MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR
Section Chair Dr. Claire Brindis, Institute for Health Policy Studies, 3333 California St., Suite 265, San Francisco, CA 94143 Phone: (415) 476-5255 E-mail: brindis@itsa.ucsf.eduDear Colleagues:
“It’s Your Choice, Not Theirs,” “My Body is Not Public Property” and “Vote as if Your Life Depends on it”. The sea of pink (representing Planned Parenthood, while others represented the American Civil Liberties Union), purple and yellow (National Abortion Rights League), and countless other handmade signs was an overwhelming sight. They came by plane, train, bus and car. Some brought their children; others came with their neighbors, college roommates from 20 years ago, and friends. Some families included three generations of women dedicated to keeping abortion safe and legal. For many participants, the recent
March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C., was also an opportunity to protest this administration’s assaults on other aspects of women’s reproductive rights – oppositions to basic contraception, sex education, and international family planning and reproductive health services.
Will history judge April 25, 2004 as a turning point in America’s struggle with the increasingly political struggles for reproductive health rights and freedoms? As I marched with hundreds of thousands of concerned women and men from throughout the country, as well as from a number of countries across the world, I could feel the sense of urgency, energy, and passion. Whether the main take-home message was the necessity of assuring and maintaining access to legal abortions, the need to support international family planning efforts and the elimination of the global gag rule, access to emergency contraception, or eliminating inappropriate governmental interference in the lives of women did not seem to matter. What did appear to fire the passion of those who personally witnessed the March or participated in local efforts, as well as countless others who were in Washington that Sunday in spirit, was a profound realization that the March clearly could not be the end point. Rather, the March needs to be a spark for ongoing efforts to mobilize others throughout the country to save reproductive rights and assure the elimination of health disparities in this most basic of rights in both the national and international arena.
While the alliance of many well-established organizations in the reproductive health rights movement brought the event to life, the true successes were the thousands of other organizations from throughout the country that were mobilized to stand and be counted in support of these rights. While many were traditional organizations, what was particularly compelling was seeing groups of young people, some having been mobilized in their universities and high schools, or youth serving organizations, such as Advocates for Youth.
The question remains
how this energy will continue to be mobilized and strengthened throughout the coming years. As someone devoted to reproductive health research and policy, I felt a clear sense of celebration and morale boost in recognizing that countless others care about these issues as passionately as I do. This Silent Majority was coming forth and advocating for reproductive rights, not only for this generation, but for generations of men and women to come. However, what was more concerning were the large numbers of others around the country who were not even aware that a March was occurring. For example, when I told other colleagues and friends that I was planning to go to Washington, D.C. for the March, few outside the field appeared to know about it. This brought home to me the importance of each of us continuously reaching out to others to expand the message of reproductive rights and choice. Clearly an important message that was reiterated over and over throughout the day was the need to assure that the 22 million women who had not voted in the last election cast their ballots in November.
I would welcome your thoughts and experiences of April 25, 2004 and request that you send your impressions to Susanna Binzen at
SBinzen@cdc.gov to be included in the next Section Newsletter. Unlike other historical events -- most often horrific tragedies such as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy or the terrorist attacks of September 11th -- one hopes that the March for Women’s Lives will be seen as a positive and memorable event that contributed to maintaining one of our most important rights.
I also want to say a special thanks to Lois Uttley (Action Board Representative for our Section), to her colleague Jessica Fisher at the Education Fund of Family Planning Advocates of NYS, and to Cynthia Green (past Section Chair) for the development of a
policy fact sheet that was distributed to our Section members (see a copy near the end of this newsletter) and to other APHA Section Members who participated in the Advocacy Training conducted by APHA on the Friday before and Monday following the March. Specifically, we want to thank Lakitia Mayo, APHA’s Director of Grassroots Advocacy & Affiliate Affairs and Don Hoppert, Director of Federal and Congressional Affairs, for their training, along with Lois who provided training on Monday (I was there on Friday). Lakitia and Don not only helped to provide APHA members with an orientation, but also assisted in coordinating Congressional visits. They provided important tips on Capitol Hill visits and information to give to members of Congress pertaining to APHA’s priority areas of access to health care, elimination of health disparities, and public health infrastructure so attendees could address those issues along with the issues surrounding the March. Unfortunately, only a few members were able to participate, as many came to Washington just for Saturday and Sunday. Thus, we are planning to work with Section members over the next few months to consider a Capitol Hill visit while you are attending APHA in the Fall (more information will be forthcoming in the next few months). Please do let me <
brindis@itsa.ucsf.edu>, or Lakitia, <
lakitia.mayo@apha.org>, know if you are interested.
.
As APHA's goal this year is to
get at least 200 APHA members to visit Capitol Hill to advocate on public health issues, this provides an important opportunity to consider how our own Section members can play a more visible role both within APHA and on Capitol Hill. Please consider that the next time you come to Washington(or if you are based in D.C.), to participate in a Hill visit, even when not associated with our Annual Meeting. If you are interested, please contact Lakitia Mayo by e-mail at <
lakitia.mayo@apha.org> or by telephone at (202) 777-2515. As Lois can attest to, APHA was much more successful in setting up an appointment with her representative than had been her own reproductive health-related organization.
Lois Uttley, who serves on the Access to Care Subcommittee of the Action Board, is planning to produce a series of fact sheets on topics related to our Section that could be added to those presently posted on the APHA Web site. Her goal is to develop a fact sheet on emergency contraception (EC) that can be posted and distributed with the APHA name, to assist in the efforts to bring mainstream public health and medical voices to bear on the issue of making EC available over the counter. If you are interested in helping Lois, please contact her at <
Lois@mergerwatch.org>.
* * * * *
A number of Section members have approached me about
reconsidering the name of our Section and whether the word Population in our Section name continues to reflect the efforts, interests, and activities of our members. Some of you will remember the efforts to expand our name to include reproductive health several years ago. That effort was ably chaired by Roger Rochat. At this time, I will be inviting our key elected Section leaders and Task Force Chairs to participate in a short series of phone calls to discuss this topic further. I would also like to invite any other members who are interested in this topic to write to me at <
brindis@itsa.ucsf.edu> to become part of the Ad Hoc Committee.
If there is consensus that a potential name change be instituted, we would work with our Section members first and conduct an e-mail survey of the entire PFPRH membership, requesting that they vote on changing the name (of course, including alternatives as well). I have checked in with APHA regarding the process. If we decide to proceed, we would need to notify the Executive Board of our efforts to change our name. Once these steps have been accomplished, it would need to be voted on by the Governing Council. As this is an important activity, I want to be sure that members have an opportunity to reflect their views. The first conference phone call on this subject will occur in June. Please do let me know if you are interested.
Return to Top
THE MARCH FOR WOMEN’S LIVES
 | |
| Fran Atkinson and Lois Uttley carry APHA banner |
Washington, D.C., Sunday, April 25, 2004Several Section members who participated in the March sent in their impressions of the day:
From
Lois Uttley: I was proud to raise the APHA banner and help carry it along the streets of Washington, D.C., in the March for Women’s Lives. A small but mighty band of APHA staff and members marched behind the APHA banner as part of the Health Care Contingency, which also included such groups as Medical Students for Choice, the American Medical Women’s Association and Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health. Other APHA members marched in the delegations of their home states. Having APHA represented in the march was fitting, because we as an organization stand for the rights of women and our families to have affordable access to comprehensive, culturally-appropriate health services, including but not limited to reproductive health. Reproductive health IS public health!
On Monday, we had two of us at the briefing, and three others who went out later. I had three excellent sessions [on Capitol Hill], including one with my own mixed choice GOP Congressman's legislative director, who actually expressed some interest in pressuring the Bush administration to let EC go OTC!
From
Cynthia Green: For me, a desk-bound activist, the April 25 March for Women’s Lives was inspiring and encouraging. Hundreds of thousands of people felt strongly enough about this issue to come to Washington, D.C., to be counted. The mile-long Mall stretching from the Capitol to the Washington Mon