Reproductive Justice
About this policy priority area...
As a coalition, Having Our Say acknowledges the crucial role that bodily autonomy and access to resources supporting individual agency play in reproductive health. These decisions can either ensure or hinder how communities are able to thrive. Having this in mind, we support both proactive and retroactive measures aiming to remedy present disparities faced by communities of color.
Our coaltion supports these policy solutions in 2021.
Compensate Survivors of Forced Sterilization
Historically, as late as 1979 (and beyond in some cases) mostly Latinx-identified women were forcibly sterilized without their informed consent due to California eugenics laws. As a coalition, we know the devastating impacts this had on not only these women but their communities across generations. HOS applauds the inclusion of $7.5MM fund for survivors in the State FY 2021-2022 budget and supports the California Latinas for Reproductive Justice sponsored bill AB 1007 (Carillo) which will establish a program seeking to redress the harm done by administering that funding as compensation.
Improve Maternal Care and Services
Structural racism continues to have extremely dire consequences for Black/African American mothers, birthing people, and their infants when seeking appropriate pregnancy-related care. This includes at the point of labor and delivery, post-partum and heavily impacts low-income persons. Having Our Say also supports the Black Women for Wellness, California Black Health Network, Western Center on Law and Poverty sponsored “Momnibus” bill SB 65(Skinner) and their proposal to add income support via CalWORKs, establishing a monthly income stipend for pregnant and postpartum people, and the establishment of a maternal mortality review board at the CDPH and improve the maternal and infant mortality and morbidity investigation processes. We applaud the inclusion of several of these provisions in the finalized State FY 2021-2022 budget such as the inclusion of doula care as a preventative services benefit for Medi-Cal with a current year commitment of $152,000 and subsequent $4.4MM annual commitment in on-ongoing funding.
Eliminate Cost Sharing
HOS supports the reduction in barriers to medical abortion services as proposed by ACCESS Women’s Health Justice and Black Women for Wellness Action Project sponsored bill SB 245 (Gonzalez). This would eliminate consumer cost sharing (e.g., co-pays, deductibles) for these services when covered by any and all health plans.
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