Author: Jen R

Blog Posts, Past Actions

All Our Lives at the Pax Christi conference

Jen R

Co-founder Mary Krane Derr staffed a booth for Consistent Life (of which All Our Lives is a member organization) at the Pax Christi conference July 16-18. While there, she also took the opportunity to inform conference-goers about All Our Lives. She reports:

I staffed a table for Consistent Life at the national conference of the Catholic peace group Pax Christi USA, held in Chicago the weekend of July 16.  Pax Christi is a longtime endorser of CL, so I did not expect to get into a lot of arguments.  Indeed, most people who stopped by the table told me that they advocated a consistent life ethic approach in their work. This was not, they said, because they wanted to to de-emphasize abortion, but because life issues are numerous and deeply interconnected, and all of them matter greatly. Many expressed interest in CL's newest member group, All Our Lives, which advocates women's right to make nonviolent sexual and reproductive choices.

Blog Posts, Past Actions

Join us in discussing reproductive coercion

Jen R

We're having a discussion on the All Our Lives Facebook page about the recent article in The Nation, When Teen Pregnancy is No Accident. The Nation article looks at "reproductive coercion" — a form of partner abuse in which men deliberately try to make their partners get pregnant by tampering with their birth control or simply refusing to use any.  Sometimes these men then force their pregnant partners to have an abortion; other times they force them to bear the child.

 

How should the reproductive peace community respond to reproductive coercion without promoting the violence of abortion? How can we best empower women to escape abusive relationships and maintain control over their choice to use contraception?  Please feel free to comment here or, if you use Facebook, on our Facebook page.

Blog Posts, Past Actions

Global MOMS Act

Jen R

This is the kind of measure everyone, pro-life and pro-choice and label-resistant, should be able to get behind. On May 11, Representative Lois Capps (D-CA23) introduced the “Improvements in Global Maternal and newborn health Outcomes while Maximizing Successes Act” (also known, in a remarkably contrived act of abbreviation, as the Global MOMS Act).

The bill, H.R. 5268, would support expanded access to prenatal care, family planning, HIV treatment, skilled delivery care, emergency obstetric care, and postpartum care and support for women in at least 30 countries around the world. It would also support activities to improve child health care and decrease violence against women.

If you are a United States citizen, please contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor H.R. 5268.

Blog Posts

Guttmacher: Abortion has become more concentrated among poor women

Jen R

The US may be a nation of unimaginable wealth, but its poorest women and children are made to live in quite another country, one of constrained resources and alternatives. And here are some of the real-life results:

The proportion of abortion patients who were poor increased by almost 60%—from 27% in 2000 to 42% in 2008 […].

The growing concentration of abortion among women with incomes below the federal poverty line likely reflects a combination of factors. Between 2000 and 2008, the proportion of women in the overall population who were poor increased by 25%. And a Guttmacher study published in the Fall of 2009 showed that the deep economic recession may also have played a role, as financial concerns led more women to want to delay childbearing or limit the number of children they have.

(Guttmacher Institute, Abortion Has Become More Concentrated Among Poor Women)

Not only are poor women less likely than more affluent women to be able to afford to raise a child without assistance, they are also less likely to be able to afford health care, including both prenatal/childbirth care and access to prescription contraception. One of the key reasons that women who use oral contraceptives sometimes miss pills (and are therefore more likely to become pregnant) is that they put off filling prescriptions for financial reasons.

We hope that the health care bill recently passed by Congress can help counteract these pressures on lower-income women.

Blog Posts

Scott Roeder sentenced to life in prison

Jen R

Scott Roeder, the man who shot and killed abortion provider George Tiller, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. We at All Our Lives agree that this was the correct decision, and reject the argument that Tiller's murder was justified because he performed abortions. We are pro-every-life, and have committed ourselves to nonviolent, peaceful action to address injustice against women and our children.

Blog Posts

Donate for prenatal care in Nebraska

Jen R

Last week, we posted about women in Nebraska who have lost public funding for their prenatal care due to immigration politics.  Fear and uncertainty are driving some of these women to consider abortion because they're not sure how they'll be able to bear and raise their children.  Now there is a way that you can help. All Our Lives has created a charity badge for donations to One World Community Health Centers, Inc., aka Indian-Chicano Health Center, Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska.

If you wish, you may designate your gift specifically for prenatal care when you make your donation. Please donate if you can; if you can't, please help by spreading the word!

Blog Posts, Past Actions

Nebraska prenatal care funding cut may drive women to abortions

Jen R

While we're all holding our breath waiting for the House to vote on health care reform, let's not forget another health care situation. In Nebraska, Governor Dave Heineman is still refusing to support LB110. This legislation would allow the state to continue its decades-old practice of funding prenatal care for low-income women who are undocumented immigrants. The previous prenatal care funding expired March 1, and clinics in Omaha are starting to hear from clients who are scared and considering abortion:

McVea said she has been flabbergasted by the response from her mostly Hispanic patients, who have a strong cultural and religious aversion to abortion. She said she can count on one hand the number of abortions she has been aware of over the past decade, adding that one of the clinic's translators had never heard the Spanish word for “abortion” until the past two weeks. “I just really underestimated how the loss of prenatal care would push so many people into doing something that ordinarily they would never, ever consider,” McVea said. “It's a lot of fear. Uncertainty drives a lot of women to choose an abortion.” She added that although the clinic is offering to help the women pay for prenatal services and reassures women that the government will pay for deliveries, the women don't trust that information. “We tell women, ‘It's going to be covered, you don't have to worry,' ” McVea said. “But there's a lot of fear because they've been turned down once.”

I've been in touch with OneWorld Community Health Center of Omaha, where McVea works, about earmarking donations for prenatal care at their clinic. I expect to hear back tomorrow. Please help if you can.

Blog Posts, Past Actions

The law problem

Jen R

Last Saturday, I had my first long-form interview on the Shared Sacrifice BlogTalkRadio show. It was more than a little nerve-wracking. The great thing about Shared Sacrifice is that guests get a full hour to talk about the issues that are important to them. The difficult thing is — guests get a full hour to talk about the issues that are important to them! I'm very much an introvert, so it's rare for me to talk to anyone for an hour straight about anything. It went pretty well, with one exception. The question of legal policy came up, as it always does, and I had a lot of trouble with it. It's very hard to answer. I know what's wrong. It's wrong that unborn human beings have no status in law. It's wrong for the destruction of one of our daughters or sons before birth to be considered the equivalent of an appendectomy. It's also wrong that Amalia in Nicaragua can't be treated for cancer because she's pregnant. It's wrong that a woman who has a miscarriage could face prosecution in Utah. It's wrong that Christine Taylor could fall down a flight of stairs and then be arrested for attempted feticide after she went to the emergency room to see if she and her baby were OK. I know what I want. I want social and legal recognition that in every pregnancy, there are two (or more) lives whose needs and interests we need to balance. What I don't know is how to get there from here. I don't know how to get to the point of balancing two people's interests when we only acknowledge one person's existence. I also don't know how to legally acknowledge the personhood of the unborn, in anything remotely resembling the current political climate, without inviting situations like Amalia's and Christine Taylor's. I know what we can do. We can make the case for the human personhood of both pregnant women and the children they carry. We can urge people to consider that when they have sex, they are responsible for the well-being not only of themselves and their partners, but of any children they might conceive as well. We can work for women's freedom to make all nonviolent choices regarding sexuality and reproduction. We can work for laws that directly benefit both mother and child, such as the expansion of prenatal care in Nebraska. Beyond that … I'm just not sure. I would very much like to hear the thoughts of readers and my co-bloggers. What laws can pro-balance people favor to bring about justice for women and children without contributing to the further oppression of either party?

Blog Posts

Interview with All Our Lives co-founder

Jen R

All Our Lives co-founder Jen Roth (that's me!) will be appearing on the Shared Sacrifice webcast this Saturday, March 13.  The show starts at 12pm MST (UTC-7), and I will be calling in around 12:30.  You can listen live and call in or participate in the chat room.  If you're unable to listen live, the show is also available as a podcast — just follow the link on the web page or search for “Shared Sacrifice” in the iTunes Music Store.

Blog Posts

Welcome!

Jen R

Welcome to All Our Lives! We are working for a world in which reproductive and sexual decisions are made free from domination, coercion, and violence. We are working for reproductive peace.

"Reproductive peace" is a philosophy that combines principles of the reproductive justice and consistent life ethic movements. Like our sisters in the reproductive justice movement, we condemn and fight the many intersecting injustices that work against women's ability to live, love, and reproduce — or not — freely.  And like consistent life ethic proponents, we seek to respond to oppression in ways that do not take human life before or after birth.

Nobody is defending women's right to make all non-violent choices about their sexual and reproductive lives without advocating for abortion as well.  All Our Lives will change that.  Our mission is to model a woman-centric, non-violent and inclusive approach to issues of health, sexuality, and reproduction.  We plan to start a conversation on how to foster a sexual ethic that combines freedom with responsibility toward not only one's self and one's partner, but also toward any child who might be conceived.  If that sounds like something you want to be part of, please get involved.