{"id":2773,"date":"2016-12-05T10:30:38","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T15:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/?p=2773"},"modified":"2016-12-05T17:22:49","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T22:22:49","slug":"how-the-reproductive-justice-movement-benefits-latinas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/2016\/12\/05\/how-the-reproductive-justice-movement-benefits-latinas\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Reproductive Justice Movement Benefits Latinas"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2774\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2774\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.plannedparenthood.org\/esp\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2774\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-2774\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/files\/2016\/06\/Screen-Shot-2016-06-16-at-3.50.03-PM-600x421.png\" alt=\"Planned Parenthood's Spanish-language website.\" width=\"600\" height=\"421\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/files\/2016\/06\/Screen-Shot-2016-06-16-at-3.50.03-PM-600x421.png 600w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/files\/2016\/06\/Screen-Shot-2016-06-16-at-3.50.03-PM-300x211.png 300w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/files\/2016\/06\/Screen-Shot-2016-06-16-at-3.50.03-PM.png 722w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2774\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Planned Parenthood&#8217;s Spanish-language website.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Originally posted June 29, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In early September 2015, Blanca Borrego, an undocumented Latina immigrant accompanied by her two daughters, arrived at a women\u2019s health clinic in Texas for a routine gynecological exam. Sitting in the waiting room for nearly two hours, Blanca\u2019s anxiety and impatience grew to the point where she almost walked out of the office. Eventually, Blanca was met by local law enforcement officials who escorted her out of the clinic in handcuffs for allegedly using a forged driver\u2019s license during patient intake. Blanca\u2019s eight-year-old daughter watched in tears while her mother was taken away and a deputy told Blanca\u2019s eldest daughter that their mother would face deportation. Blanca remains in county jail on a $35,000 bond.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"pull-this-show\" id=\"pull-this-show-2773-ex1\" style=\"display:none;\"><\/div>Scenarios like Blanca\u2019s \u2013 highlighting the impact of race, class, and immigration status on reproductive rights \u2013 are not always brought to the fore. Although reproductive rights activists say they advocate for <em>all<\/em> women, difficulties faced by white, middle-class, heterosexual women get more attention than those experienced by women of color, immigrant or transgender women, or those with disabilities. However, a movement for reproductive justice has emerged by and for women of color that offers new possibilities to bring previously neglected issues to light. Key challenges include tackling the reproductive experiences of Latinas \u2013 and looking for ways to do more to address their needs in reproductive health care and policy.<span class=\"pull-this-mark\" id=\"pull-this-mark-2773-ex1\" style=\"display:none;\">A movement for reproductive justice has emerged by and for women of color.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Latina Realities<\/h3>\n<p>Understanding Latinas\u2019 reproductive lives requires understanding how many forms of disadvantage intersect and create reinforcing disadvantages.<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Poor migrant women often flee interpersonal and institutional violence and poverty in their home countries, only to become susceptible to sexual assault at the hands of border officials, human traffickers, and others.<\/li>\n<li>Transgender Latinas are more likely than heterosexual Latinas to leave their home countries to escape interpersonal violence and economic disenfranchisement.<\/li>\n<li>Undocumented Latinas simultaneously face dangers of family separation through deportation and, because of their low-income status, have difficulty getting access to abortion services. There are too few abortion providers and many health care providers lack the language and cultural skills to help these women. Fears about seeking medical help can leave immigrant Latinas subject to deportation or life-threatening crises. Increasingly, anti-abortion \u201ccrisis pregnancy centers\u201d pose as legitimate medical clinics in order to pressure Latinas to continue unwanted pregnancies.<\/li>\n<li>Both immigrant and U.S.-born Latinas are more likely than other women to lack health insurance coverage and live and work in unhealthy environments where they are exposed to air pollution, unsafe drinking water, agricultural pesticides, and lead and mercury contamination.<\/li>\n<li>According to a 2016 policy report by the organization California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, Latinas are the group of women least likely to attain basic or higher college degrees, making it difficult for them to attain well-paying, stable employment. Employed Latinas in California, specifically, earn 43.6 cents for every dollar earned by white men.<\/li>\n<li>While Latina\/o communities have higher rates of young families compared to whites, many of these families experience stigma and poverty and suffer shortfalls in resources all parents need in order to raise their children safely.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>When Abortion \u201cChoice\u201d Is Not Enough<\/h3>\n<p><div class=\"pull-this-show\" id=\"pull-this-show-2773-ex2\" style=\"display:none;\"><\/div>Latinas\u2019 experiences shed light on the inadequacy of any approach to reproductive rights that emphasizes abortion access above all. The \u201cchoice\u201d framework that undergirds much reproductive rights advocacy in the United States assumes that women face few constraints in raising healthy families and so are mainly concerned about access to abortion when they choose not to have babies. But this perspective is grounded in white middle-class experience and ignores the pressures many poor women face. When poor and working-class women of color choose to continue a pregnancy rather than seek abortion, for example, they are often criticized for choosing a less economically sustainable path. Yet for many poor women, including immigrant and native Latinas, parenthood may signify a powerful means for self-determination, including resistance to pressures from public agencies to limit reproduction, such as coerced sterilization. At its core, the reproductive justice movement advocates for the right for poor women and women of color to have children or not have children as they see fit. Rather than only advocating for expanding access to abortion and contraception, the movement advances policies to help all people raise the children they want in safe and healthy environments.<span class=\"pull-this-mark\" id=\"pull-this-mark-2773-ex2\" style=\"display:none;\">At its core, the reproductive justice movement advocates for the right for poor women and women of color to have children or not have children as they see fit.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Advancing Reproductive Justice for Latinas<\/h3>\n<p>Research by California Latinas for Reproductive Justice shows that many in Latino communities support every woman\u2019s right to choose an abortion, but also believe that advocating for abortion access is only one way to empower Latinas. In California, the movement works to repeal family cap limits on family welfare grants and supports a bill that would give parents extra benefits to pay for diapers. Both steps would help many Latinas in the state. Currently California limits on family grants prohibit extra financial support to children born while their families are receiving basic needs grants from the state\u2019s welfare program. This limit is based on the racist and classist notion that poor women of color have children only to receive aid \u2013 and this denies poor women the right to choose to have more children.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. reproductive politics is rife with controversy \u2013 and most public attention focuses on issues of access to abortion. But full reproductive justice for less privileged women and families, including Latinas\u2019 families, requires socioeconomic support for raising children as well as further steps to ensure access to a full range of reproductive health services. Beyond the clash of pro-choice and pro-life advocates lies the goal to which we all should aspire: people\u2019s right to parent when they choose and raise children in safe and healthy conditions.<\/p>\n<div class='author-bios author-bios-bottom'>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org\/scholar\/roc%C3%ADo-garcia\"><strong>Rocio Garcia<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0is a graduate student in sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles.\u00a0Garcia\u2019s research and teaching interests lie at the intersections of women of color feminist theories, reproductive politics, and social movements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally posted June 29, 2016 In early September 2015, Blanca Borrego, an undocumented Latina immigrant accompanied by her two daughters, arrived at a women\u2019s health clinic in Texas for a routine gynecological exam. Sitting in the waiting room for nearly two hours, Blanca\u2019s anxiety and impatience grew to the point where she almost walked out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":495,"featured_media":2774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[41900,18349,15,26856,2723,55,33,1020,89,13,30275,625,4374,85,119,36873,36872,4071,14,3397,21752,45],"class_list":["post-2773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anti-abortion","tag-choice","tag-culture","tag-deportation","tag-feminist-theory","tag-gender","tag-health","tag-hispanic","tag-immigration","tag-inequality","tag-latina","tag-latino","tag-parenting","tag-politics","tag-poverty","tag-pro-choice","tag-pro-life","tag-public-health","tag-race","tag-reproduction","tag-reproductive-rights","tag-social-movements"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/files\/2016\/06\/Screen-Shot-2016-06-16-at-3.50.03-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/495"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2773"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2838,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2773\/revisions\/2838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/ssn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}