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ISSUE 50: November 2022

Editors’ Note

Dear Readers,

This election is crucial to improving reproductive rights, health, and justice in Louisiana. Find all you need to know about how to vote early (today is the last day!) or on election day here. There are many helpful voter guides out there. Here are some that we use:

Power Coalition Guide to the Amendments

Power Coalition Candidate Surveys

Louisiana Budget Project's Amendments Guide

Antigravity Voter Education Guide

Hullabaloo Voter Guide for Tulane 

Lift Louisiana compiled all state legislators' voting records on abortion-related bills here.  See below for tons of other events, opportunities, and resources! As always, please send your feedback and items to include in ReproNews to klain@tulane.edu. 

Sincerely,

Kelsey Lain, School of Liberal Arts, Class of 2023
Clare Daniel, Ph.D., Newcomb Institute, Tulane University
Aliyah Daniels, ReproNews co-founder and editor emeritus, Class of 2018
SPOTLIGHT ARTICLES

An Interview with Maxwell Ciardullo, Director of Policy & Communications for Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center

Interview Conducted by Kelsey Lain

What initially inspired your interest in advocacy work?
My entry to activism and advocacy was through feminism and sexual and reproductive health issues in college. I became a sexual health peer educator and joined the Feminist Majority Foundation campus group at University of Illinois and helped organize the campus' first sexual health fair. That propelled me toward my first nonprofit job for a national group that advocates for comprehensive sexuality education, before eventually shifting my focus to housing issues. 
What does housing justice mean to you?
I see housing justice as deeply connected to health and reproductive justice. Having a safe, affordable home is foundational to being able to take care of your other essential needs and to ensure that everyone who wants to have and raise children has a safe place to do that. 
What work is the Health Homes Coalition currently doing?
The Healthy Homes Coalition is a group of 60+ public health, neighborhood, housing, and other organizations advocating for new laws in New Orleans that will finally hold slumlords accountable. Our goal is to create a new system to make sure all rental apartments meet basic health and safety standards so that no one's health is in danger because of their own home. 
How can Tulane students, faculty, and affiliates become more involved with the Health Homes Coalition and LA Fair Housing Action Center?
Join LaFHAC's email list and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to keep up on our advocacy work. We also have internships available every semester for those who want to work with us. .
 

You Geaux Girl!  
Y'Vonne Antoine, School of Liberal Arts, ‘23

Geaux Girl! was inspired by a teen magazine that executive director Heide Winston grew up with in her native Germany. Concerned about the lack of comprehensive sex education in New Orleans, Heide approached her friend Danielle Del Sol in 2016 with the idea to start a teen girl magazine that features adolescent reproductive health information in every issue. They spent the next almost two years (when they weren’t taking care of their young children, working their day jobs, or welcoming new babies into the world) reaching out to potential contributors and developing the concept for what would become Geaux Girl!, a local nonprofit print and online magazine created for and with New Orleans teen girls. Heide officially launched Geaux Girl! in early 2018 and the GG family has been growing ever since.

Geaux Girl! is about building a sense of community among local girls and women while celebrating individuality and diversity. With a mission to inform, inspire, engage, and empower, Geaux Girl! serves as a unique resource and platform for teen girls all across New Orleans. Our main distribution locations are New Orleans Public Library Branches, Jefferson Library Branches, NORD Recreation Center, Uptown JCC, Broadmoor Arts and Wellness Center, and ReFresh Project on N. Broad.

The new issue of Geaux Girl! just came out and is available at many locations around the New Orleans area. The new issue is available to read online at geauxgirlmagazine.org. The biggest topic of the newest issue is emergency contraception and confidentiality for teens at a doctor’s appointment. Confidentiality is a key topic for teens in today’s culture. Teen patients are capable of obtaining confidential care from physicians without a parent or guardian. Confidential care allows minors in Louisiana to consent to their own medical care including but not limited to care for pregnancy, childbirth, and sexually transmitted infections. For some clinics there is a minimum age limit. In a circumstance where physicians feel it necessary to tell a parent or guardian about the patient’s care, it is the physician’s prerogative to decide whether to notify the parent even against the minor’s personal preference. One key point to note is that private insurances may provide an explanation of benefits in which the report will list reasons for visit, labs, etc. Medicaid insurance is an exception. In Louisiana each clinic has its own internal policy.

Geaux Girl! strives to educate female teens about all things. Reproductive health is one of the largest parts of the magazine through the “Real Talk” portion of the magazine. Allowing teens to ask whatever questions they want anonymously gives them a feeling of safety. It creates a place for them to learn about what THEY are curious about and get an honest, educated, and safe answer from trained professionals. I feel as though Geaux Girl has successfully helped to close the sexual education knowledge gap.
ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESOURCES
NOWHERE TO GO: MATERNITY CARE DESERTS ACROSS THE U.S. (2022 REPORT)
"March of Dimes has released its 2022 report on maternity care deserts across the United States—counties where there’s a lack of maternity care resources, where there are no hospitals or birth centers offering obstetric care and no obstetric providers. (Learn more about how maternity care deserts are defined here.)

Underwritten by Reckitt and their Enfa portfolio of brands, our partner in the Better Starts for All pilot initiative, the report explores the many facets of health care that affect how and where maternity care is provided in the U.S. and also confirms that access to maternity care is worsening throughout the country."
Call for Abstracts: Sperm, Health, Politics
"​Sociologist Rene Almeling (Yale), bioethicist Lisa Campo-Engelstein (UTMB) and physician-scientist Brian T. Nguyen (USC) are organizing a focused convening of scholars, scientists, and clinicians who are rethinking and reframing male sexual and reproductive health in the United States. We seek to bring together a range of perspectives on questions at the nexus of sperm/health/politics, including those of social scientists, physicians, and others working on topics such as male infertility, male contraception, paternal effects on reproductive outcomes, reproductive and sexual health and healthcare, and social processes around masculinity, gender, race, class, and sexuality. 
 
Rather than a traditional conference in which individuals present their research, each attendee will be asked to draft a short “thinkpiece” (500 to 1,000 words), identifying what they perceive as the most pressing issues related to sperm/health/politics. We will convene at Yale University in New Haven, CT on April 14-15, 2023 to discuss and workshop the thinkpieces, which will then be revised and assembled in an edited volume to be published by a university press.
 
If you would like to apply to attend this convening, please send a one-paragraph bio, CV, and 350-word description of the thinkpiece you would contribute to rene.almeling@yale.edu with “CfA: Sperm/Health/Politics” in the subject line. Deadline: January 20, 2023. We anticipate a total of about 25 attendees, and we welcome submissions from scholars and researchers from any field and at any stage, including graduate students. Full travel grants will be available for graduate students and newer PhDs (e.g. postdocs and assistant professors), and limited travel funds are available for more senior scholars and researchers."
Call for Panel Proposals & Performances
"GBT, which began in 2012, is known for presenting up to the moment critical studies, and oppositional scholarship as well as the inclusion of cutting edge art. We seek 3-4 person panels, roundtables, facilitated workshops or artistic performances that engage feminist activist, artistic, and critical theoretical approaches to matters of science, technology, information, medicine, the body, and more. Some funds (up to $2,000 per panel) are available for panel participants to travel to and from Blacksburg to present or for other needed expenses."
Push-Ups for Premies
  • "Take a video of yourself doing 13 push-ups (or as many as possible)
    • All modifications are welcome--the pushups can be done with your knees on the ground, with a clap between each rep, with a child in your back, in a costume, etc. Have fun with it!
  • Use the attached script for suggested language
  • Share on social media
  • Tag @sauls_light in your post
  •  Use the hashtags:
    • #pushupsforpreemies, #preemiepushupchallenge, #saulslight, #fightlikeababy
  • Challenge others to do the same!"
Abortion Care: Why It's Vital for All Reproductive Health Care
"Techniques used in abortion care are not only used to end unwanted pregnancies — here’s why abortion care is so vital to the full spectrum of reproductive health care."
HIVE (Healing, Inspiration, Voice and Equity) Leadership Development and Network Building Program Application Now Open!
Since 2017, over 40 participants committed to reproductive health, rights, and justice from across Louisiana have participated in HIVE. Now, the HIVE Leadership Development and Network Building Program is getting ready to launch its fourth full cohort! This program is facilitated by CompassPoint and funded by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Applications launch in late October of 2022.
 
NOAF Hotline
"In the South and need an abortion? 
Give us a call at 844.44.ABORT (844.442.2678)

Our name may say New Orleans, but we partner with callers from across the Gulf South to connect them with the funding and resources they need to access legal abortion care. If you are traveling from Louisiana or the surrounding states for care in a state where abortion is legal, give us a call. 

We provide compassionate support to affirm the dignity of people seeking abortion care."
FEATURED NEW RESEARCH
Lactation Support for People Who Are Incarcerated: A Systematic Review, Breastfeeding Medicine, October 26, 2022

Homicide Is A Leading Cause of Death for Pregnant Women in US, BMJ, October 19, 2022

Free Articles on Reproductive Justice from Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies

Anti-abortion strategizing and the afterlife of the Geneva Consensus Declaration, Developing World Bioethics, October 6, 2022

Why Crisis Pregnancy Centers Are Legal but Unethical, AMA Journal of Ethics, March 2018

7 Free E-Books on Abortion and Reproductive Rights
"Considering the Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Roe v. Wade—the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion nationwide—Rutgers University Press is making a collection of eBooks about abortion and reproductive rights free to download until the end of January 2023."

After Roe Series by Society for Cultural Anthropology
"On June 24, 2022 in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a conservative supermajority of the US Supreme Court overturned the court’s rulings in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), disregarding 49 years of US legal precedent recognizing abortion as a medical procedure protected from “interference by the State” under a Constitutional right to privacy. The legal implications of this ruling, and the cultural and political responses it provokes, will continue to unfold for years, even generations, to come: as Laura Briggs (2017) instructs, all politics have become reproductive politics. At this critical moment of upheaval, anthropologists have much to say about how the United States got here, where it may be headed, and how the US case looks and resonates elsewhere in the world. Joining theory with comparative insights from both longitudinal and recent fieldwork, contributors to this Hot Spots series demonstrate the centrality of abortion to the anthropological project of understanding human lives and experiences."
NEWS ITEMS
Campus/Local

Louisiana’s hearing on an abortion exception this week: What you need to know, nola.com, October 23, 2022

Louisiana proposes expanding list of exceptions to abortion ban, Louisiana Illuminator, October 19, 2022

Clearing up Tulane’s protocols on protests, Tulane Hullaballoo, October 12, 2022
 

National and International

US abortions decrease by 10,000 since repeal of Roe v Wade in June, The Guardian, October 31, 2022

Companies Offering Menopause Benefits to Retain Talent, NBC News, October 21, 2022

Abortion Access Looms Over Medical Residency Applications, AP News, October 19, 2022

After Roe, Abortion Collectives Along the US-Mexico Border Are at Greater Risk, The Verge, October 12, 2022

‘A General State of Confusion’: How Abortion Misinformation Misleads Patients, Rewire, October 11, 2022

Inspiring Conversations with Nikki Hunter-Greenaway of Nurse Nikki, Voyage Houston, October 11, 2022

Supreme Court Rebuffs Fetal Personhood Appeal, NBC News, October 11, 2022

Spread of Catholic Hospitals Limits Reproductive Care Across the U.S., The Washington Post, October 10, 2022

The Long Campaign to Turn Birth Control Into the New Abortion, Reveal News, October 9, 2022

We Must Secure the Right to Contraception, The Progressive, October 5, 2022

Inside Anti-Abortion Groups’ Campaign to Sell Women on Unreliable Birth Control “Alternatives”, Mother Jones, September 30, 2022

Why So-Called Personhood Laws Are the Next Big Threat After ‘Roe’ Falls, Rewire, May 4, 2022

A Concise History of the US Abortion Debate, The Conversation, June 10, 2019
EVENTS

Campus/Local
Meet Our New Executive Director!
Center for HIV Law & Policy
6:00 - 8:00PM CST, November 2, 2022
4212 Magazine Street, New Orleans
"CHLP recently welcomed Mandisa to the role of Executive Director and we are thrilled to have her visionary leadership to guide CHLP into an exciting new chapter. Please join us for food, drinks, and cheer, and help us welcome Mandisa."
The Billboard
2022 ASA Conference Presidential Session
8:00 - 10:30PM CST, November 3, 2022
2128 St. Claude Avenue, New Orleans, LA
"Members of the ASA were studying and advocating for reproductive justice long before Dobbs. But we are stepping it at the 2022 Annual Meeting by partnering with New Orleans-based organizations and artists for this Reproductive Justice Solidarity Event on Thursday, Nov. 3 at 8pm. Join ASA President Shana L. Redmond for a reading and discussion of Natalie Moore’s The Billboard with a stellar panel of activists, scholars, and artists, including Jerrika Hinton of Gray’s Anatomy and Hunters."
In the Bones Film Screening
New Orleans Film Festival
12:15PM CST, November 5, 2022
Broad Theater, New Orleans, LA
"IN THE BONES is an intimate and immersive journey through Misssippi, set at the precipice of Mississippi’s 15 week abortion ban and the overturning of Roe V. Wade. This lyrical film shines a light on the weight women live under in this country, and the resilience expressed in their everyday acts of survival through the unfolding lives of a cast of characters from three distinct regions of the state. A white family from the Mississippi Gulf Coast works to heal their history of teen pregnancies and absent fathers; a skilled Black cowgirl from the Mississippi Delta teaches her daughter self-reliance in their resource-deprived region; and in the State Capitol, a Black female politician reaches across the aisle, partnering with white Republican women to attempt gender parity."
My Body No Choice [A Staged Reading]
Ashé Cultural Arts Center
7:00 - 9:00PM CST, November 5, 2022
1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, New Orleans, LA
"In June 2022, reproductive rights took a giant leap backwards when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. In the United States, we can drive when we turn 16, and vote when we turn 18. But we no longer have the bodily autonomy to make the choices that will impact us the most.

In My Body No Choice, eight of America’s most exciting female playwrights share what choice means to them, through the telling of fiction and non-fiction stories rooted in personal experience; theirs or a friend’s. Because this is a time when women need to tell their stories.

Join us at Ashé Cultural Arts Center for a staged reading featuring local New Orleanians. Directed by Anne-Liese Juge Fox, and starring a phenomenal cast of actors — Amy Chaffee, Tommye Myrick, Lourdes Castillo, Karel Sloane-Boekbinder, Idella Johnson, and Troi Bechet — My Body No Choice illuminates American women's continued struggle for bodily autonomy.

The play was commissioned by Molly Smith, Artistic Director of Arena Theater in Washington , DC. My Body No Choice will be performed at theaters across the United States prior to the election on November 8, 2022."
Black Feminist Possibilities: A Conversation on Reproductive Justice
1:00PM CST, November 11, 2022
Tulane University Department of Sociology
New Orleans, LA

"Zakiya Luna Reveals both the promise and the pitfalls associated with a human rights approach to the women of color-focused reproductive rights activism of SisterSong.

How did reproductive justice—defined as the right to have children, to not have children, and to parent—become recognized as a human rights issue? In Reproductive Rights as Human Rights, Zakiya Luna highlights the often-forgotten activism of women of color who are largely responsible for creating what we now know as the modern-day reproductive justice movement.

Focusing on SisterSong, an intersectional reproductive justice organization, Luna shows how, and why, women of color mobilized around reproductive rights in the domestic arena. She examines their key role in re-framing reproductive rights as human rights, raising this set of issues as a priority in the United States, a country hostile to the concept of human rights at home."
Prematurity Awareness Virtual Summit
March of Dimes
8:00 - 9:30AM CST, November 17, 2022
"November is Prematurity Awareness Month—an important time to raise awareness of the maternal and infant health crisis of preterm birth and ask for lifesaving donations in honor of World Prematurity Day, November 17.

The U.S. remains among the most dangerous developed nations for childbirth. Prematurity affects too many moms and babies and is fueled significantly by disparities in our health care system, communities and institutions. 

We’ll come together for action and advocacy during our Maternal and Infant Health Awareness Week beginning November 15 as we announce the 2022 March of Dimes Report Card and fight prematurity.

Join us by donating today and on November 17, World Prematurity Day, to help make sure all moms, babies and families get
the best possible start."
 
Prematurity  Awareness Shower
NOLA Baby Cafe
1:00 - 3:00PM CST, November 19, 2022
2200 Lafitee St., New Orleans, LA
"The purpose of this event is to educate the community and raise awareness of the incidence and  causes of prematurity. Lousisana's prematurity rates. Neonatal breastfeeding disparities and barriers in the black community.  This celebration will include free food, games, prizes, community partners, and all things breastfeeding.  This event will also include a celebration of prematurity, preemie walk of fame  in a safe judgement free, equitable space."
Conceiving Equity, featuring the 11th annual Roe v. Wade lecture by Prof. Kimala Price
Newcomb Institute of Tulane University
6:00 - 8:00PM CST, January 26
More details to come.
teenREACH
Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast
"teenREACH empowers Houston & Louisiana teens to educate their peers and families about sexual health topics and healthy decision-making. Teens will connect with other young advocates, gain knowledge and leadership skills, and make a lasting, positive impact in their community!"

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"

Upcoming National/Regional
Conversations in Black Freedom Studies: Towards Just and Holistic Health.
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
6:30PM CST, November 3, 2022
"Racial inequalities in health have a long and sordid history in this country, widening during the pandemic and amidst recent policy and court decisions. This Conversation with Dana-Ain Davis, Steven W. Thrasher, and Zakiya Luna takes up that history to lay bare those historic inequities in access to health care, reproductive services and public inattention to Black death. Our discussants will use that history to help us see and better understand the fight for reproductive justice, health equity, and Black life during our ongoing pandemic times. This Conversation will be moderated by the co-organizers of the Conversations in Black Freedom Studies series, Robyn Spencer and Jeanne Theoharis."
2022 Conference on Family Planning
Medical Students for Choice
December 10 - 11, 2022
"MSFC invites you to join us for our 2022 Conference on Family Planning which will be held virtually and is scheduled from December 10 and 11, 2022. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to network with expert faculty and other pro-choice medical students who are passionate about abortion care, family planning and Reproductive Justice.

This year’s conference will focus on a theme of Physicians as Advocates: Liberating Abortion Through Training and Education and will feature pre-conference workshops including Values Clarification, Organizing 101 and Curriculum Reform, as well as interactive and didactive sessions on advocacy, reproductive justice, abortion care and family planning in a global context."
Reproductive Ethics Conference
Institute for Bioethics and Health Humanities, University of Texas Medical Branch
January 12 - 13, 2023
Galveston, Texas
"The controversies and challenges of reproductive ethics arise from new technologies, political and ideological divisions, theology, and changing cultural norms. The goal of this conference is to explore the range of topics addressed in reproductive ethics. We welcome individuals from all professional fields to create a rich and robust discussion." Registration and further details coming soon!
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
Big Easy EC, 24/7 Birth Control Delivery Service, Newcomb Institute
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
Please click here to view Newcomb Institute's Post-Roe Resource Document.
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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