The Texas legislature has made a name for itself as a foe of reproductive justice. The state has passed, then struck down, then reinstated some of the most draconian laws designed to prevent people from accessing abortion care. Of course, these tend to be low-income people of color, immigrants, and otherwise marginalized people.
The Center for Reproductive Rights and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health have teamed up to create a report documenting just how bad reproductive health access is in parts of Texas, in particular for Latinas in the Rio Grande Valley. According to the project’s website:
“The investigation exposed the profound barriers women in the Valley have faced for years in trying to access basic reproductive health care and shows, through women’s own voices, how recent policies have eliminated what little access they once had. With long delays at clinics and the elimination of many free and low-cost services, reproductive health care has become unavailable and unaffordable for hundreds of thousands of women. Health outcomes reflect this, with reported increases in unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, as well as reproductive system cancers that, if caught early, are preventable or treatable.”
Some of the barriers listed by the women interviewed include cost, lack of transportation from the colonias that many women live in, and documentation status. Take a minute to sign Nuestro Texas’s pledge, sign up for an event and listen to the stories of these mujeres ponderosas.
Juliana probably dresses up like Frida Kahlo a little too often.
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