Women's Reproductive Health Landscape

Christmas1969, I was 19, working at Sears, Ala Moana, Honolulu, Hawaii.  The only other women under 30 working in the lamp department and I became friends.  She shared her sex life with me, no one had ever done this so vividly.  She talked about a doctor who would prescribe birth control pills to single women and she told me to take note.  I had been contemplating becoming sexually active and how could I not the sexual revolution went on all around me.

Months later I decided to take the plunge.  My cousin sat in the living room as I walked out in the morning her look at me as if asking me, “how was it.”  She reminds me even today I shrugged.  That day I panicked not that I did, “it” but because I could get pregnant.  My and my roommate assured me you can’t get pregnant the first time you have sex.  They being experts with years of experience I thought this good advice.

Instead of going to the doctor my co-worker told me about I went to Planned Parenthood they had a sliding fee scale and I lived hand to mouth those days.  I left Planned Parenthood with two months’ supply of “The Pill” with directions to start the first day of my next period. That period never came.

Luckily in 1969 women’s reproductive health care landscape started opening up with more options for both single and married women, I took full advantage of this.  Even today I consider myself lucky to have come of age in the 60’s when 30 states went from having laws prohibiting or restricting the sales and advertisement of birth control to Planned Parenthood wining a US Supreme Court case ruling making it legal for married couples to buy contraception.  The landscape continued to expand in the years that followed.  At the end of the 60’s single women had a secret network, that I became apart of, that passed around the name of doctors that would illegally give out birth control to unmarried women. Social attitudes changed faster than laws in these days. 

Today we can look at the vast landscape of women’s reproductive health shrinking marking a new era of open season in using women ‘s bodies in the war of public policy on health care.  Women’s bodies have been laid out in the public realm where people, mostly men, talk freely about women’s sex lives, women’s bodies and reproductive standards.  Starting even before Trump became president, when during the 2016 presidential bid, high officials in the Trump campaign and Trump himself abused women publicly, women’s reproductive health became a prime target and overturning Roe v Wade became a major campaign promise.  Steven Bannon, chairman of Trump’s presidential campaign, allowed the posting of an article on the Breitbart News website entitled “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy.” Trump also added his own brand of talking about women’s intimate parts when the Access Hollywood tape aired publicly capturing Trump saying, “You can do anything, Grab 'em by the pussy.”  During this time Trump paid off two women, who claim they had sexual relations with Trump, to keep them silent during his presidential campaign.

Once Trump became president, he didn’t waste any time rolling back women’s access to reproductive health care.  One of his first executive orders overturned President Obama’s directive of birth control for all and reinstated the “Gag Rule,” setup by President Bush but even more restrictive.  Trump’s “Gag Rule,” prohibits women on any federally funded healthcare program from going to Planned Parenthood and prohibits any health care providers to give a referral to a safe and legal abortion.  Trump didn’t stop there, he legalized policies allowing religious employers to refuse birth control in their healthcare packages to their employees as a religious right.  Trump appointed federal judges recommended by pro-life groups establishing a long lasting legal and social climate against access to safe and legal abortions and birth control completing his agenda with Supreme Court nominees.


Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee, Brett Kavanaugh sealed the deal on restricting women’s access to reproductive health. Even with the limited documents released during Kavanaugh’s hearings we know he participated in delaying an abortion for an undocumented woman in custody a tactic anti-abortion activist use to limit abortions.  The timeline of women’s health care is tied to the US Supreme Court.  Trump and his supporters know this.  Kavanaugh as a Supreme Court Justice will totally wipe-out any gains women have made in the past. Access to reproductive health may go as far back as 1821.  This will affect every woman’s life, so women take note and be prepared for impacts to your family, career and economic well-being.  Men! This will affect you too.

What would a Feminist Governent Look Like?

In 2014, Sweden became the first government to use the word “feminist” to describe a policy approach. Iceland has seven laws and standard practices that support women’s rights, and penalize gender discrimination. The U.S. Constitution has no guarantees of equal rights for women. Since 1923, activists here have been trying to pass the ERA for women to the US Constitution.  The US ratings not only on women’s rights but their rating on all human rights has deteriorated over the past several decades.  US law makers should look around to get out of their rut to make more inclusive laws.

Swedish feminist policy objectives include women's and girls’ freedom from physical, psychological and sexual violence; political participation and influence in all areas of society; economic rights and empowerment; and sexual and reproductive health and rights. All of which is something the US should strive for.  Let’s face it women getting the vote in the US did little to get women equal rights Emily;s list has worked for years to get women into politics both nationally and locally.  Today, 20% of Democratic Attorneys General are women this is not acceptable and a good example of things that need to be done.  Emily's list has worked for years to get women into politics and today we see of their work make a difference.

Iceland starts gender equality lessons before first grade The country has not just one, but three, laws protecting women at work. Treating women as sex objects in the media is against the law. Plus, the country banded strip clubs for feminist reasons. For eight years, the Global Gender Gap Index ranked Iceland No. 1, Sweden number 3 and the United States number 51 on its list of countries in their efforts to close the gender gap. In 2009, Iceland became the first country to completely close the gender gap in education and health. And in 2016, Iceland was 87% of the way to closing the gender gap in all sectors. 

One of Sweden’s main focus under their gender equity policies is a mandate to reduce sexual violence.  This is where Sweden is ahead of Iceland, and the US lags far behind. In 1998 Sweden passed their “Act on violence Against Women.”  The law gives Sweden two decades of reform that Iceland and the US don’t have. The University of Iceland published a study that found 30 percent of Icelandic women aged 18 to 80 reported being physically attacked and 13 percent reported suffering rape or attempted rape. This gender violence in Iceland dispels the “myth” that gender equality alone gives women safety from violence.  Making the steps to fight systematic abuse against women is a critical part of the gender equality agenda.

In contrast here at home women are fighting for a place at the table.  On our way or when we get there the media, finds ways to ridicule us or bully us into silence.  This ridicule or shaming starts at the highest level.   Senator Martha McSally, Republican of Arizona and the first woman in the Air Force to fly in combat, told a hushed Senate hearing room on Wednesday that she had been raped by a superior officer, one of multiple times she was sexually assaulted while she served her country. “I thought I was strong, but felt powerless,” Ms. McSally said during a Senate Armed Services subcommittee hearing on sexual assault in the military. Ms. McSally’s testimony is both refreshing and disturbing.  McSally is high ranking elected official and a decorated military pilot and yet the men around her have shamed her, putting her in her place.  We are lucky that even at those times McSally felt powerless she kept going for a place at the table.

These are hard times for women not in the US but around the world, the backlash of women’s rights is felt globally.  This is not a time to coward, this is a time to speak up to move those lawmakers that are stuck in a rut.  I am thankful for Hilary Clinton running for the presidency, for the #metoo movement, for Emily’s list, for the newly elected diverse women who entered congress this year, and Stormy Daniels who has spoken up. The fight might not be over but the actions of late sure has struck a nerve with the powers that be.