On October 3rd, I attended “Elections! Our Voices, Our Votes,” which was hosted by BU’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department and sponsored by BU’s Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism. “Elections!” included an informed panel of women whose work concerned academia, White House analyses, civil liberties law, and women’s sexual and reproductive rights. The latter topic is gaining tremendous publicity due to its polarized perspectives: to provide it, to not provide it, to legalize, to not legalize. Many women are given affordable healthcare via the Affordable Care Act, yet there is a huge gap between these fortunate women and the rest of the American female population.
According to www.nwlc.org (National Women’s Law Center), twenty-six states have contraceptive equity laws that permit access to FDA-approved contraceptives if a woman’s insurance is regulated by the state. Besides this restriction, some contraceptive equity bills allow employers to reject its employee’s access “if the required coverage conflicts with the religious organization’s bona fide religious beliefs and practices.” Thus, despite the federal government’s attempt to provide access to affordable contraception, many states do not concur fully or at all.
Luckily, women are speaking up about this issue. The National Women’s Law Center recently launched an online initiative titled “This is Personal” in order to empower women to stop legislators from restricting women’s rights: “women are forced to undergo an unnecessary, invasive ultrasound before obtaining an abortion”; eighty percent of state legislators “allow insurance companies to exclude maternity care when you buy health coverage directly from the company”; in addition to the aforementioned fact in which Congress members “allow a boss’s religion or moral conscience to dictate whether insurance plans can cover a female employee’s birth control” As a feminist, I am greatly offended by these facts. But, there’s more…
One of the panelists in “Elections!” told the audience that there was more witches hanged in the Salem witch trials than there are women elected for governmental positions. From this information, I would deduce that patriarchy is a major problem in our system and our society. Our voices are only heard by the male-dominated system, and in turn may not be of any value.
The abortion access laws perpetuate rape culture, otherwise known as “a culture in which rape is prevalent and pervasive and is sanctioned and maintained through fundamental attitudes and beliefs about gender, sexuality, and violence…These rigid ideologies serve to label men sexual subjects (read: predators) and women sexual objects (read: prey)”. The culture blames the victim– instead of the perpetrator – for the situation. Victims, therefore, often do not disclose their secret, and in turn, do not receive services or, in a minority of cases, justice.
Effective contraceptive options, like IUDs and sub-dermal implants, are vital to keeping potential teen mothers from facing poverty, abortion rates low, and mothers in the workplace. According to Washington University’s CHOICE project, these contraceptive methods are twenty times more effective than the Pill, Patch, and Vaginal Ring; however, less than ten percent of women utilize these options. Educating women about these methods or making them more affordable could possibly impact the prevalence of classism, work discrimination, as well as the overall well being of women — regardless of their race, marital status, or sexual orientation.
Here is what I propose: educate yourself, your friends, and your family about reproductive rights; get involved with organizations like The Center for Gender, Sexuality, and Activism, BU’s Feminism Collective, and BU’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department; stand up for what you believe in! Together, we can make our voices heard, LOUD and CLEAR.
Sources:
“Title 18 CHAPTER 35. GROUP AND BLANKET HEALTH INSURANCE Subchapter III. Provisions Applicable to Group and Blanket Health Insurance.” Delaware.gov. Web. 06 Oct. 2012.
http://delcode.delaware.gov/title18/c035/sc03/index.shtml.
“About “This Is Personal”” Thisispersonal.org. Nwlc.org, n.d. Web. https://www.thisispersonal.org/about.
Hamlin, John. “The Rape Culture: An American Epidemic.” Rape Culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2012. http://www.d.umn.edu/cla/faculty/jhamlin/3925/Readings/rapeculture.html.
Pathway to CHOICE. 4 Oct. 2012. Web. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd46pXtMHOo&feature=plcp.