Oklahomans for Reproductive Justice

I hear ignorant statements often from people who have no idea what it takes to be recognized in this country – people who do not understand the difference between visas, residency, and citizenship. They know nothing of political asylum and the disorganized mess that is the Department of Immigration. So how can these same people understand the importance of a reform, and how necessary it is for the reproductive justice world? A factor that is often overlooked in the reproductive justice world is the preservation of families, and that is when the topic of immigration becomes fundamental to the conversation. Without the security of having some form of legal status in the US, thousands of families are ripped apart by the mass increase of deportations and incarceration of undocumented people. Not only does it leave more children without homes or parents, but it also creates a large cloud of fear that keeps most undocumented folks away from the options that are in fact available for them.

[The New Jim Crow] argues that the War on Drugs has created a new sort of way to lock up, stigmatize, and economically and socially destroy large groups of people of color. Michelle Alexander says those who are targeted by racist law enforcement in stop and frisks and searches, prosecuted on flimsy evidence by over zealous prosecutors, and dealt harsh sentences by judges using mandatory minimums and sentence enhancements are effectively locked away for large portions of their life for largely nonviolent drug offenses. To give you an idea of how much prisons have expanded over the last 40 years, you’d have to release 4 out of every 5 prisoners to return to incarceration rates of the 1970s. That’s unbelievable.

Michelle Alexander gives insight into the harsh life awaiting people after their release or plea bargain that brands them felons; in many states, folks with felony records are barred from voting, public housing, federal education loans, safety net programs, professional licensure, and even food stamps. Coupled with the fact that employers can freely discriminate against people with felony records in hiring (you’ve seen the “check here if you’ve ever been convicted of a felony” box on applications, right?), unemployment and gutted safety nets leave folks stranded, treated like second-class citizens.

The basic point here is that increasing the minimum wage is a fantastic idea, and we should absolutely do it. It will disproportionately benefit Southerners and Midwesterners, as well as people of color, women, and especially single women. Increasing the minimum wage also conveniently has massive public support, with 71 percent of people and even 50 percent of Republicans favoring such a move. Even if it only helps some people, it still increases the financial resources of groups who are badly in need of it. And as we all know, more financial resources means more capabilities, including those capabilities related to child-rearing and accessing quality reproductive health care.

Issues of reproductive justice for American Indian women are particularly relevant here in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has the second highest population of American Indian people in the US and has 38 federally recognized tribes. Over half of the 63 IHS pharmacies surveyed by the Native American Women’s Health Education Resource Center (NAWHERC) in the Oklahoma City, Albuquerque, Aberdeen, S.D., and Bemidiji, Minn. service areas carried Plan B, but many of these pharmacies did not have the pill available over-the-counter. The NAWHERC study found that only 11 percent of the pharmacies surveyed carried emergency contraception over the counter. About half carried emergency contraception but required a prescription and a doctor’s visit, and about 43 percent of the pharmacies contacted did not carry Plan B at all.

These issues are specifically red state centered, but I am finding that no space is safe, no city has it all, and as much as I want to romanticize other states for their accessibility and growing movements, they still need help too. Bilingual advocates are needed in all areas, demonstrating how non-english speaking people, who are primarily of color, are getting left out everywhere. This is a concern to me in my state, but it is a concern to those from Portland to New York City. My red state perspective understands this. Red state perspectives are necessary to remind people that this 40th anniversary of Roe. V. Wade only means that there is so much work to be done.