a seeming contradiction: I’m a doula and I’m a pro-choice abortion advocate. I’m a doula and I’m a lesbian. I’m a doula and I may never have children. I’m a doula and I’m Latina. I’m doula and I’m not entirely comfortable with the gender/sex binary.

What was so groundbreaking about this conference was that it brought together two of my worlds, the birth activists (midwives, doulas, academics) and the pro-choice activists (policy people, advocates, organizers). I can see now how these two groups, the former of which dedicates its time to supporting women as they bring children into the world, and the latter that fights for women’s rights to not bring children into the world, don’t necessarily go together. The irony is that I never understood the contradictions that exist between them until Lynn Paltrow pointed it out to me—precisely because the two are really good about not mentioning the others issues. The midwifery conferences I have been to in the past never mentioned the issue of abortion—allowing me to erroneously assume that they were all pro-choice just like me. Likewise, the pro-choice conferences rarely mentioned the issues that face birthing women—so focused as they are on the rights of women fighting not to birth. So congratulations NAPW, you succeeded in beginning a dialogue between the two movements (as stilted and precarious as it may have been at times)—even just by creating a space where that dialogue was possible.

What this conference made entirely clear to me is that the activists from these two camps need to be in the same room, if not simply because the people whom we are fighting are one and the same. The people who want to take away women’s rights to abortion, contraception, and comprehensive sex education are the same ones who aren’t afraid to forcibly subject women to c-sections, limit the scope of women’s choices about how they birth or place the rights of an unborn fetus above the rights of a woman.

Check out the original and complete post here.