Fire in the Belly: Liza Fuentes

Remember how there was all that talk last week about passing the reproductive rights torch? It started with Michael Winerip’s New York Times piece, where Sally Burgess, executive director of the Hope clinic, who is also chairwoman of the National Abortion Federation, said: “What I observe for women in their 20s and 30s — there are fewer who really have the fire in the belly for this.” Then it devolved from there with Debra Dickersen over at MotherJones.com, demanding “Tell me exactly what today’s feminists are doing for the struggle.”
Well, feministing has teamed up with the National Network of Abortion Funds to answer that question in a very tangible way, bringing you the real stories/insights/lives of young women working in the reproductive justice field. We’ll be bringing you one each day for the next five. Enjoy and rejoice at how very bright the flame still is.
First up is Liza Fuentes, a researcher/activist/public health professional/feminista who works at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and is a former member of the board of the National Network of Abortion Funds. She lives in the Bronx.
1. What kind of work do you do regarding reproductive justice?
Since 2003, I’ve been a volunteer member of abortion funds, grassroots groups that raise money to help women and girls pay for their abortions, including the D.C. Abortion Fund and the New York Abortion Access Fund, as well as the Haven Coalition, whose volunteers open their homes to women traveling to New York City for abortions.
Restrictions on health insurance that target low-income women, including the Hyde Amendment (which has prohibited federal Medicaid from covering abortion since 1976), make abortion out of reach for many women. Having the means to pay for an abortion is just as important as having the legal right to abortion, so abortion funds are truly doing reproductive justice work.
Currently, I am a researcher at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, where I use research as a way to have grassroots Latina leaders’ work and experiences shape reproductive justice policy advocacy at the national level.
2. Why were you drawn to this work?
First, I was a medical interpreter at a Latino-serving health clinic through college and I saw a lot of limitations on women’s resources and rights–limitations that wealthier and white women didn’t have. To get health insurance, women had to fill out endless paperwork proving that they needed insurance; and many women’s care came through Catholic Charities, so when it came to getting family planning and abortion care, they had to find another way. I really wanted to be part of making healthcare access a dignified process, not one that treated poor women like criminals.
Secondly, I started to reflect on my own experience having an abortion. I remember talking to a close friend many months after the fact and she was like “I haven’t heard from you in forever, how have you been?” I heard myself say “I had an abortion.” She said, “Why didn’t you say something? I was right here.”
I had never really questioned before that having an abortion was something that I shouldn’t talk about. But then I thought about what I went though trying to get the abortion–being shunned by my doctor and figuring out how to pay for it. And I saw that the whole process was made to ensure that women are ashamed of themselves no matter how they go about it. And I decided that I didn’t want to stand for it anymore.

3. What’s the most frustrating part of your job? The most thrilling?
Frustrating:
Some policies and programs that try to provide women with access to the resources they need in order to plan for and raise their families are still coercive. For example, some policymakers may support public money for family planning because they think poor women should limit how many kids they have. This is a problem–abortion rights go hand-in-hand with the right have the number of children that you think is best. We have a lot of work to do to make that connection.
The most thrilling:
Taking action. RJ advocates are about making change happen and making sure women of color are leading that work.
4. There are plenty of people who think that post-Roe women take their rights for granted. What would you like to say to these folks?
To quote my friend Laura Nixon:
“Abortion rights are interwoven with many social justice struggles, such as against coercive sterilization practices targeting women of color; for a humane standard of living for women relying on public assistance programs; for family preservation instead of punitive State removal of children from their mothers; and against reckless corporate polluting which damages the environment and in turn, women’s fertility. Making those connections is part of building a sustainable reproductive justice movement.”
I was born in 1980, so I am 28 years old right now. I chose Laura’s quote because reframes the problem: legal abortion is not the only, or even the biggest piece of the puzzle. When we insist that it is, we are excluding many young women, especially women of color, whose own reproductive lives may have been impacted tremendously by the other assaults that Laura lists.
5. What’s one thing that a reader can do right now to help make your job easier?
President Obama has proposed a regulation that would rescind President Bush’s last minute “provider conscience” refusal clause, which allowed healthcare workers to refuse to provide information, referrals, and care to a woman seeking abortion or birth control. Send an email to proposedrescission@hhs.gov telling the Obama administration that you support their effort rescind the refusal clause and why.