“In seeking to understand this gendered difference in the perception of prisoners, it should be kept in mind that as the prison emerged and evolved as the major form of public punishment, women continued to be routinely subjected to forms of punishment that have not been acknowledged as such…”
-Angela Davis
Today is Equal Pay Day -- the day when women’s average earnings finally catch up with men’s average earnings from the previous year.
April is sexual assault awareness month – a month dedicated to connecting with survivors, raising public awareness, and educating individuals and the community on how to prevent sexual violence. Ending sexual assault is closely connected to protecting reproductive rights. Violence committed against women violates women’s rights, limits women’s freedom, and threatens women’s physical, mental, and reproductive health. Sexual assault awareness is important in our fight to support women’s reproductive health and rights.
The U.S. abortion rate [2014] dropped significantly to 14.6 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44, surpassing the previous record low in 1973 when abortion was legalized nationally.
As we come to the close of the first month of the Trump administration, little could have been predicted by the events of week one. Federal level attacks on reproductive freedoms and healthcare continued, and attacks on immigration ramped up.
Week two:
Women Want Answers from Senator Cassidy About the Future of Their Health Care at Town Hall
New Orleans, Louisiana - Advocates for women’s health will attend a town hall with Senator Bill Cassidy to push him to address women’s health care in his new proposal. Senator Cassidy supports the repeal of the Affordable Care Act and has introduced a replacement which failsto ensure coverage for preventative health care services for women.
When you think of porn, education probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. However, with laws in place that prohibit schools from teaching comprehensive sex education, adolescents are forced to take matters into their own hands and ask their trusty friend Google. Given the fact that almost every teenager has access to the internet, and that roughly 30% of the internet is made up from pornography, it is not surprising that a recent study found that around 60% of adolescents look to porn to answer their sex-related questions.
Louisiana ranks low on many healt
President Donald Trump made it clear: “I will appoint [Supreme Court] judges that will be pro-life,” Trump promised on the campaign trail. Vice President Mike Pence doubled down on Trump’s promise during a speech on Jan. 19 at the March for Life Demonstration in D.C.. But, as the first weeks of Trump’s presidency have shown, you can’t always take Trump’s words as truth. Trump nominated judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court on Jan. 31. So the question stands: did Trump keep his promise and nominate an anti- abortion Supreme Court nominee?
If you can, imagine the many healthcare needs women have based purely on their biology. In our lifetime as women, we deal with menstrual cycles, many of will encounter pregnancy and birth, then later menopause, and so on. We reach stages in our lives where we are need to have gynecological check-ups, mammograms and pap smears. These are not rare or extreme situations; these are average health care experiences that come with being a woman. Moreover, these needs do not change once a woman is incarcerated. The difference is that incarcerated women depend on the state to provide them with the adequate health care and the state is not only responsible for, but is required to fulfill those needs[1].
Late last year, I began my work with Lift Louisiana as a legal research associate to conduct research and analyze policies related to healthcare access for incarcerated women, including the use of restraints (or shackles) on pregnant inmates.
