 From the desk of Kelli Conlin, President
As the spring season has finally arrived, we find there’s much more to be happy about than fun in the sun.
We’ve had some great pro-choice happenings the past two months! NARAL Pro-Choice New York has revised our Book of Choices for 2008, and the Back Up Your Birth Control Week of Action was an enormous success; we celebrated the National Week of Action for Reproductive Justice; and the new Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health’s groundbreaking event addressed the reproductive health disparities that urban women have to face by spending two days strategizing with leaders in our movement and beyond to find ways we can fill the gaps in reproductive health access in our cities. There’s also much to look forward to. We have been busy organizing our Summer of Advocacy for the Reproductive Health Act, a bill which will ensure that New York women can still access safe and legal abortion care even if the worst comes to pass at the federal level. So while you’re basking in the sun or doing your spring cleaning, remember that with a new season come new efforts and hope to secure a pro-choice future for all of us.
For Choice,
Kelli Conlin |
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EC and the City
The Back Up Your Birth Control campaign had its annual Day of Action on March 25, and boy, were our New York City people getting their activism on. And with the Sex and the City movie coming out at the end of the month, we thought it appropriate to pay tribute to the Day of Action with a little city-snazzy theme - because our activists are EC and the City-fabulous!
Each activist played a different role on March 25, the BUYBC Day of Action:
- Our Carries were typing away at their laptops, writing blogs about the Back Up Your Birth Control Day of Action. In fact, nearly 100 blogs nationwide wrote about the importance of EC on March 25! Here and here are a couple of our favorites.
- Our Mirandas took their fiery passion to the streets, hunting people down at train stations throughout the Big Apple, giving them educational materials and condoms, and using Miranda’s lawyerly charm to make their case for why EC is so important and why all women should be able to back up their birth control.
- Our organized Charlottes put together pretty packages with our Rosie the Riveter materials. By the Day of Action, our optimistic advocates sent out more than 350 packages of materials reaching 103 organizations, clinics, and schools in 20 states throughout the U.S.
- We’ll spare you the details of our Samanthas…
And the action didn’t end in the city; our Upper Hudson Planned Parenthood friends gave away over 700 packs of free EC, and that activist-love spread throughout the entire country.
Like the Sex and the City gals at the end of every episode, we hope that all of our amazing activists celebrated their hard work at the end of the day with a night in the city (and perhaps a martini!) with their friends. But it's not over; just like we thought Sex and the City was gone for good, now we have the movie. And Back Up Your Birth Control will be back next year too!
Choose Wisely: Bookmark the Book of Choices 
The Book of Choices isn’t a compelling novel or a touching biography, but is - quite literally - an online book of choices. And it’s just been revised for 2008.
Believe it or not, there are no other guides in New York that give women such a range of their choices when facing an unintended pregnancy; specifically, a guide that will include almost every possible resource that can help them with whatever they decide. But the Book of Choices is a free, online tool for women to use so that they will be able to know exactly who to call, and where to go, when they need help.
The great thing about the resource is that it not only includes general information about the range of choices you have in New York, including ways you can prevent an unintended pregnancy, but also a complete profile list of clinics and centers in nearly every New York county that supplies services for abortion care, emergency contraception, adoption, and parenting.
The Book of Choices is the first of its kind in this country, the only one of its kind in New York, and it’s free. So spread the word, and add the book to your browser bookmarks (because you never know when you or someone you’re close to may need it.)
Making Cities Healthier Places for Women
Representing reproductive rights in the Big Apple has its perks, but while New York City has solid and pro-active pro-choice champions in office, addressing reproductive health disparities is never an easy task. The truth is that many large cities around the country face significant challenges when it comes to improving reproductive and maternal health and birth outcomes.
In the U.S., almost four out of every five women live in an urban area. Low-income urban women in particular experience many reproductive health disparities, including disproportionate incidences of unintended pregnancy, higher rates of teen motherhood, sexually transmitted infections, and adverse birth outcomes including low birth weight and infant mortality.
Not good, but not to fear - a new, groundbreaking event has just taken place this month to address these disparities. The Urban Initiative for Reproductive Health Summit welcomed city officials, elected leaders and advocates from around the country to New York to talk about the reproductive health problems that are currently facing cities across the nation - and what we can do about them. Boy, was it a success! The event was hosted by the National Institute for Reproductive Health, the organization launched by NARAL Pro-Choice New York (think of it as our cool younger sister!) and brought together reproductive health activists, mayors, elected officials and public health officers from across the U.S. and Mexico to participate in this energetic summit.
It was an amazing few days and we know that major changes for the lives of women will come from this exciting summit!
