Jen R's blog

We're having a discussion on the All Our Lives Facebook page about the recent article in The Nation, When Teen Pregnancy is No Accident. The Nation article looks at "reproductive coercion" -- a form of partner abuse in which men deliberately try to make their partners get pregnant by tampering with their birth control or simply refusing to use any.  Sometimes these men then force their pregnant partners to have an abortion; other times they force them to bear the child.

How should the reproductive peace community respond to reproductive coercion without promoting the violence of abortion? How can we best empower women to escape abusive relationships and maintain control over their choice to use contraception?  Please feel free to comment here or, if you use Facebook, on our Facebook page.

This is the kind of measure everyone, pro-life and pro-choice and label-resistant, should be able to get behind. On May 11, Representative Lois Capps (D-CA23) introduced the "Improvements in Global Maternal and newborn health Outcomes while Maximizing Successes Act" (also known, in a remarkably contrived act of abbreviation, as the Global MOMS Act).

The bill, H.R. 5268, would support expanded access to prenatal care, family planning, HIV treatment, skilled delivery care, emergency obstetric care, and postpartum care and support for women in at least 30 countries around the world. It would also support activities to improve child health care and decrease violence against women.

If you are a United States citizen, please contact your representative and ask him or her to cosponsor H.R. 5268.

The US may be a nation of unimaginable wealth, but its poorest women and children are made to live in quite another country, one of constrained resources and alternatives. And here are some of the real-life results:

The proportion of abortion patients who were poor increased by almost 60%—from 27% in 2000 to 42% in 2008 [...].

The growing concentration of abortion among women with incomes below the federal poverty line likely reflects a combination of factors. Between 2000 and 2008, the proportion of women in the overall population who were poor increased by 25%. And a Guttmacher study published in the Fall of 2009 showed that the deep economic recession may also have played a role, as financial concerns led more women to want to delay childbearing or limit the number of children they have.

(Guttmacher Institute, Abortion Has Become More Concentrated Among Poor Women)

Not only are poor women less likely than more affluent women to be able to afford to raise a child without assistance, they are also less likely to be able to afford health care, including both prenatal/childbirth care and access to prescription contraception. One of the key reasons that women who use oral contraceptives sometimes miss pills (and are therefore more likely to become pregnant) is that they put off filling prescriptions for financial reasons.

We hope that the health care bill recently passed by Congress can help counteract these pressures on lower-income women.

Scott Roeder, the man who shot and killed abortion provider George Tiller, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. We at All Our Lives agree that this was the correct decision, and reject the argument that Tiller's murder was justified because he performed abortions. We are pro-every-life, and have committed ourselves to nonviolent, peaceful action to address injustice against women and our children.

Last week, we posted about women in Nebraska who have lost public funding for their prenatal care due to immigration politics.  Fear and uncertainty are driving some of these women to consider abortion because they're not sure how they'll be able to bear and raise their children.  Now there is a way that you can help. All Our Lives has created a charity badge for donations to One World Community Health Centers, Inc., aka Indian-Chicano Health Center, Inc., of Omaha, Nebraska.

If you wish, you may designate your gift specifically for prenatal care when you make your donation. Please donate if you can; if you can't, please help by spreading the word!