Women’s
Justice
(Prepared by
Teresa Keane)
The Green Party Senatorial Campaign Committee invites our U.S. Senate candidates to embrace the ideals of the Women’s Justice Movement which expands upon the earlier women’s movement, which called for reproductive rights. According to the Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, Reproductive Justice is the complete physical, mental, spiritual, political, social, and economic well-being of women and girls, based on the full achievement and protection of women’s human rights.
This definition, as outlined by Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice (ACRJ), offers a new perspective on reproductive issues with a focus beyond the right to an abortion to the rights of all girls and women to end exploitation of their bodies, their labor, their sexuality, and their reproduction.
It is recognized that a woman’s reproductive rights are related to the customs and culture of her community. For many women, social inequality has led to an inability to freely make reproductive decisions. Justice ensures that every woman receive the education and support to decide to have or not have children and to receive comprehensive healthcare under which these decisions can be enacted and the privacy to make reproductive decisions without coercion with full access to options of contraception and abortion.
Reproductive Education
All people have a right to make informed choices regarding their reproductive health and activities. This requires that all people receive medically accurate sexual education beginning in health classes in grade school. “Abstinence only” education has been harmful to women and has promoted unsafe practices such as unprotected sex.
Under the Clinton and Bush administrations, since 1997 over half a billion dollars in federal funds have been spent on abstinence-only programs. This is contradictory to a woman’s right to have medically accurate, age-appropriate sex education. According to a 1998 Gallup poll:
The lack of scientifically based sex education puts teens at risk for unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, HIV, and AIDS. Research shows that 47% of teens in grades 9 through 12 have had sex. They need medically accurate education to learn to protect themselves through safe sex practices. Responsible sex education has been shown to promote responsible sexual practices and prevent the spread of disease through increased contraceptive use.
The Green Party believes our elected legislatures need to address the rights of young people to receive accurate and appropriate reproductive health education. Federal funds should replace abstinence-only programs with science-based information that empowers sexually active youth and adults to make responsible choices regarding their reproductive health.
Birth Control
Widely available birth-control methods empower women, prevent unwanted pregnancies, and reduce the need for abortions. The determination of how to use birth control is up to each woman. Any barriers that inhibit this choice must be prevented, including lack of access to all family-planning methods.
Planning for pregnancy is an important decision that promotes economic stability and increases the probability of a healthy outcome for Mother and Child. Effective family planning:
Under the Bush administration, a woman’s access to contraception is in jeopardy. In some states, pharmacists are refusing to fill legal prescriptions for contraception—including emergency contraception. Twenty states have introduced legislation to allow pharmacists to deny prescriptions for contraception because of their religious beliefs. We must ensure that federal and state laws mandate coverage of prescription contraception in all health insurance plans. Employers and insurers must provide coverage of all FDA-approved forms of contraception.
There must be adequate funding for the Medicaid Program, which is the largest federal provider of family planning to women, especially low-income women who are most at risk from lack of healthcare services.
Abortion
As we promote and enact policies to prevent unintended pregnancies that make abortions less necessary, we must protect a woman’s right and access to safe and legal abortions when necessary.
The Bush administration has unabashedly assaulted a woman’s right for reproductive justice, focusing their assault on access to healthcare and a legal safe abortion. Bush has appointed two Supreme Court justices who oppose a woman’s right to reproductive justice. The goal of the anti-choice movement is to outlaw all abortions throughout a woman’s pregnancy even when the life of the woman is at risk.
We must ensure that access to safe and legal abortions is guaranteed to all women in America. We must fight the growing obstacles chipping away at the reproductive justice of all women. The right to privacy must be protected and strengthened.
Reproductive Justice
Providing reproductive freedom for young girls and women is essential for attaining economic and social equality. Current inequalities lead to conditions whereby women lack access to services and can be coerced into making choices against their will and best interests. Anti-choice violence limits reproductive health services to many women. We must protect women, especially those of lower income, from abuse and harassment at government and religious-affiliated clinics that give limited options and inaccurate information designed to prevent women from obtaining education and access to reproductive healthcare.
Funding restrictions on family planning services must be eliminated.
Family systems can be stressed by an unintended pregnancy when there is a lack of economic security to meet the needs of childcare and adequate basic needs of food clothing and shelter. Restrictions on access to family planning needs are a threat to the well-being of our communities.
The Courts
In the United States Constitution, the right to privacy has been interpreted to include reproductive rights, as seen in such Supreme Court cases as Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), which legalized contraception for married people, and Roe v. Wade (1973), which legalized abortion on a federal level.
To ensure that these rights to privacy continue, we must remain committed to fight against any attempt to reverse the rights of women. Over the last several decades anti-choice forces have promoted right-wing judges who have been trying to chip away at women’s reproductive rights and freedoms. Although the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld Roe’s core principles, many states have limited access and have enacted new barriers.
The Bush Administration
The policies and judicial appointments of the Bush administration have constituted a blatant assault on reproductive justice. Bush and company have worked against the interests of women by eroding access and quality of reproductive education while stacking the courts with anti-choice judges.