Reproductive Justice Media Reference Guide: Abortion and the Latinx Community
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REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE MEDIA REFERENCE GUIDE: ABORTION AND THE LATINX COMMUNITY a guide for reporting on abortion and the Latinx community 2017 INTRODUCTION This Reproductive Justice Media Guide is intended to be IN THIS GUIDE used by members of the media seeking to learn about or expand their knowledge of reproductive justice Introduction 1 particularly when reporting on abortion and the Latinx On Gender and Latino/Latina/Latinx 2 community. It is not intended to be an all-inclusive What’s the difference between reproductive health, 3 encyclopedia of issues within reproductive justice, nor reproductive rights, and reproductive justice? is it intended to limit coverage to the issues high- lighted herein. We hope this is a conversation starter In Focus: Abortion 4 and will yield more nuanced discussions and reporting Latin America and the Caribbean: 4 about abortion and reproductive justice more broadly. Abortion Access Facts Members of the media have tremendous power in U.S. Latinx Communities and Abortion 5 shaping the public’s understanding of reproductive Medication Abortion (the abortion pill) 6 justice issues. In covering stories about reproductive Reporting on Abortion and the Law 7 health and rights, journalists can ask three questions to explore the possible reproductive justice The Hyde Amendment and Other Funding Bans 7 implications. Rosie Jiménez: The First Victim of Hyde 8 1. Are women of color, young people, immigrants, Latinxs’ Views on Abortion 9 LGBTQ individuals, or low-income communities Latinx Youth Access to Abortion 9 being disproportionately affected in a way that warrants exploration? Are certain communities or Youth, Abortion, and Stigma 10 populations experiencing a significant difference Shame, Stigma, and Reproductive Health 10 in outcomes than others? Anti-Choice Organizing 11 2. Who are the experts from communities affected by systemic disparities who can serve as sources Terminology 12 or provide a first-hand perspective for the story? Endnotes 13 ART: MARIANA VITURRO MARIANA ART: 1 On Gender and Latino/ Latina/Latinx Experts can be academics or professionals but should also include people from affected Throughout this guide, we incorporate gen- communities with lived experience in this issue. der-neutral language to discuss abortion and 3. What are the historic factors that contribute to reproductive issues. In other words, we say systemic disparities and disproportionate out- “a pregnant person,” rather than “a pregnant comes? In many instances, including law, policy, woman.” We do this because transgender men and intervention by the medical establishment, and gender non-conforming (GNC) people can legacies of racism and colonialism have created also be pregnant. At the same time, we are disparities that provide critical context in un- aware that using gender-neutral language does derstanding today’s outcomes. not always highlight the disproportionate impact of abortion policies on women, institutionalized Reproductive health and rights face consistent at- sexism, and the many efforts to undermine the tacks in the United States regardless of the political self-determination and autonomy of all women, party in power; however, at both the state and fed- including transgender women. In addition, most eral level, high-profile conservative politicians are statistics cited use the term woman because of intent on dismantling basic health care rights. These current limits of data collection as it relates to efforts combined with a strong anti-immigrant sen- timent mean it is critical to develop a strong under- gender identity. Therefore, all statistics cited use standing of how reproductive healthcare particularly the terminology from the original poll, survey, impacts Latinx and immigrant communities. (See health data set, or original source. the sidebar, “On Gender and Latino/Latina/Latinx.”) The term Latinx has gained traction among ac- Media coverage of reproductive rights and health tivists, academics, and millennials, while many issues often centers on the controversy around the other Latinas/os don’t necessarily identify with legal right to abortion. This narrow focus leaves out this terminology. Latinx refers to a person of many of the experiences and priorities of women of Latin-American origin or descent. The “x” makes color, young people, immigrant communities, LGBTQ the masculine identifier Latino and the feminine families, and others who are affected by the broad Latina gender-neutral and non-binary. Latinx range of issues of reproductive justice. goes beyond Latin@, which has been used to include both masculine and feminine identities, challenging the gender binary in the Spanish Defining Reproductive Justice language. Dropping the a/o structure, Latinx embraces the diversity of genders that often Forward Together and our partners who co-authored are actively erased from many reproductive this guide (California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom, California Latinas for Reproductive health and rights conversations. Pronounced Justice, Colorado Organization for Latina “La-teen-ex,” this term includes the numerous Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, and the people of Latin-American descent whose gender National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health) identities fluctuate along different points of the define reproductive justice as: spectrum, from agender or non-binary to gender non-conforming, genderqueer, and genderfluid.1 re • pro • duc • tive jus • tice To be inclusive of all gender identities, we use Latinx to refer to someone from the Latino All people having the social, political, community throughout this guide. When citing and economic power and resources data about the Latinx community, we use the to make healthy decisions about their term originally used by the pollster or cited in the data. Therefore, we also use the terms gender, bodies, sexuality, and families Hispanic(s), Latina(s), Latino(s), and Latin@(s) in for themselves and their communities. this document. 2 From abortion access to the rights of incarcerated leaders spliced together “reproductive rights” and individuals and resources for young families, re- “social justice” to create “reproductive justice,” productive justice issues run the gamut. Though a human rights way of “looking at the totality of reproductive justice is expansive, it is more than a women’s lives.”2 Reproductive justice activists treat container for a set of issues; it is an analytic frame- abortion and other reproductive health services as work and a social movement for self-determination. akin to the resources all human beings are enti- tled to—such as healthcare, education, housing, The reproductive justice framework was created in and food—in an equitable, democratic society.3 1994 by Black women social justice leaders after at- Reproductive justice provides an approach to un- tending the International Conference for Population derstanding that reproductive health and decisions and Development in Cairo, Egypt. They saw in- must be contextualized, and that centering under- ternational women activists using a human rights represented voices is critical to defining the prob- framework (including economic justice, the right lem, posing solutions, and leading the movement to education and healthcare, and to be free from for change. (See the sidebar, “What’s the difference violence) to push for the same rights that they were between reproductive health, reproductive rights, fighting for in the United States. These movement and reproductive justice?.”) What’s the difference betweenreproductive health, reproductive rights, and reproductive justice? The reproductive health framework centers around and eliminating the control and exploitation of wom- healthcare service delivery. The focus is on providing en’s bodies, sexuality, and reproduction as an effective services for historically marginalized communities strategy of controlling people, particularly women of through the creation of reproductive health clinics that color, trans and GNC people of color, and their com- provide low- or no-cost care, as well as culturally com- munities.6 In response to transphobia and specifically petent services. Underserved communities face a lack transmisogyny within the reproductive health and rights of access, not only to reproductive health services, but movements, reproductive justice advocates have been also to all healthcare. For many women, reproductive making an effort to expand the framework to include healthcare is their first and perhaps only encounter with trans and GNC people. the healthcare system.4 “Reproductive justice is a positive approach that links The reproductive rights framework is a legal and advo- sexuality, health, and human rights to social justice cacy-based model that serves to protect an individual movements by placing abortion and reproductive woman’s legal right to reproductive healthcare services health issues in the larger context of the well-being and with a focus on keeping abortion legal and increasing health of women, families and communities. It posits access to family planning services. Groups fight for a that the ability of any woman to determine her own re- woman’s “right to choose” and “right to privacy” through productive destiny is directly linked to the conditions in various legal, advocacy, and political means.5 her community and these conditions are not just a mat- ter of individual choice and access. This is in contrast to The reproductive justice framework is rooted in the traditional reproductive rights messaging.