Posted by Eve Ross '15
NY State Assembly Press Conference Room with various members wearing FPA’s pink scarves to show their support for a reproductive rights bill. (Photo taken by author March 2015).
Family Planning Advocates of New York State (FPA), a nonprofit women’s rights organization, determinedly advocates for legal policies to adequately reflect the reproductive needs of New York women. Since the organization’s inception in 1977, it has experienced some setbacks and successes in its advocacy work. To visually confirm FPA’s success, the above shows various members of the State Assembly sporting FPA’s signature pink scarves as a gesture in support of a recent reproductive rights bill. In order for FPA to be even more successful and fully empower women through policy change, abortion must cease to be controversial in its public and private lives and a woman’s womb must no longer be objectified. To accomplish this, reproductive rights language is slowly shifting from morally ambiguous and dichotomizing talk (i.e., fetus versus “human life”) to more reality reflective topics of socioeconomics and politics. I have witnessed evidence of this shift in language firsthand through my ethnographic research at FPA, but it exists as a small change rather removed from traditional political discourse. For example, FPA staff are aware that “pro-choice” does not encompass all that their advocates stand for and use the term “pro-repro” to better signify that FPA strives to better reproductive rights on the whole, beyond only a woman’s right to choose an abortion. Nevertheless, State Assembly members continue to label themselves either “pro-choice” or “pro-life” while discussing relevant bills to indicate whether or not they support reproductive rights.
A cultural climate exists in which American politicians, the general public, and even women themselves question the extent to which women have the right to govern their own reproductive decisions because sexism pervades daily life. Because of the longstanding hegemonic ideologies about women’s social position and the sole role of women’s bodies as child-bearers, progressive reproductive rights legislation is not being passed or not being passed fast enough, which continues to foster social inequalities among men and women. Through my ethnographic account of one women’s rights organization, I contend that groups like Family Planning Advocates must continue to challenge the existing, misguided language surrounding reproductive rights in order enact desired social change.
If women cannot access reproductive healthcare, services, and education (also known as family planning services), they will forever be in a disadvantaged state compared to men. These family planning services include: client counseling and education; contraceptive drugs and devices; diagnostic tests for pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV, and cervical cancer; breast and pelvic exams; treatments for some diagnoses, like urinary track infections and STIs; and in some cases, sterilization and abortion procedures. As this lengthy list indicates, family planning services provide crucial support for both women and men in terms of sexual and reproductive health—a necessary component of overall wellbeing, for which FPA is really advocating when they champion reproductive rights.
A cultural climate exists in which American politicians, the general public, and even women themselves question the extent to which women have the right to govern their own reproductive decisions because sexism pervades daily life. Because of the longstanding hegemonic ideologies about women’s social position and the sole role of women’s bodies as child-bearers, progressive reproductive rights legislation is not being passed or not being passed fast enough, which continues to foster social inequalities among men and women. Through my ethnographic account of one women’s rights organization, I contend that groups like Family Planning Advocates must continue to challenge the existing, misguided language surrounding reproductive rights in order enact desired social change.
If women cannot access reproductive healthcare, services, and education (also known as family planning services), they will forever be in a disadvantaged state compared to men. These family planning services include: client counseling and education; contraceptive drugs and devices; diagnostic tests for pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV, and cervical cancer; breast and pelvic exams; treatments for some diagnoses, like urinary track infections and STIs; and in some cases, sterilization and abortion procedures. As this lengthy list indicates, family planning services provide crucial support for both women and men in terms of sexual and reproductive health—a necessary component of overall wellbeing, for which FPA is really advocating when they champion reproductive rights.
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