I was really lucky last night to be on a panel hosted by theReproductive Health Access Project, who are working to integrate contraception and abortion into primary care so that women don’t lose access. The panel was on whether young women care about reproductive rights, and the panelists assembled—myself, Jasmine Burnett, Aimee Thorne-Thomsen, and Shelby Knox—were there to argue that they do, but it’s invisible activism for a number of reasons. One that we were [keen] to focus on wasintersectionality, a word that often causes consternation and is often used in a reductive way to discuss just race-gender issues. We were using it in the broader sense, and pointing out that young people today (maybe always) are intersectional as a matter of course, and don’t draw lines between things like environmental activism, reproductive health access, rights, and health care. ...But I do want to point out that Jasmine made an astute comment, when she was talking about how people are organizing around Republicans trying either to cut Planned Parenthood or all Title X funding—depends on what bill you’re looking at, though both passed the House—and she said that this comes hand in hand with cutting WIC, cutting education, cutting food stamps, that sort of thing. The WIC cuts in particular are scary because the Republicans seem very determined to do this. Mark Bittman wrote about a fast that he’s participating on in support of WIC.*[The poor] are—once again—under attack, this time in the House budget bill, H.R. 1. The budget proposes cuts in the WIC program (which supports women, infants and children), in international food and health aid (18 million people would be immediately cut off from a much-needed food stream, and 4 million would lose access to malaria medicine) and in programs that aid farmers in underdeveloped countries. Food stamps are also being attacked, in the twisted “Welfare Reform 2011” bill. (There are other egregious maneuvers in H.R. 1, but I’m sticking to those related to food.For pro-choice liberals, this sort of thing is absolutely maddening in its lack of logic. I addressed this some in my Slate article about how the Pence amendment actually costs money up front and in the long term, but what tends to get liberals really pissed off is that Republicans are willing to force women to have children against their will, and then they turn around and deprive women of the sort of support they need to raise those children, including WIC. But as I quoted my friend Lindsay Beyerstein saying, the reason intersectionality on the left isn’t optional is that the right is intersectional always. Jasmine declared there is a link between defunding family planning and defunding the means to feed those babies that are born whether planned or not. I agree, even though it seems contradictory to a lot of liberals. And while this is a war on the poor generally, the main target is poor women, and I think we shouldn’t lose sight of that. ...
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While George W. Bush was frantically fighting to keep one woman's feeding tube in place, the war that he started has doubled the rate of malnutrition in Iraqi children.Oh, what irony:Almost twice as many Iraqi children are suffering from malnutrition since the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, a U.N. monitor said Monday. [Forty percent] of Iraqis under age 5 went hungry in the months after Saddam's ouster in April 2003, and the rate nearly doubled to 7.7% last year, said Jean Ziegler, the U.N. Human Rights Commission's special expert on the right to food.The situation is "a result of the war led by coalition forces," he said.
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Looking for an inspiring diary to read tonight? Try this one by JimWilson.
