ARTICLES
September 2002 ARTICLES
Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.
Aging, White Mavens of Sterility
"Emergency Contraception" Conference Targets Latinas
BY MAGGIE GARCIA
What does one do when the benefits of "progressive" abortion legislation don't trickle down to minorities? The first thing, it seems, is to call a conference (with a token representation of minorities) to discuss what's to be done with "those people."
Last year, there was little opposition when Governor Gray Davis signed into law a bill which would allow pharmacists to dispense "emergency contraceptives" without a prescription from a doctor. Commonly known as the Morning After Pill, the abortifacient drug was renamed by pro-abortion groups in order to make it more attractive to women. Emergency contraceptives are now readily available through pharmacy chains such as Rite Aid and Walgreens, as well as through a host of smaller pharmacies throughout the state.
Not all pharmacists are ignoring the dangers that emergency contraception poses for women. Bogomir Kuhar, executive director of Pharmacists for Life told me by e-mail that his group opposed the emergency contraception bill when it was before the California legislature. "[Pharmacists for Life's] position is we oppose (and we were one of the few groups opposing the CA legislation done in stealth while the nation was reeling from 9/11) the use of a chemical masquerading as a drug whose intention and chief use is to destroy another human being -- in this case, an innocent who may only be a few days old. Emergency abortion, the proper term for this, is 75% 'effective' at killing the preborn based on studies published in the Medical Letter, New England Journal of Medicine and elsewhere, and supported by the labeling required by the FDA, is dangerous to the mother and is almost always lethal for her preborn child."
In spite of their success in the legislature, proponents of emergency contraception admit that information about it has not reached minority communities. In order to remedy this, the ACLU, along with the Feminist Majority Foundation, the National Health Law Program, the California Woman's Law Center and the Woman's Capitol sponsored, on July 19, a symposium entitled, "Beyond the Morning After." In spite of being billed as a "bilingual community forum for Latinas on emergency contraception," the symposium was mostly conducted in English with a Spanish language interpreter on the scene to translate the talks to the few Latinas in attendance.
The sole topic of discussion was how to get emergency contraceptives into the hands of Latina women in California. Speaker after speaker implored the audience to come up with ideas on how to reach Latina women with the message that emergency contraception was an available option to prevent pregnancy after having non-contraceptive sex.
The conference was held at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles. The audience consisted of mostly white, middle aged woman; most of the few Latinas present were employed by the groups that sponsored the conference. The irony of the conference was that the speakers, who were "professional feminists" by their own account, did not know how to speak with the Latina women they so eagerly sought. Over and over again, the speakers asked their audience what would be the best way to get the message of increased availability of emergency contraceptives to the Latino community.
Unknown to the conference organizers, some members of the pro-life youth group, Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, sat in on the conference. Other members of the Survivors held signs and demonstrated outside of the entrance to the room where the conference was held. Because there were some Latinas in attendance that were not affiliated with the symposium, the conference organizers were not comfortable with having a confrontation with the protestors. Because of the Survivors' chanting, the conference organizers were forced to close the door to the conference room, making it difficult for late comers to join the conference. I myself was escorted into the conference room and assured that the police would haul off the demonstrators. I sat down next to two Latina women, one from the East Los Angeles Planned Parenthood and another one from an AIDS advocacy group.
One of the first speakers, Sharon Cohen of the Pharmacy Access Partnership, spoke about her group and the role they played in getting pharmacists to dispense emergency contraceptives to women without a doctor's prescription. "Our main mission really is to expand access to reproductive health services and to pharmacies. Why pharmacies?" Cohen asked her audience. "Because of their wide demographic distribution throughout the state. Whereas one community might have one hospital, there are a number of pharmacies. Also they have expanded hours of operation; a lot of times some pharmacies are open 24 hours a day, unlike providers." Cohen told her audience that they were not trying to take patients away from providers (doctors) but were trying to expand the access to emergency contraceptives. Cohen said that it was her group who "piloted the idea of going directly to their pharmacies without first going through a provider or clinic."
While the campaign to inform English speaking women of the availability of emergency contraceptives has gone relatively smoothly, Cohen told her audience that it is harder to reach Latina women with the same information, so activists had to be resourceful in getting the message out. "We identified five areas in Los Angeles County that are disproportionately underserved populations," said Cohen. "We went ahead with signs at bus stops -- a lot of them travel on bus; for many of them this is their main means of transportation. Cost is also an issue. We made them aware that this service is available through Family PACT. We told them where they could get EC [emergency contraception] for free or low cost." Family PACT is a program provided by the California Department of Health Services which provides contraceptives for low-income men and women. According to a fact sheet given at the conference, a woman can sign up for Family PACT at a provider's office. "It's easy to sign up, you do not have to bring any papers," the sheet states.
Nyree Morales of the Los Angeles Free Clinic spoke about the short period of time that emergency contraception was effective. "It should be made available through providers, either through walk in or with an appointment or in advance, so that women have it in advance for that Friday night when the condom breaks," said Morales.
During the "dialogue" period, one young woman asked about the side effects of emergency contraception on women. The speaker quickly brushed the question aside. "There are no side effects," she told the young woman, who, nevertheless, did not seem convinced. When another young woman started asking similar questions, Lourdes Rivera, an attorney with the National Health Law Project, became visibly upset. Rivera told the audience that this symposium was not the forum for asking about side effects; the symposium was about getting emergency contraceptives into the hands of Latinas. Not to be deterred, the young people continued to press the speakers with questions about the dangers involving emergency contraceptives.
Later, I walked out to the hallway where I met several women from the Feminist Majority Foundation who were patrolling up and down the hallway. When I asked them what had happened to the protesters, they told me that they had infiltrated the conference. "They are with the Survivors," one woman told me. "Who are the Survivors?" I asked her. "Oh, they are an anti-choice group of teenagers and they attend a camp where they learn about demonstrating and harassing clinics." The other members of the woman's group nodded in agreement. "Have you called the police?" I asked the group. "We'll call if they start anything violent," another woman told me. I asked them why a group of kids would become violent, and one woman told me that anti-choice people are violent by nature. As we spoke, a tall, blonde young man walked past us. "He has to be a Survivor," one woman told me. "Why?" I asked. "Because he's a white male," she retorted. My companions were of the belief that the Survivors is an all-Anglo group of "anti-choice" extremists who were racists because they wanted to stop Latina women from getting emergency contraceptives. "I hate to say it, but they are really racist," I was told, perhaps because I am Latina.
Returning to the conference, I sat in on Lourdes Rivera's workshop, "Emergency Contraception: Advocacy and Outreach." Rivera's talk was mainly about how the Catholic healthcare system is denying women "their reproductive rights." Rivera noted that when Catholic Healthcare West would buy another hospital they were told that they had to abide by the National Conference of Catholic Bishop's directive, Health and Healthcare, or Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, which prohibits Catholic hospitals from performing abortions and sterilizations. Rivera said that a group of pro-abortion activists were able to stem this tide in some instances when they convinced the attorney general's office "to have oversight in the hospital sales; after this, all services were kept." Rivera said that this type of pressure has prompted Catholic Healthcare West to create a "community model hospital in 18 locations in California." By this, Rivera meant that Catholic Healthcare West will modify how the directives are implemented according to the sentiments of the community. (Catholic Healthcare West later did not return calls for comment.)
Rivera admitted to me that too often feminists are unable to speak to the needs of the Latino community. She recounted how in Gilroy, Catholic Healthcare West had bought up the local hospital. When Rivera and her group tried to mobilize the community over the lack of reproductive health services, their voices fell on deaf ears. "We were not representing the community. chw went to the churches and got their support. Besides, the city council was 'pro life,'" she said gesturing quotation marks. "We lost that one. The community was Latino farm workers and we have limitations in our movement. I can't talk to farm workers in Gilroy, I can't even speak Spanish!" Rivera lamented. Rivera's remarks were very telling of why they have such an urgency to recruit Latinas into their ranks, albeit by emergency contraception. She ended her talk with a plea for help. "Our [feminist] movement is shrinking. Most feminists are white, we have class privileges, and we can choose the career of feminism. Most Latinas can't do this, they have other concerns. Most feminists are mainstream; we are not going to do anything radical like calling for immigration reform [which is a concern for Latinas]."
Sidebar: We Want To Make It Really Tough