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ISSUE 43: April 2022

Editors’ Note

Dear Readers,

The Louisiana Legislative Session is underway and, as always, you can find tons of information about good and bad bills at Lift Louisiana's Legislative Updates page, as well as ways to make your voice heard by your lawmakers on issues such as abortion and contraception access, menstrual equity, and pregnant and parenting students.

You can also sign up to get action alerts about bills that the New Orleans Maternal and Child Health Coalition is supporting, such as HB 784, a maternal mental health bill, SB 175, which would provide exemptions for experienced certified nurse midwives from the collaborative practice agreement, and HB 650, which provides Medicaid coverage for prescription human breastmilk. 

This month is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, which you can learn more about by reading Arielle's spotlight article below!

Finally, as the abortion access environment becomes increasingly limited, check out the graphic below developed by the Digital Defense Fund on how to ensure your privacy as you search for pregnancy and abortion options.

Sincerely,

Kelsey Lain, School of Science and Engineering, Class of 2023
Clare Daniel, Ph.D., Newcomb Institute, Tulane University
Aliyah Daniels, ReproNews co-founder, Class of 2018
SPOTLIGHT ARTICLE

How to Get Involved in Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Arielle Morris, School of Liberal Arts and School of Engineering, ‘23


Trigger warning: sexual violence

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), a time dedicated to supporting survivors of sexual assault and violence. Every April, advocates around the country promote education and resources about sexual violence awareness and prevention. Increasing awareness about sexual assault is important on college campuses like Tulane—the 2017 Climate Survey showed Tulanians share some common misconceptions about sexual violence and survivors. For example, people believe sexual assaults are typically perpetrated by strangers. However, the climate survey reported that 74.7% of Tulane survivors were assaulted by an acquaintance or someone they knew. SAAM works to dismantle these kinds of rape myths and create interventions that educate people on the realities of sexual violence. Sexual assault is also a reproductive justice issue. The right to bodily autonomy is a tenet of both survivor support and reproductive justice. As students, we must actively educate ourselves on sexual violence to foster a supportive environment for survivors of sexual assault in our Tulane community. 

Sexual Aggression Peer Hotline and Education (SAPHE) is a student-run resource that advocates for survivors within our Tulane community. SAPHE operates a 24/7 survivor support hotline, facilitates workshops on consent and understanding sexual violence, and works to dismantle victim-blaming beliefs and rape myths on campus. This April, join SAPHE at our tabling events on McAllister every Monday and Thursday from 12-3 pm, where we will answer questions, give out free swag, and discuss resources! Our SAAM events also include weekly lectures on sexual violence, the history of Black femmes, and supporting BIPOC, male, and LGBTQ+ survivors. For a more up-to-date and comprehensive event guide, be sure to follow us on Instagram @tusaphe and view the SAAM programming schedule! 

There is so much you as an individual can do to help our Tulane community. The changes we want to start seeing don’t happen overnight, and they start with you, your loved ones, and the people in your life who value your judgment.  Start having tough conversations with your friends about these topics. Check out the Stall Street Journal to learn how to do this in a survivor-centered way. Be an advocate for survivors in your day-to-day life by calling out victim-blaming, recognizing that each survivor has a unique intersectional experience, and believing in and validating survivors in their healing journey. Consider attending a SAAM event this month to learn about how you can work to prevent sexual violence throughout the year. In addition to on-campus organizations that you can join to get involved throughout the year, including SAPHE and TUPHE, there are also community resources that support survivors of sexual violence. These include the New Orleans Family Justice Center (NOFJC),  Sexual Assault Awareness and Response (STAR), and Planned Parenthood New Orleans. All of these resources are amazing opportunities to make meaningful impacts through supporting survivors both in our Tulane community and the New Orleans community at large.
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESOURCES
WHO Releases New Abortion Guideline
"This guidance emphasizes that – as a woman, girl or other pregnant person moves through the abortion care pathway (pre-abortion, abortion, post-abortion) – health services must be integrated within the health sector to ensure that service delivery meets their needs equitably and without discrimination. As each individual moves through this pathway, the guideline provides specific recommendations on the interventions needed (i.e. the “what”), and guidance on the individuals who may safely carry them out (i.e. the “who”). The guideline also provides information on the locations where services can be provided (i.e. the “where”) and outlines service-delivery models that can be used (i.e. the “how”). The enabling environment provides the context for the effective implementation of these interventions."
Guide to Abortion Privacy — Digital Defense Fund
Click the above link to learn how to keep your abortion secure and private while browsing online.
Black Maternal Health Week
"Black Maternal Health Week takes place every year from April 11 –17 and was officially recognized by the White House on April 13th, 2021. The month of April is recognized in the United States as National Minority Health Month – a month-long initiative to advance health equity across the country on behalf of all racial and ethnic minorities. Additionally, we are joining dozens of global organizations who are fighting to end maternal mortality globally in advocating that the United Nations recognize April 11th as the International Day for Maternal Health and Rights."
Community Listening Sessions
"We are holding a series of listening sessions in Greater New Orleans in partnership with Humana and The Amandla Group. The content of these conversations will inform the direction of the Steering Committee, as well as the strategies and solutions of the workgroups. Participants will receive a $50 gift card for their participation. Share widely and email frankie@theamandlagroup.com if interested!"
#MyLASexEd
"Feminist Majority and LIFT Louisiana are reigniting the #MyLASexEd campaign to address the abysmal state of sex education in Louisiana. The campaign is focused on youth storytelling about their sex ed experience and sharing sexual health information. Student organizers will spread the word about the campaign in their communities and we will have a social media campaign to help educate people about the laws surrounding sex education.

WE NEED YOUR HELP! We are hiring #MyLASexEd Campaign Campus Ambassadors for the spring semester to collect stories on their campus and organize around sex education. We will be choosing soon so please submit the application as soon as possible. Apply Now!

For more information contact Gabby at mylasexed@liftlouisiana.org"
Tulane Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health 
Click the link above to follow TulaneMCH and stay up to date on local legislation, jobs, and new research concerning maternal and child health.
Student Standup
"Interested in speaking about your experience in reproductive rights, sexual education, the arts, and/or advocacy? Volunteer for a short interview with Creative Community League to discuss how you, or an organization you've worked with, have engaged with these topics."
 
Maternal Infant Health Award
Awarding $10 million, the Maternal Health Award is a global opportunity for organizations to make a difference in maternal health disparities. The application opens on June 2, 2022.
 
FEATURED NEW RESEARCH
Barriers to abortion care and incidence of attempted self-managed abortion among individuals searching Google for abortion care: A national prospective study, Contraception, February 2022

A cross-sectional survey of U.S. abortion patients’ interest in obtaining medication abortion over the counter, Contraception, January 23, 2022

“Police shootings, now that seems to be the main issue” – Black pregnant women’s anticipation of police brutality towards their children, BMC Public Health, January 20, 2022

Accuracy of self-assessment of gestational duration among people seeking abortion, American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, December 17, 2021

Sharing Power with Communities, Black Mamas Matter Alliance, November 2021 
NEWS ITEMS
Campus/Local

After decades of unmet mental health needs in New Orleans schools, teachers and activists scramble to help kids on the brink, nola.com, April 2, 2022

In historic move, Orleans Parish School Board names Avis Williams as next schools superintendent, nola.com, March 30, 2022

Meet the Pioneering Midwives Who Birthed the Gulf South, Atlas Obscura, March 16, 2022

National and International


The “Benevolent Terror” of the Child Welfare System, Boston Review, March 31, 2022

She Gave Abortion Pills to a Woman Who Needed Them, The Cut, March 29, 2022

MacKenzie Scott donates a record $275 million to Planned Parenthood, Reuters, March 23, 2022

The War in Ukraine Is a Reproductive Health Crisis for Millions, Wired, March 16, 2022

Solutions For the Most Dangerous Part of Pregnancy: Violence in the Home, California Health Report, March 9, 2022

‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill passes in Florida, goes to governor, AP News, March 8, 2022

‘If my husband dies, how do I explain to my daughter that her father isn’t coming back?’: Women forced to leave their husbands behind to flee Ukraine with their children share their stories, Glamour Magazine, March 7, 2022

Maternity wards are shuttering across the US during the pandemic, Vice, March 7, 2022

It’s time for Congress to fix our broken child care system, Chicago Tribune, March 7, 2022

Why the Senate took a doomed vote on abortion rights, Vox, March 1, 2022
EVENTS

Campus/Local

ProFrequency
Creative Community League
10am CST, Thursday

"Produced and hosted by Amy Irvin, ProFrequency is a weekly radio program that covers culture, reproductive and sexual health, and other feminist issues, utilizing recorded stories and live interviews with local advocates and artists. Co-host Amanda Sanfilippo (aka Dj Vjj) is a local sex educator who answers all your most burning sexual health questions. Join Creative Community League for ProFrequency at 10am CT on Thursdays on 102.3 WHIV FM New Orleans. Or stream it from https://whivfm.org/listen. For further info, follow the CCL on Instagram at @creativecommunityleague"
Testimony Training
Louisiana Coalition for Reproductive Freedom & National Women's Law Center
12:00pm CST, April 5, 2022
"Louisiana Coalition for Reproductive Freedom will host a training about giving testimony at the state legislature in partnership with the National Women's Law Center on April 5th, 2022 at noon central. This training will take place on zoom.

Hear from local leaders Michelle Erenberg of Lift Louisiana and Reverend Deneen Robinson of National Birth Equity Collaborative about how to give impactful testimony in the legislature and make your voice HEARD!"

Upcoming National/Regional
Community Doula Week
Health Connect One & Birth Matters
March 29 - April 5, 2022
"HealthConnect One is partnering with BirthMatters to host the first-ever Community Doula Week. Community Doula Week is a weeklong campaign to highlight the unique and life-saving support community doulas offer birthing people and their families. This campaign was dreamed up by Eboni Williams, a BirthMatters community-based doula serving her community in Spartanburg, South Carolina."
Freezing Fertility: Oocyte Cryopreservation and the Gender Politics of Ageing
Research Centre: Gender, Diversity & Intersectionality
10:00am to 12:00pm GMT, April 20, 2022
"Welcomed as liberation and dismissed as exploitation, egg freezing (oocyte cryopreservation) has rapidly become one of the most widely-discussed and influential new reproductive technologies of this century. In Freezing Fertility, Lucy van de Wiel takes us inside the world of fertility preservation-with its egg freezing parties, contested age limits, proactive anticipations and equity investments-and shows how the popularization of egg freezing has profound consequences for the way in which female fertility and reproductive aging are understood, commercialized and politicized. Beyond an individual reproductive choice for people who may want to have children later in life, Freezing Fertility explores how the rise of egg freezing also reveals broader cultural, political and economic negotiations about reproductive politics, gender inequities, age normativities and the financialization of healthcare. Van de Wiel investigates these issues by analyzing a wide range of sources-varying from sparkly online platforms to heart-breaking court cases and intimate autobiographical accounts-that are emblematic of each stage of the egg freezing procedure. By following the egg's journey, Freezing Fertility examines how contemporary egg freezing practices both reflect broader social, regulatory and economic power asymmetries and repoliticize fertility and aging in ways that affect the public at large. In doing so, the book explores how the possibility of egg freezing shifts our relation to the beginning and end of life."
Food and Reproduction: an online symposium
Reproductive Sociology Research Group
May 4 - 5, 2022
"How can we think about the role of food in reproduction, childcare and parenting? Which meanings are attributed to food in discussions of fertility, pregnancy or childfeeding? And what can we learn from these discourses about gender, race or class? In this symposium, we will bring into conversation insights from reproduction, parenting, food and environmental studies to explore how food is articulated with reproduction, from fertility to parenting."
See all events on the Tulane Reproductive Justice Calendar. This calendar is maintained by Kelsey Lain (Tulane School of Liberal Arts ‘23), so please email her your event information at klain@tulane.edu. 
JOBS AND INTERNSHIPS
*We have recently changed the Repronews Job Board. Click here to give anonymous feedback on the new format.
JOIN YOUR SCHOOL’S STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
Students United for Reproductive Justice, Newcomb Institute, Tulane University undergraduates
Students for Sexual Health Equity, Tulane University School of Public Health
Social Workers United for Reproductive Freedom, Tulane University School of Social Work
Medical Students for Choice, Tulane University Medical School
If/When/How, Tulane University Law School
Newcomb’s reproductive rights/health/justice-related activities are supported by the Donna and Richard Esteves Fund for Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health, the Bonnie and William Chapman Fund for Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health, and the M.B. and Edna Zale Foundation. Read about what our Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health Interns are up to!






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