Blog Posts

Join us for a night of burlesque, music, and dancing!

10/27/2014

What do reproductive justice, burlesque, and fire-eating have in common? (Yes, you read that correctly!) Here's what: A fundraising event that will change lives: Kentucky Health Justice Network’s third burlesque show, “Peek-a-Boo!”

WHEN: Friday, November 7, 2014 Doors open and seating begins at 8pm, show at 9:30pm.

WHERE: The Cure Lounge 1481 S. Shelby St., Louisville, KY 40217

WHAT: an evening of fabulous entertainment including burlesque, dancing, fire eating, and fun, with all proceeds benefiting Kentucky Health Justice Network's programs

WHO: You, your friends, your co-workers, and all the fabulous reproductive justice advocates in your life! Please note this venue is ages 21 and over.

TICKETS: $10-20 sliding scale at the door. RSVP on Facebook here.

Thanks to our fantastic event sponsors:

The Cure Lounge
Carla Wallace
Theiss Law Offices, PLLC
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Indiana and Kentucky
Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
ACLU of Kentucky
Indy Feminists
Rootbound Farm
Colin Maloney
Fairness Campaign
Judi Jennings

Want to support the event even more? Sponsorships of this event are a great way to show your organization or group's support for the cause, and come with perks like free tickets and drinks and your name on the event program. Click here for sponsorship information!

Personhood amendments: the latest threat to reproductive justice

10/23/2014

by Caitlin Willenbrink, chair, Kentucky Health Justice Network board of directors and chair, Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice board of directors

This article is cross-published in Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice's Fall 2014 Voice for Choice newsletter.

This year, constitutional amendments to define personhood as beginning at conception will be on the ballot in two states, North Dakota and Colorado. These fetal personhood measures are a dangerous tactic that national anti-choice organizations are undertaking as a strategy to undermine abortion rights, but the effect of the policy would be much more widespread than that.

Personhood measures undermine the bodily autonomy of pregnant people and all people and create situations where a citizen could be criminally prosecuted for a miscarriage, in vitro fertilization, or even using emergency contraception.

Unfortunately, we do have case studies of the implications of fetal personhood policy, even though no state has yet adopted such a measure. Bestowing fetuses with personhood through policies like fetal harm laws can and has lead to pregnant people losing basic human rights as a result only of their pregnancy.

Alabama’s “Chemical Endangerment of a Child” law was written to give the state power to prosecute parents who knowingly expose their children – to deter people from bringing children to places where controlled substances are produced or distributed, such as methamphetamine laboratories. But since it was enacted, more than 100 women who became pregnant and tested positive for a controlled substance have been arrested. Some have experienced pregnancy losses, but the majority have continued their pregnancies to term and given birth to healthy children.

Recently, a similar bill passed in Tennessee to authorize the criminal prosecution of pregnant people who use drugs. A related case arose recently in Montana, where a woman who was 12 weeks pregnant was arrested for having a positive drug test. Leaving aside the tenuous research that links drug use with poor pregnancy outcomes, as well as our own judgments on pregnant people who experience addiction, from these cases we can see how laws like these, and the treatment of a fetus as having equal rights as the person carrying it, have proven time and again to lead to the less-than human treatment of pregnant people. People who experience addiction – especially those who are also pregnant – deserve support and treatment, not shame and imprisonment.

In many cases, it’s led to medical interventions being forced on, or refused to, a pregnant person. In the high-profile case of Savita Halappanavar in Ireland, who suffering from a miscarriage at about 17 weeks pregnant. When she sought medical attention and treatment, her requests an abortion were refused – she was told that due to her fetus retaining a heartbeat and her life not appearing to be in physiological danger, abortion was not legal. Savita went into septic shock due to the fetal remains in her uterus, and her condition deteriorated rapidly. She died a few days later of organ failure and cardiac arrest.

However someone feels about abortion, we should be able to agree that criminalizing a pregnant person and applying a law differently to them simply because they are pregnant is wrong. Kentucky Health Justice Network, together with the Kentucky Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, is opposed to any such personhood measure, and we are demonstrating that opposition by standing with organizations who challenging these measures on the ground.

North Dakotans Against Measure 1 (www.ndam1.org) are lobbying against the amendment in that state, and in Colorado, a wide swath of reproductive justice organizations is coming together the NO on 67 campaign (www.voteno67.com).

These measures purport to be only about abortion, but advocates conservative and liberal alike realize their destructive possibilities. In both states, the measures are very broadly and unclearly written, so in both states, organizations as wide-ranging as Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, bar associations, and even the AARP have come out in opposition to them.

Learn more and get involved by following the above-mentioned campaigns and at National Advocates for Pregnant Women (www.advocatesforpregnantwomen.org).

This is An Activist Stomping Ground You Should Attend

8/29/2014

By Farah Ardeshir

CLPP. Pronounced CLIP yet not meant to cut off, trim, pare, or curtail. But, it's funny because I would use all those adjectives to describe the manner in which we have recently seen civil rights and civil liberties cut off, trimmed, pared and curtailed. CLPP is the exact opposite.

Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program, now you know it as CLPP, is a "reproductive rights and justice organization" who "for over 30 years, CLPP has been working to realize a world in which all people have the economic, social, and political power necessary to make healthy decisions about our bodies, families, sexuality, and reproduction."

It's not just a conference where you hoard all the free event goodies, of course, that happens, but before you reach that point of geekery, you've officially put your cool face on because reproductive freedom heroines are roaming about, often standing nearly 2 feet from you in the 100 foot lunch line. If that isn't enough, you might be ogling over the food. I'm a foodster (made that up) who looks forward to rating their food because it doesn't taste like conference food. Check. It's definitely an event for dreamers. And it's most certainly a space for queers, for hip hop lovers, for femme queers, for friendly people, for dancers, for #LaverneCox lovers (wish she would be a keynote speaker), for Queen Bey disciples, and for anyone else you can think of that a) believes reproductive freedom is necessary to have a stake in for current and future earthlings and b) also believes it cannot truly be achieved without prioritizing immigrant rights, racial justice, trans justice, queer liberation, (dis)ability justice and c) in some way participates in that progress.

I remember feeling the whole room swallow up the chatter when Monica Raye Simpson, Executive Director of SisterSong, stepped onto the stage during the open plenary and sang. Being a dreamer, I swelled up with a sense of unfettered optimism thinking that the entire room was echoing my little inner voice dialogue, "Wow, Monica, you are so brave up there. This is beautiful. Why doesn't Congress host stuff like this?"

So, I'm taking this moment to spread the gospel. Here's what happened and what will hopefully happen when you go to CLPP:

Colored Girls Hustle wipes the floor while the whole crowd claps along with them.

Loretta Ross, founder of SisterSong, and Dázon Dixon Diallo, MPH, founder of SisterLove recount historical moments in the reproductive justice movement and share visions of what will come for the movement. Found a little trashed up piece of paper at the last moment and got it signed by Loretta. Word.

Made some of the greatest fellow organizer and activist friends spread across the United States.

Listened to Deborah Peterson Small lecture about Marxism, White Supremacist Capitalistic culture, and state-sanctioned criminalization of black bodies and pregnant bodies. All of my academic dream topics in one lecture.

Purchased a zine that afforded me a great deal of emotional support called Transplants, Sowing the Seed of Gender in the Garden. You can find your own copy at drawnbloodpress@etsy.com.

Foolishly sang in unison with a group of Bey lovers to the entire visual album. What can be better than that?

Like I said earlier, I hope that Laverne Cox is a keynote speaker in the near future.

I hope there is a kickball game because a body gets stiff after hours of sitting through lectures.

I would love to see Autostraddle send a few journalists to CLPP with swag in tow.

It would also be great if the seminar on how to work in the movement extended into a mini job fair for participants. For a lot of us, we travel a great distance to reach CLPP so making the most of it with a mini job fair would be smashing.

Bon voyage, kids. It's not all daisies and daffodils. You're going to hear people say things you disagree with. You'll have long conversations about engaging your community in different ways and short conversations about where to find coffee, immediately. All in all, you'll think and criticize and create and envision and learn.

Reflections on Radical Collaborations in our Movements for Justice

8/15/2014

RADICAL COLLABORATIONS IN OUR MOVEMENTS FOR JUSTICE
Across Economic, Racial, and Reproductive Justice
A Breakthrough Conversation

In late June of 2014, KHJN co-hosted an event with CoreAlign called Radical Collaborations in our Movements for Justice.

what was the purpose?
We wanted to discuss structural oppression in our community. With the heightening awareness of the importance of economic justice activists are teaching us, we wanted to reach across siloed movements and show solidarity and collaboration with other movements, racial and reproductive justice, that are equally important to unpinning systems of oppression. We wanted to ask: what role does radical collaboration play in our movements for justice?

interesting data about event:

Over 1/3 of participants identify as people of color
Participants ranged in age from 20s to 60s
At least 2 people used "they" as their pronoun
Co-hosts provided childcare for the full event

was there a breakthrough?
"White women are not making room for Black women’s leadership
within reproductive justice organizations."
"I don’t know what Black women’s priorities are."

Top 4 crowd-sourced questions from the fishbowl and major takeaways for readers:
1. What can I do when I feel someone’s beliefs are in opposition to justice but I still want to welcome them to the movement?

2. How can we ensure that the least privileged among us are centered in our work?

3. White folks, what can you commit to today to ensure that social justice spaces you are in are more inclusive of People of Color who may also identify as poor, LGBTQ or differently abled?

4. Address the lack of strategic planning and just putting out fires.

where do we go from here?
KHJN made a commitment to next steps around inclusion of POC and examination of how we can make our organization more welcoming to POC. Look for an update of our commitment coming soon!

'White folks, what can you commit to today to ensure that social justice spaces you are in are more inclusive of People of Color who may also identify as poor, LGBTQ or differently abled?'— Participant

connections made:
KHJN was asked to give an RJ101 to an organization.
KHJN was asked to have a strategic meeting with a participant, making a new connection for each party.
3 participants are expected to attend a lunch to discuss how to make new collaborations possible.

wider connections made:
issues within racial justice, reproductive justice, and economic justice movements are connected, but the conversation connecting the dots needs to be continued. If you attended, please fill out the poll below!

See more photos of the event by visiting CoreAlign's Facebook or check out this guest blog by one of the co-host organizers, Farah Ardeshir!

RJ Ahora! Celebrating the 5th Annual Latina Week of Action for Reproductive Justice

8/7/2014

This week, Kentucky Health Justice Network is proud to be signing on as an organizational ally for the 5th annual Latina Latina Week of Action for Reproductive Justice. For the second year, we are joining over 40 organizations across the country to stand with Latinas as they organize for a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities.

To read more about the week of action, check out the website and read the Declaration of Solidarity below:

We, the undersigned, join to declare our solidarity with, and commitment to work alongside, Latinas, their families, and communities, as they struggle for reproductive justice and the recognition of their human rights.

Twenty years ago, a group of visionary Black women created the Reproductive Justice (RJ) framework, founding a transformational and culturally grounded movement for human rights and social change. Latinas across the country joined with Black, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Indigenous herman@s in embracing this new reproductive justice framework. In the process, we reframed our organizing and advocacy to work across issues and identities while building the movement for dignity, justice, and self-determination for ourselves, our families, and our communities.

Despite gains made over 20 years of organizing, resistance, and collaboration within the framework of reproductive justice, our communities are threatened. Latinas across the country are facing deportation, restrictions on access to abortion and other critical reproductive health services, violence, discrimination, lack of health care, and the denial of our human rights.

We declare our support for the full recognition of the human and civil rights of Latinas: among these are the human right to health care, including reproductive health care; the ability to decide when and if to have children, build families, and parent children with dignity; and freedom from policies that disregard the humanity and contributions of immigrant people.

Finally, we pledge to work in partnership and community with Latinas and reproductive justice advocates to join our struggles and build more inclusive movements for social change. We will fight together to challenge and dismantle the oppressive systems that deny the self-determination and humanity of Latinas, to transform our culture, and to work for change. The time is now.

Why do we stand in solidarity?

The title of this year’s Week of Action is ¡RJ AHORA! A Revolution 20 Years in the Making.   This year marks the 20th anniversary of the coining of the phrase “Reproductive Justice.” As described in the Declaration of Solidarity, RJ was born out of the lived experiences and analyses of women of color. At KHJN, the reproductive justice framework has been foundational in shaping the way we see our community and the way that we do our work. Six years ago, local activists identified the lack of language access as one of the key barriers for people accessing abortion care in Kentucky. The Kentucky Support Network got to work and created a language accessible hotline and an accompaniment program for in-person interpreters to assist in abortion care.

Over the past year, the Reproductive Justice framework helped us identify the need to hear more from our trans* brothers and sisters about their experiences accessing healthcare. In collaboration with researchers from the University of Louisville schools of medicine and psychology, we launched our trans* health survey in July (it will be open until November) and we hope to use the results to identify ways to improve access to healthcare that affirms and supports all gender identities.

So, reproductive justice recognizes that ALL PEOPLE have the right to live their best lives and to have autonomy over their bodies. As mentioned in the declaration, Latinas and their communities are facing some serious threats today. We stand in solidarity with Latinas working for reproductive justice because Latina’s issues are our community’s issues and when Latinas thrive, all people thrive.

Let’s take a minute to dig in to some of the issues we see facing Latin@s in our communities and how these issues relate to reproductive justice.

Cringe-worthy “English-Only” rhetoric: We often here people demanding that English be the only language spoken. Although we have federal legislation affirming the right to have access to information in one’s own language and we have access to wonderful technology and a diverse workforce to facilitate the process, we still see rampant language access barriers. “English-only” rhetoric goes beyond ones’ personal opinion and can influence policy and ultimately a person’s ability to access basic community services. Imagine a survivor of domestic violence who can’t access the court system because there is no interpreter for her when she goes to file for a protective order. Picture a father who can’t communicate with his children’s school although he is concerned about bullying and his son seems to be depressed.   Language access is a key component to having safe communities and providing parents with tools they need to help their children succeed. Language access also is also a first step in offering accessible healthcare and we all need to hold our healthcare providers accountable.

Deportation and Separation of Families: In the last few years our federal government has deported record numbers of immigrants. On a typical day, there are over 30,000 immigrants imprisoned in the world’s largest immigration detention system. One-quarter of all deportees are separated from their children and countless others from spouses and other family members. Deportation separates families because often people in the same family have different legal statuses. This problem is compounded by the fact that our immigration system is complicated and broken and for millions of people there is no path to legal residency or citizenship. The RJ framework brings us back to the basic human right that women (and men, and everyone) should be able to parent their children with dignity and in safe environments. Separation of families by deportation is a direct affront to that basic right. Nicole’s story (from Reform Immigration for America) tells of her experience with family separation by deportation.

Latin@s are organizing and demanding that their rights be recognized. As ally organizations (and individuals) we have a role to play in standing in solidarity with Latin@s.

4 Ways to Act In Solidarity With Latinas Today:

1. Drop the “i-word.”   Words matter, and no person is “illegal.” It’s time to move beyond this inaccurate and racially charged language. Take it a step further, and if you hear somebody else using the “i- word”, take a chance to educate them about the problem with the “i-word.”

2. Support an organization that lifts up Latinas. Latinas are organizing! We have a chance to support their work and a duty to do so in support of inclusive social change. Get creative, support can often be financial but can also include gifts of time and talent. Maybe they need help with childcare during meetings while the parents get together to work for social change or study. Perhaps a leaky faucet needs some TLC. Kentucky has a thriving Latina activist network. Below is a brief list:

o   La Casita Center, Louisville

o   KY DREAM Coalition, statewide

o   Kentucky Equal Justice Center, Lexington

3. Speak up! Write a letter to the Editor (or a blog!) expressing your support for compassionate policies towards child migrants on our nation’s borders. During a humanitarian crisis, the United States cannot compromise on fundamental principles of compassion, fairness, and due process. There are even some good organizations that offer templates to get you started.

4. Educate yourself (and others too!) Information is everywhere, many of us spend lots of time every day on the internet reading about topics of interest to us. Take the time to follow a few Latina blogs or websites and educate yourself about the issues facing Latinas. Here’s a few starting points:

o    Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights
o    Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice
o California Latinas Organizing for Reproductive Justice
o    National Domestic Workers Alliance
o    Colorlines.com

Bree lives in Oldham County, KY. She is trying to connect with her inner blogger.

Roe v. Wade 2014 Celebrations!

1/22/2014

Roe v. Wade Celebration in Louisville, KY is happening Saturday, January 25th!

After Tiller is showing in Louisville, KY, too between January 24th and 26th!

Click on the links for details!

In honor of Roe v. Wade, tell us about a time this reproductive freedom has mattered to you?

5 Tips to Talk Reproductive Anything at Thanksgiving

11/6/2013

Whatever you do, don't do this. And try some self-education if this is you in the picture.

Inexperienced blogger in the land of blogs warning: shambled, somewhat unplanned thoughts lay ahead.

After discovering, Ways to Face Race at Thanksgiving -- and Not Choke, by Terry Keleher, I decided to insert our needs at KHJN that certainly include challenging racist structures and in addition, addressing inequalities that impair freedom in our reproductive lives. The goal here is to highlight Terry's potent list and show that it can be applied to many difficult conversations in the social justice movement, like reproductive rights, health, justice! That sounds like dinner conversation, yeah? I'm going to stop using that jargon now before I lose my audience. Here we go.

1. Talking Turkey

“Talking turkey” means “talking plainly about a difficult or awkward subject.” Instead of just being reactive, look for softer points of entry. Start with a question. Use plain language. Set the frame and tone you want. Create an opening for some constructive dialogue. For example, “Did you see that video of the police cracking down on the non-violent student protesters?”

KHJN
On health: Make it personal. Personal stories really hit home when talking with the ones you love already so use it leverage meaningful, difficult conversations. The 1 in 3 Campaign have shown that it’s possible to use story-telling as a powerful, provocative way of shifting the cultural stigma around abortion. Try it while your family and friends are available in truckloads!

2. Go easy on the stuffing

It’s OK to debate, but keep it constructive and don’t personalize things. Use “I” statements (about your own experiences and perspectives) rather than “You” statements (which sound accusatory). Focus on actions and impacts (which are concrete and knowable) rather than attitudes and intentions.

KHJN
On rights: This is where you should have your Guttmacher Institute state-based fact sheet hidden in your hands under the table (preferably, in reference cards if you didn't make it on the Quick Recall team in middle school.) But, I digress. Intentions are never helpful to debate. What did your mother always say? The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Fortunately for non-research buffs, social attitudes about sexism, homophobia, socioeconomic status, and the like, can be easily digested on any mainstream news source. I mean it, click on the links, I made it so easy to find!

3. Take a roll with the mashed potatoes

When the rabid right-winger just can’t resist his racist rant, roll with it. You don’t have to take the bait. Talk on your own terms—when, how, and with whom you want. Not everything and everyone is worth your time.

KHJN
On self-care: Sometimes, people (even family) will say the most ridiculous, ball-faced lies, and yes, get away with it, because you cannot combat every cruel piece of misinformed garbage that a person with bigoted thoughts will inflict. What you can do is decide how to use your mental energy and time (because it is precious). After a lengthy, challenging dialogue, do what it is that rocks your jollies -- be it wine, wine, some more wine, swinging on your Nana’s porch swing, seconds on dessert even though you told yourself not to, or holing up in the bathroom to scour Tumblr, go do it.

4. Go for the gravy

Sometimes the gravy makes the meal; instead of the typical race talk focused on blaming and shaming,can you appeal to shared values such as inclusion, equity, dignity, unity and love? Can you lift energy around a vision of racial, gender and economic justice for everyone?

KHJN
On justice: This is where communities can connect across the aisle. For example, your cousin is the Chair of the Young Republicans and you’re both women and college-educated. Commonalities? Talk about how you got there. Did you live in middle-class neighborhoods, which kept your schools well-funded? Were you raised in a home where dictionaries, food, and vacations were abundant? Okay, that's okay. Don't feel disrespected because we're talking privilege. Reach for depth in your empathy compartment and find out why everyone does not have all their needs met all the time.

Your cousin didn't get there by their boot-straps. Keep your privilege in check and reflect with honest questions to allow these narratives to inspire visions of a future where everyone has an abundance of dictionaries, food, and vacations.

5. Keep your eye on the pies

The point of talking about race at the Thanksgiving table isn't actually to ruffle feathers. The real point is to get others to see, act and think differently.

KHJN
On doing something: Here at Kentucky Health Justice Network, we strive to transform communities through justice and freedom in our reproductive lives. That’s going to take incremental work on us all. Do one thing -- share a story about some radical birth doulas, give someone space to talk about their life growing up in poverty without the awkward cringe of pity, donate to your local abortion fund, talk to your freaking neighbors, and don’t give up.

If I've learned anything at all in this life not lived long enough, it’s that this world is worth taking time to shape.

If after reading this blog, you think you can do a finer job, fill out the form below because we need bloggers!

October is Domestic Violence Month, officially!

10/8/2013

NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH, 2013

- - - - - - -

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/09/30/presidential-proclamation-national-domestic-violence-awareness-month-201

Meanwhile, Marissa Alexander, who was convicted by a jury to 20 years in prison for shooting her gun to scare away her attacker, gets a new trial! What does this have to do with reproductive justice? Simply because she was a woman defending herself from her estranged husband AND it got nearly zero media coverage because she is a black woman. The jury took less than 12 minutes to decide she was guilty. What does that appear to mean? That because she is a black woman she is guilty, automatically. More about the story below.

By Sam Fullwood III October 1, 2013 Center for American Progress

A dollop of promisingly good news came out of Florida last week. An appellate court wiped away a jury decision that convicted Marissa Alexander—who had been sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot at her abusive husband—and ordered a new trial. For the moment, Alexander remains behind bars, pending a separate hearing to determine whether she can receive bail while she awaits her new trial.

As incredible as this story seemed when it occurred in 2010, it was eclipsed in the media headlines by an eerily similar story last year, also out of Florida. Who could forget all the public attention larded upon George Zimmerman, the self-appointed vigilante who felt justified to kill Trayvon Martin because of Florida’s odious Stand Your Ground law and was acquitted of murder charges?

Zimmerman’s trial and acquittal in that case sparked an ongoing national argument—debate is too gentle a description—over justice in in the Sunshine State, the wisdom of Stand Your Ground laws, and general racial and gender disparities in the criminal justice system.

Alexander, 33, argued before a Florida jury that the Stand Your Ground law should apply in her case and prevent her from serving time for firing a weapon in self-defense. She was unsuccessful.

Specifically, Alexander testified that within days of giving birth to their son, her then-estranged husband, Rico Gray Sr., attacked her in the bathroom of their home. Gray was under a court’s restraining order to stay away from Alexander. She fought him off and eventually escaped to a garage where she grabbed a gun. She said she fired a shot into the ceiling to scare him off, arguing that “it was the lesser of two evils” compared to shooting and killing him.

Alexander will get a new day in court, following a decision written by Judge Robert Benton to grant her a new trial. The appellate court ruled that instructions to the jury in the previous trial unfairly required Alexander to prove that she was acting in self-defense. But Benton’s ruling upheld the trial judge’s decision to disallow Alexander from using the Stand Your Ground law as a defense in her trial.

Compare and contrast the fine details of the two cases: Alexander had no prior criminal record, unlike Zimmerman, who had been arrested for battery of a police officer and a restraining order for domestic abuse. He was questioned and released after shooting Martin and was only arrested after an outcry on social media. Worse, he actually shot and killed an unarmed teenager. Nobody died as a result of Alexander’s actions. Yet Zimmerman, who felt empowered by Stand Your Ground, killed a defenseless teenager and walks around proud and free.

While a number of social activists rushed to defend Alexander, including leaders of the NAACP and some in Congress, Alexander’s case hasn’t drawn nearly the national outrage that it deserves. Could it be because Alexander is a black woman?

Rita Smith, the executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence thinks so, telling Kirsten Powers of The Daily Beast that “Most battered women who kill in self-defense end up in prison. There is a well-documented bias against women [in these cases].”

Florida State Attorney Angela Corey, who supervised the prosecution of Alexander and oversaw the Zimmerman case, isn’t buying that argument in these Florida cases. She told The Washington Post the Alexander and Zimmerman trials had “zero parallels.” She argued that Alexander didn’t fear for her life when she aimed her gun at her husband and his two sons, but rather her shot missed her husband, and the ricocheted bullet struck the ceiling.

Moreover, she attacked Alexander’s supporters as know-nothings with text-messaging skills. “I think social media is going to be the destruction of this country,” Corey said in an interview. “How dare people just repeat something without checking [whether] it’s true.”

The jury apparently agreed with Corey, deliberating for 12 minutes and convicting the mother of three of aggravated assault. Under Florida’s 10-20-life law, anyone who shows a gun in the commission of some felonies is sentenced to an automatic 10 years in prison. Anyone who fires the gun gets a mandated 20 years, and if someone is shot or wounded, the penalty is an automatic 25 years-to-life sentence.

That’s just outrageous. It’s time for such arbitrary mandatory sentencing that ignores or discounts individual circumstances to end. Hopefully, Alexander’s refreshed case will set her free and bring about greatly needed criminal justice reforms.

Medicaid is Expanding and Helping KY Women

9/10/2013

Tomorrow, KHJN will be presenting the right not to parent tenet of reproductive justice at a Medicaid Expansion education training in Berea, KY at the public library, 6 pm!

Why?

The answer is much deeper than one can blog about. On the short side, it ain't covered by Medicaid, so it ain't talked about. So, that's where we are stepping in, gratefully, to Kentucky Voices for Health for lending us a platform.

What's important about an opportunity to talk in a mainstream circle about ending an unintended pregnancy is that we can undo the abortion stigma with evidence. For instance, this graphic shows that 1 in 3 women will have an abortion. Cultural stigma found on blogs, statuses, and websites dedicated to restricting abortion tells us that some people will be thinking that NO ONE will need this information because women in KY don't get abortions. It simply isn't true. According to the Guttmacher Institute, 4,430 women obtained abortions in KY in 2008. With the rise of Medicaid expansion, women/people need to be clear about this fact: Medicaid will not pay for it except life endangerment, rape, or incest apply. Who will?

If you are on Medicaid or planning to enroll, the likelihood of you having the financial means to afford an abortion, which ranges from $500-$1200, usually on short notice, is pretty slim. And this is why Kentucky Support Network exists -- to lift the social, economic, and geographic barriers low-income individuals face when choosing to end a pregnancy. KSN will refer information on adoption or pregnancy, too, but, since we are talking about Medicaid and abortion services, it needs to be said with no apologies.

Meanwhile, I made some kick-ass handouts to give away at the presentation and when we stop at Eastern Kentucky University's campus to hopefully recruit some volunteer educators and base supporters! If you are down with reproductive justice, support our work to give RJ workshops, hangouts, and support policies that uphold the reproductive justice framework.

Kick-ass handouts.

On the heels of progress and we stepped in a pothole.

8/27/2013

"Fifty years after the March on Washington for Jobs & Freedom things are better, but there is still room for improvement," says one Okie about a time in our history where we are still grappling with systemic racism.

What is one thing you are doing to undo racist values, stereotypes, language, or whatever way you are undoing it, share with us?

Read their blog here!

I don’t often like to focus on the social construct of race. It gets me hot under the collar most times and, let’s face it, in Oklahoma I’m surrounded!- Mel from OK4RJ