rePROs Fight Back

Purity culture, or the expectation that women remain sexually “pure,” is widespread throughout evangelical communities. Purity culture stems from the idea that men are inherently sexual beings and that women are not, placing the burden on women to be the gatekeepers of sexuality in evangelical communities, as well as to “control” the desires of men. Becca Andrews, reporter with Mother Jones Magazine, talks to us about purity culture and sexual assault at Christian colleges, with an in-depth look at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. 

To better understand what is happening at Christian colleges like Moody Bible Institute, it’s important to first understand Title IX. Any school in the U.S. that accepts federal funding must follow Title IX guidelines, which address discrimination on the basis of gender in educational institutions. Title IX has religious exemptions which allows schools to still follow the broad tenets of Title IX while being able to skirt issues that conflict with their religious beliefs. Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education during the Trump administration, expanded and broadened these religious exemptions so that any school could claim religious exemption, even if a complaint made it all the way to the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education they can retroactively make the religious exemption claim. 

Moody Bible Institute has a history of Title IX infractions; for example, the school has kept women from participating in pastoral programs up until 2017, and they have also faced claims of discriminatory employee termination. In October of 2020, multiple students from Moody Bible Institute compiled their stories of sexual assault in a Google document, eventually crating a Change.org petition for their school to address its failings. These students were continually dismissed and paternalized by Moody’s dean, felt that the Title IX office mishandled their cases, were not presented with the appropriate resources or support for their cases, and reported that most communications and procedures regarding their cases were held within the context of the school’s deep-rooted purity culture. 

Becca’s article follows multiple students who bravely shared their stories of assault, abuse, harassment, discrimination, and lack of systemic support from Moody Bible Institute—all of which stems from the rampant purity culture that undergirds the programming and culture at Christian schools. 

Links

They Went to Bible College to Deepen Their Faith. Then They Were Assaulted—and Blamed for It.

Becca Andrews on Twitter

Becca Andrews Mother Jones

Sexual Assault on Campus: Will Title IX Rule Changes Make Schools Less Safe? rePROs Fight Back podcast

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Young people deserve access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive healthcare—but those needs aren’t always easy to acquire in the United States. Diana Thu-Thao Rhodes, Vice President of Policy, Partnerships, and Organizing at Advocates for Youth, sits down to talk with us about the barriers young people face when in need of sex education and sexual and reproductive health services.

Young people’s access to sex education in the United States isn’t a pretty picture; a patchwork of legislation at the federal and state level impact sex education, meaning there isn’t an overarching federal bill that mandates safe sex education. State policies include a wide-range of practices—for example, 39 states and D.C. mandate some form of sex education or HIV education, but what is included in those lesson plans vary across the country. State-by-state and school-district-by-school-district lessons could be abstinence-based, abstinence-stressed, or must include teachings on certain topics, leading to entirely different education experiences based on where young people live and go to school.

 On top of facing a patchwork of sex education legislation, young people feel disproportionate barriers to accessible sexual and reproductive healthcare. Many young people may not feel that they can make their parents aware of their healthcare needs, may not have access to transportation or money, or may not feel supported by the current health infrastructure where they live if they are transgender or gender expansive. Similar barriers make young people jump through a variety of hoops to access abortion care, as well. In addition, if a young person does not want to inform a parent or guardian in a state that requires parental notification, young people must seek a judicial bypass, a legal process that necessitates permission from a judge to receive the procedure. Six-week abortion bans, like the one recently passed in Texas, will undoubtedly and unduly impact young people who need access to abortion care.

 To better support young people in their access to sexual and reproductive healthcare and sex education, we must advocate for policies that ensure young people’s confidentiality when accessing sexual health services, pass legislation that expands sexual health service access across the country such as the Real Education and Access for Healthy Youth Act (REAHYA) and the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA), address state-by-state patchwork comprehensive sex education legislation, remove forced parental-involvement laws, allowance of over-the-counter oral contraception without age restriction, and strengthen protections for LGBTQ youth and gender-affirming healthcare. A culture shift is required to support the health and rights of young people—young people’s sexuality is a natural part of adolescent development and cannot be shamed, ignored, or met with silence. 

Links

Advocates for Youth on Twitter

Advocates for Youth on Facebook

Abortion Out Loud campaign 

Free The Pill campaign

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

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On September 1st, 2021, Texas effectively banned abortion in the state. Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health and Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, sits down to talk to us about the tremendous stress that Texas’s new legislation has already had on patients, abortion providers, clinic staff, and abortion funds. 

Texas’s SB8 outlaws abortion care after six weeks of pregnancy—far before many people even know they are pregnant and before many people can even receive an abortion appointment due to the pre-existing restrictive laws in Texas. Because they are so blatantly unconstitutional, six-week abortion bans have been knocked down in twelve states before Texas. The statute also empowers Texas residents to become pseudo-vigilantes, reporting anyone who “aids and abets” someone in accessing an abortion. The Supreme Court allowed the law to be enforced on September 2nd. For more detailed information on the Texas law, check out our past podcast episode here. 

This new ruling will force patients to drive out-of-state to receive basic abortion care, putting a burden on the healthcare infrastructure of neighboring states like New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The law also puts an enormous emotional weight on the staff of clinics like Whole Woman’s Health, who are being forced to tell patients that they cannot receive the abortion care that they need. 

Links

Whole Woman’s Health on Twitter

Whole Woman’s Health on Facebook

Whole Woman’s Health Alliance on Twitter

Whole Woman’s Health Alliance on Facebook

Amy Hagstom Miller on Twitter

Why Texas’s New Abortion Law and the Upcoming SCOTUS Case are Stressing Us Out Podcast

Take Action Items

Firstly, follow Whole Woman’s Health on Twitter and Facebook and Whole Woman’s Health Alliance on Twitter and Facebook here.

Continue having open, honest, and, positive conversations about safe and legal abortion access. 

If you can, donate to people doing work on the front lines in Texas, including Whole Woman’s Health and Whole Woman’s Health alliance. You can find a list of Texas abortion funds here and Keep Our Clinics here. 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

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Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban and the destruction caused to Haiti by a 7.92 magnitude earthquake have created two simultaneously unfolding humanitarian situations. Rachel Moynihan, Advocacy and Communications Specialist at the United Nations, sits down with us to discuss the work that UNFPA does to support and expand access to sexual and reproductive health and rights for populations in humanitarian settings, and how UNFPA is assisting in Afghanistan and Haiti specifically.

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, is the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency founded 50 years ago. UNFPA has three goals: 1) to end the unmet need of voluntary family planning; 2) to end preventable maternal deaths, and 3) to end gender-based violence. UNFPA is active in over 150 countries and territories, working in multiple humanitarian settings. UNFPA is able to gather the political will to address the reproductive health and rights needs of people in humanitarian settings while also providing critical on-the-ground services, supplies, and care.

The COVID-19 pandemic and climate disasters have further stressed the ability for UNFPA to reach populations that may be in need of sexual and reproductive health care, menstrual products, and protection from gender-based violence. Lockdowns, layoffs, and inability to attend school have increased rates of abuse, child marriage, female genital cutting.

In 2018, 1600 women per 100,000 were dying in childbirth Afghanistan, leading UNFPA to train 35 young women in the Gorom Harat region to become maternal midwives. Now, that rate hovers around 600. While that rate is still high, it’s lowering is due to safe maternal care and delivery services largely supported by UNFPA programming. UNFPA has also established 171 “family health houses” that provide 24/7 maternal health care in Afghanistan. If you’d like to hear more about the impact the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan may have on women and girls, you can find our recent podcast episode here.

On August 14th, a 7.92 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti on the same fault line that caused a similarly devastating earthquake ten years prior. This earthquake, in the shadow of the pandemic, a recent presidential assassination, and consistent food insecurity and gang violence, has compounded the country’s humanitarian crisis. Over 200,000 people lost their lives in the earthquake, with 10,000 injured. Because hospitals have experienced severe damage, UNFPA has rushed supplies into Haiti, set-up mobile teams and distributed reproductive health kits.

Links

UNFPA on Facebook

UNFPA on Twitter

Take Action

Follow UNFPA on Facebook and Twitter.

 You can support UNFPA’s sister organization, Friends of UNFPA, here.

Call on your members of Congress to support sexual and reproductive health and rights on a domestic and global scale. You can reach the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121. 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

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As Afghanistan falls to the Taliban, a humanitarian crisis is quickly unfolding in the country. Hundreds of thousands of individuals have been displaced, with women and girls making up 80 percent of those displaced individuals. Gayatri Patel, Vice President for External Relations at the Women’s Refugee Commission, sits down to talk with us about the situation unfolding in Afghanistan, what it means for women and girls, and what we can do to help.

Currently, there’s an urgent need to get people out of Afghanistan due to the ongoing conflict coupled with a major drought and ongoing impacts of Covid. Additionally, there is a growing humanitarian crisis of over 500,000 people that are internally displaced—they have left their homes in an effort to flee the Taliban, or their homes have been destroyed. All border crossing stations are controlled by the Taliban, making escape routes out of the country only possible by air. This makes shelter, food, and primary health services resources that are urgently needed by those in Afghanistan. These impacts of humanitarian crises are also disproportionately felt by women and girls, who also experience lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services, lack of access to education, and increased rates of gender-based violence.

Over the last twenty years, women and girls in Afghanistan have gone to school, worked, accessed critical health care, and become leaders. As the Taliban has taken over the country and Afghanistan’s government has fallen, those rights have been pulled back—in fact, there are reports of increased rates of sexual violence and forced marriage, women and girls being barred from schools and workplaces, and women and girls being forced to receive permission from male relatives to leave the home.

The international community must step up to support refugees from Afghanistan, without caps or quotas. The U.S. government can also ensure the safe evacuation of many women leaders by surging support for visa processing, securing routes to airports, and more. Survivors of gender-based violence, which is on the rise, need increased support. This includes medical care, psychosocial care, and assistance in finding work.

Links

Women’s Refugee Commission statement on the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan
Women’s Refugee Commission Afghanistan Resource Page
Advocacy and Support toolkit
CARE Action – Support Afghanistan campaign
Coalition to End Violence Against Women and Girls Sign-On letter

Take Action

Follow the Women’s Refugee Commission on Twitter and Facebook.

It’s important for the administration to continue to hear how important it is to get all people at-risk in Afghanistan out of the country. Call or write to your Congressional representatives, the President, and Secretary of State and tell them to prioritize the evacuation of women human rights defenders and to provide surge support to those who are accessing visas. You can reach the Capitol switchboard is 202-224-3121 and the White House switchboard at 202-456-1414.

Organize a neighborhood donation drive (or donate to one in your area!). Many refugees who arrive in the United States will need basic supplies when they arrive. 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

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 It’s no secret that 2021 has seen endless attacks on abortion access. Most notably, Texas is attempting to not only ban abortion at six weeks but allow anyone in the U.S. to sue any person involved in providing abortion care or helping someone in Texas access abortion care. Jessica Mason Pieklo, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor at Rewire News Group and co-host of Boom! Lawyered podcast, talks to us about the abortion ban out of Texas and the critical Mississippi case making its way in front of the Supreme Court in the fall.

Texas’ new (but not in effect yet) abortion ban that would ban the procedure at six weeks, before most people are aware they are pregnant. Normally, abortion bans like this require the enforcement of a state-actor, such as an attorney general or prosecutor. Instead, this statute empowers anyone as able to enforce this law. In short, Texas’ new law allows citizens to become pseudo-vigilantes, allowing the reporting of anyone who “aids and abets” someone in accessing an abortion. “Aiding and abetting” could include helping someone pay for care, driving someone to an appointment, or watching someone’s children while they attend an appointment. If this law goes into effect, patients in Texas would be forced to leave the state in order to access care. The law will also force abortion funds and other organizations to re-assess whether they feel able to operate. 

This fall, the Supreme Court will hear a case that proves a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey has previously established the unconstitutionality of Mississippi’s recent 15-week abortion ban, yet the Supreme Court has decided to hear it, signaling a troubling outcome. While it takes four justices to decide to take a case, it takes five justices to decide to change the law. Because no federal courts have disagreed with precedent before, there’s little reason why the conservative justices would want to take this case without the desire to change the law. With a 6-3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, this case proves to be particularly frightening. 

If the Supreme Court upholds Mississippi’s 15-week ban, Louisiana’s 15-week ban will also go into effect. It is likely that the language used to uphold these bans would be applied to 12-week bans, 8-week bans, and 6-week bans across the U.S. 

Links

Rewire News Group on Twitter

Rewire News Group on Facebook

Jessica Mason Pieklo on Twitter

In Texas, Abortion Snitches Don’t Get Stitches—They Get $10,000

Take Action 

Follow Rewire News Group on Facebook and Twitter.

If you can, donate to local independent abortion clinics, advocates, and abortion funds.

At the local and state-level, advocate for increased abortion protections, such as state insurance exchange requirements to cover abortion and contraception, state recognition of Medicaid funding for abortion, or protections of abortion access.

Have conversations with those in your neighborhood and your community about the importance of abortion access and the reality of these upcoming state and federal court cases, lawsuits, and pieces of legislation.

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

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It’s no secret that state legislatures across the country are working tirelessly to restrict access to abortion care. From forcing patients to travel to neighboring states to stigma-based counseling sessions, accessing an abortion comes with countless hurdles. Jackie Blank, Federal Legislative Strategist and Campaign Manager for the Women’s Health Protection Act Campaign at the Center for Reproductive Rights, talks to us about how the Women’s Health Protection Act will ensure reproductive choice, bodily autonomy, and access to care in a time where abortion faces an unprecedented attack. 

Abortion is legal in all 50 states, but in 2021 alone, 90 abortion restrictions have been passed in legislatures across the country. Coverage of abortion care also faces extreme restrictions; the Hyde amendment prevents Medicaid, Medicare, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) recipients from covering abortion at the federal level (Some states, 16, have a policy that directs Medicaid to cover all medically necessary abortions). These restrictions have created a state-based patchwork of care, forcing many to travel between states, traveling long distances within their own states, or being blocked from accessing abortion care altogether. This has disproportionate impact on communities that have historically been denied access to care, including Black communities, indigenous communities, communities of color, women, low-income people, those with disabilities, those living rurally, and LGBTQ+ folks. 

The Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) would create a federal safeguard against laws (like Texas’ S.B. 8) that are meant to restrict access. By preventing the singling out of abortion care as opposed to other types of healthcare, WHPA would prevent impeding of access. WHPA specifically enumerates the types of bans that would violate the right to abortion care, including court rulings. In fact, WHPA would protect access to care even if Roe v. Wade were to be overturned. If WHPA were to be passed, patients wouldn’t have to be subject to limitations like stigma-based counseling, multiple trips to a provider, or expensive childcare costs.  

 Links

Center for Reproductive Rights on Twitter

Center for Reproductive Rights on Facebook

More Information on the Women’s Health Protection Act

S.1645 - Women’s Health Protection Act of 2019

Take Action 

Follow Center for Reproductive Rights on Facebook and Twitter to stay up-to-date on their critical work.

It’s time to get the House moving on passing WHPA. Find a take action tool here to reach out to your Representatives and have them co-sponsor WHPA.  

Talk about WHPA on social media! Use the hashtag #ActForAbortionAccess and #WHPA and share why you think this legislation should be passed. 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

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Reproductive health and the Catholic church have been heavily featured in the current news—from the Fulton v. Philadelphia Supreme Court case to the U.S Conference of Catholic Bishops moving to deny President Joe Biden, who is Catholic, the sacrament of communion. Jamie Manson, President of Catholics for Choice, talks to us about these recent instances of the Catholic Church’s reach over sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The Fulton v. Philadelphia Supreme Court case involved Catholic Social Services, a foster care center, which was contracted with the city of Philadelphia. The city upheld non-discrimination laws which prohibiting it from contracting with discriminatory social services agencies. Catholic Social Services expressly stated that they would not engage in any services with same-sex couples or unmarried couples, leading the city of Philadelphia to sever its contract and Catholic Social Services to sue the city under the first amendment. Ultimately, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of Catholic Social Services in an extremely narrow ruling. 

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has been in animus with current President Joe Biden’s support of abortion rights and policy, even though President Biden is a devout and practicing Catholic. Since the day his Presidency was called, the bishops have been outspoken against his administration. In November, the bishops established a special committee to explore the confusion that Biden’s status as a pro-choice Catholic president could create within the church. The committee voted to create a document that bans Catholic and pro-choice elected officials from receiving the holy sacrament of communion. The U.S. Conference of Bishops will vote on the passage of this document in November and will need a two-thirds majority vote for success.

Links

Catholics for Choice on Twitter
Catholics for Choice on Facebook

More Information on Fulton v. Philadelphia

How Your Catholic Hospital is Restricting Your Care Podcast Episode

Take Action

Follow Catholics for Choice on Facebook and Twitter here.

You can write to Bishops who have spoken out against the move to restrict communion from pro-choice elected officials. You can also write to President Biden and Catholic Congresspeople and thank them for their support of abortion rights. 

You can also learn more about Catholic hospitals here, and listen to Jamie Manson’s last podcast episode on Reproductive Rights, LGBTQ+ Rights, and the Catholic Church here.

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

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When many people hear the term ‘self-managed abortion,’ they may think unsafe abortion or pre-Roe v. Wade methods of terminating a pregnancy. Nowadays, self-managed medication abortion is extremely safe, effective, and can be done in the comfort and privacy of one’s own home.  Erin Matson, Executive Director of Reproaction, sits down to talk with us about the myths, barriers to care, and the actions folks can take around self-managed abortion.

Self-managed abortion refers to when somebody ends their pregnancy outside of a medical setting. “The World Health Organization (WHO) has put misoprostol on the list of essential medicines and created a protocol for how women may manage their abortion with misoprostol without direct provider supervision.” Many choose to end their pregnancies outside of clinic settings due to immigration status, fear of being misgendered or patronized by clinic staff, or fear of protestors.

Despite the fact that medication abortion has been approved by the FDA for over 20 years, providers who wish to dispense medication abortion have to jump through extra logistical hoops to do so. Patients themselves face an in-person dispensing requirement, meaning they have to be physically handed the medications by their doctor rather than picking them up at a pharmacy (during the pandemic, the Biden administration has repealed that rule so that folks can access medication abortion through telemedicine and not expose themselves unnecessarily to COVID-19). The FDA has also announced that it will be conducting a formal review of the restrictions set in place for medication abortion.

Abortion pill “reversal” is an unsubstantiated claim that a medication abortion can be reversed with progesterone. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says there’s no evidence that this procedure is effective. It’s misinformation like this, though, that permeates the public understanding of abortion and erects more barriers to care.

Links

Reproaction on Twitter

Reproaction on Facebook

Reproaction information on self-managed abortion

What do Bridges, Roads, and Abortions Have in Common? – article by Erin Matson

How to Spot a Fake Clinic

Take Action

You can follow Reproaction on Twitter and Facebook and stay up-to-date on their work.

Educate yourself on how self-managed abortion works! You can start by checking out Reproaction’s information here. You can also find petitions to sign to increase access to medication abortion here.

Many barriers to medication abortion occur at the state-level. Get involved with your statehouse and find out how access to self-managed, medication abortion is faring in your local area. 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

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The Global Gag Rule has been intermittently preventing global communities from accessing comprehensive healthcare for the last 37 years. This Global Gag Rule Repeal Week of Action, it’s important to recognize that ending this harmful policy is extremely urgent. Rebecca Dennis, Senior Legislative Policy Analyst at PAI, sits down to update us on the Global Gag Rule, the impacts it has had around the world, and what we can do to make sure it is repealed once and for all.

The Global Gag Rule is an executive-level policy that has existed under every Republican presidential administration since Ronald Reagan, but was vastly expanded under Donald Trump. The policy under Trump withheld global health assistance funding from foreign NGOs unless they agree to not use any of their own, non-U.S. funding to provide abortions or any information, education, counseling, or referrals for abortion care. This was a huge expansion compared to under previous administrations where it only applied to family planning funding.  To learn more about the history of the Global Gag Rule, find our podcast episode here!

The Global Gag Rule has prevented people around the world from accessing sexual and reproductive health care, maternal and child health care, HIV testing and treatment, tuberculosis and malaria testing and treatment, and nutrition programs. It has limited which commodities—including methods of contraception—can reach communities, and caused organizations to have to end entire programs. The rule has also restricted outreach to hard-to-reach communities, including young people, LGBTQI+ people, and those living in very rural areas or refugee camps.

For many years, the policy only applied to U.S. family planning and reproductive health programs. But after the Trump administration’s entry into the Oval Office in January of 2017, one of their first executive actions included re-instating and massively expanding the Global Gag Rule to impact all U.S. global health assistance funding. This expansion went above and beyond USAID, ultimately impacting programs in the State Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The administration expanded it a second time, changing the interpretation of the policy and forcing organizations that were complying with the policy to ensure that any of their partnerships were complying, as well even if they did not get any impacted U.S. health funding. 

In January of 2021, the Biden-Harris administration repealed the Global Gag Rule. Despite this momentous step, the policy is not a light switch that can be turned on and off. Many organizations who did not comply with the rule now have to wait until there are additional funding opportunities with the U.S. government, while some are concerned that the policy might return and interrupt their work, again. Even beyond all of this, clinics have closed, and staff have been laid off around the world due to this rule. 

Congress has the ability to amend the Foreign Assistance Act and clarify that an organization cannot be deemed ineligible to receive U.S. global health assistance on the basis of the services they provide. Passing the Global Health, Empowerment, and Rights Act (Global HER Act) would prevent the Global Gag Rule from ever being re-instated again. 

For more information, check out Relationscapes: https://www.relationscapes.org/

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