Hispanic Heritage Month- or Latinx Legacy Month, as some of us like to call it- is celebrated every year from September 15 to October 15. Throughout the decades, this month has been used to expose The United States to various cultures, food, and other traditions hailing from Latin America. This understanding helps bridge gaps in our ways of being and even expressing love. Observing Latinx Legacy Month in 2020 can feel like a beautiful and odd experience. I’m a Latina from Peru and have watched the discourse on immigrants, and our contributions shift over the years to something scary.

I love seeing Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the highest court, and watching Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez taking charge in Congress is exciting. Simultaneously, reading the news of Latinas in ICE detention suffering forced hysterectomies and other types of abuse is heartbreaking, to say the least. What makes one Latinx person worthy of respect and the others worthy of being locked up in cages?

Here are some words that have become synonymous with Latinxs: Tomato-picker, illegal, undocumented. For Latinas especially, there’s an added layer of sexism in the stereotype that they are hypersexual as if we weren’t all individuals with our own levels of sexual appetite. I sometimes am described as sassy, and although I have a bold personality, it worries me when people believe all Latinas have to fit a certain mold.

In The United States, we are in a time of racial reckoning. Sometimes Americans forget that South America also used slavery as an economic institution, and therefore there are Black Latinxs that exist — I am one of them. To me, Black Lives Matter is not separate from Latinx Legacy Month, nor is it a mere add on. I have watched progressive allies, even some Planned Parenthood supporters, complain that we are focusing too much on Black Lives Matter and defunding the police, but how could we not, when Black women like Breonna Taylor are being killed while sleeping in their own beds? It should worry us all as a health issue and reproductive justice issue — bodily autonomy is bodily autonomy — whether you’re making a decision about healthcare or you’re looking to rest in your own home.

Still, I am encouraged and inspired by the beauty and persistence of my culture. I am filled with joy when I hear women like Victoria Santa-Cruz, an Afro-Peruvian artist, celebrating her Blackness in her famous “Me Gritaron Negra” piece. Alicia Garza, a leading voice of the BLM movement, is of Latinx descent and working to bring justice and freedom to our communities.

Moving forward, please join me in supporting Latinos for Planned Parenthood and uplifting the work our organizers are doing on the ground to create change for our people. Let’s not forget that people and their experiences are complex, and we cannot fit people into boxes. Celebrate Latinidad with me! Celebrate by supporting bail funds for protesters in Louisville. Celebrate by demanding an end to ICE detention and the abolishment of ICE. Celebrate by supporting Black and Latinx led organizations in your community.

Here are a few actions you can take right now in solidarity:

• Donate: Bail fund for Louisville
• Sign the Petition: Shut Down the Irwin County Detention Center
• Sign the Petition: Refund Toledo
• Follow Latinos for PP on Facebook and Twitter!
• Support Latinxs organizations and events in NW Ohio:
  1. Dia de Los Muertos is in November!
  2. La Conexion connects our community to advocacy resources.
  3. Support whole family health.

De Todo Corazón was originally published in O-H! on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If the past four years have shown us anything, it’s how much is at stake in the next four years. The sad truth is that we don’t have four more years to start rectifying the damage that’s been done and begin working toward the future we know is possible.

We are working toward a future where our leaders invest in our community, our health care, and our education so our neighbors can thrive along with us. In this future, access to reproductive health care doesn’t rely on your zip code, race, or gender. It’s a future where Black lives matter. In this future, people with reproductive freedom advance their and their families’ lives, and together, we leave our kids with a clean, safe environment and a future with properly funded schools for everyone. We leave them with a society where we invest in our infrastructure and good-paying jobs with paid family leave. We are working toward a future that we are proud of.

We are faced with a decision of who will use the powers of their elected office to put people’s health and well-being first, put public interest first, and fight to expand access to health care. We decide — and the choice is clear. We need to elect people with the vision and ability to do the job. We need to start correcting the damage that has been done, rather than endure another four years of destruction, which necessary programs providing crucial access — including Planned Parenthood health centers — won’t survive.

The stakes have never been higher. The Trump-Pence administration has fought to pack the federal courts, misinform constituents, and undercut the political power of a population that every poll shows overwhelmingly supports abortion rights. With 2.4 million patients every year relying on health services, the Trump-Pence administration defunded Planned Parenthood with the Title X gag rule. They have rolled back access to birth control and sex education. The administration also promised to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which, if successful, would erase health coverage for more than 20 million people in the United States.

No one should have to go without health care because of who they are, where they live, how much money they make, or their immigration status. Health care is a human right. We must elect leaders who will work alongside Planned Parenthood and other providers to ensure that all people will have access to reproductive and sexual health care.

This election, we have a chance to get politicians out of office who invest in the wealthy instead of the working. At Planned Parenthood Votes Ohio, we see how far off these anti-choice politicians’ priorities are; instead of working together to create solutions, they want to create more division, hate, and disillusion. That’s why we see bill after bill restricting abortion and reproductive health care instead of bills to build bridges, invest in education, or expand access to quality health care.

We cannot have reproductive freedom without racial justice. Racism drives reproductive disparities, making access extremely difficult for Black patients and patients of color. Further, we cannot achieve safety and autonomy for our patients when Black patients are targeted and threatened by our institutions. Racism is a public health crisis, and this election is our chance to make sure it’s recognized by those in power.

Because of systemic racism, the infant mortality rate for Black infants in Ohio is three times higher than white infants. Planned Parenthood’s program to combat infant mortality called Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies was halted because of Republicans who cut grant funding. We need leaders who invest in programs that address racism as a public health crisis, not politicians who actively work against investing in community.

There have been 22 bills passed just since 2011 attacking reproductive health care. Right this moment, there are 10 more bills moving in the Ohio General Assembly attacking reproductive health care. We need our state leaders to stop stripping away our rights and instead invest in our communities. We need politicians who fight for us, not against us. We need politicians who want our communities to thrive.

In November, voters have the chance to elect champions for reproductive rights, who support health centers, comprehensive sex education for every student, and affordable health care. Voters have the chance to send home those who’ve focused on attacking abortion access, reproductive health care, and who have neglected their responsibility to protect jobs, expand health care, and strengthen our state. In 2020, we decide.

It’s important that we do everything we can to make Joe Biden the next President of the United States. Under his leadership, we can begin creating the future that we all deserve. We also need to elect Jennifer Brunner and John O’Donnell to the Ohio Supreme Court. So much is on the line here in Ohio. We also need to break the GOP supermajority in the Ohio statehouse — check out our full list of local and state election endorsements here.

The path to victory is in your hands. The only way we can roll back all these harmful and dangerous laws and policies is by changing who’s calling the shots. While we all have a choice to make on November 3, we cannot wait that long. We have to make the decision right now to get involved, change our leadership, and start working toward the future that we want.

None of us want to repeat that devastating, terrifying night when Donald Trump was elected in 2016. Defeating him and local politicians who support him this November is not going to be easy, but we know we can do it. We need every single one of you to pull this off. Sign up here to get involved with Planned Parenthood Votes Ohio and virtually volunteer with us. One of our amazing field managers will be in touch and talk you through how to get involved.

Trump will dump millions of dollars into advertisements to lie and manipulate voters. But Ohioans know hard work. We know fairness. I’m confident that with your help we can have the important conversations with our friends, families, and neighbors that it’ll take to win in November — because another four years would be devastating.

Now is the time to push for bold leadership, to bring big ideas, and to reverse the damage Trump and Ohio Republicans have created. But we are not just fighting to reverse the damage — we’re fighting to build something new, something better. November 2020 isn’t the end. It’s just the beginning. Together, we’ll continue to push our elected officials, now and after they win. We will continue to hold them accountable and to ensure that they are the candidates who will fight for us.

A Future That Can’t Wait was originally published in O-H! on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In May of 1960, the Food & Drug Administration gave approval to the first birth control pill, Enovid. Overnight, millions of Americans woke up to options they’d not legally had before. Over the coming years, the number of people taking what eventually became universally known as “the pill” — a drug so necessary, so ubiquitous, that it didn’t even have a specific name in conversation — steadily climbed, changing countless lives for the better.

Access to birth control is now part of the bedrock of our society, a fact of life that many people take for granted.

The impacts are clear and the statistics speak for themselves: ninety-nine percent of all women who have had sex have used a birth control pill, whether by itself or in combination with other birth control methods. That’s not all: according to a study by the Guttmacher Institute, over half of those who take the birth control pill credit it with helping them take better care of themselves or their families, support themselves financially, complete their education, or get a job. Access to birth control is now part of the bedrock of our society, a fact of life that many people take for granted. It’s not exaggeration to say that without the birth control pill, our society today would look radically different — and not for the better.

In its 60th year, birth control access is under attack like never before. Just a couple of months ago, oral arguments began at the U.S. Supreme Court over the newest threat to its wide availability: a case where employers sought to use religious objections to deny contraception access to their employees by not including it in their health insurance plans. Remember, when the Affordable Care Act went into effect in 2010, it mandated no-cost birth control to about 62 million people. While court cases addressing access to birth control have made their way to the court many times before — the first only five years after Enovid’s approval in Griswold v. Connecticut, a landmark case that set off a chain of decisions recognizing a constitutional right to privacy — the prior records of the Court’s two newest appointees make me nervous that we might be approaching disaster as we await their decision.

Imagine a world where birth control is inaccessible, at least sometimes, to many people who want it. Where the cost can be prohibitive — hundreds of dollars per year, or more, all out of pocket. Where someone might move to a new, exciting job, but find that the medication that they were able to depend on just days or weeks before suddenly is out of reach. It’d be a tremendous step backwards, and one that we cannot afford.

Truthfully, though, many people are still living in that world. Sixty years after the birth control pill became available, we still have a long way to go. Racial health disparities are still common, with recent studies showing that Black and Hispanic women are less likely to use highly effective forms of birth control, in large part due to some of the reasons I described above. Plus, we all know that there are countless uninsured people who, even if they can afford the surprising retail cost of birth control, may not be able to take time off work to get to a doctor’s office to get it.

Defending where we’re at today is a start, but our job is not done until every single person in Ohio and across the country has convenient, easy, affordable access to the form of birth control that works best for them.

We’ll get there. Together.

In its 60th year, access to birth control is under attack. was originally published in O-H! on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Trigger Warning // Police Violence // Racial Violence

As a Black woman, my heart raced as I witnessed the breath get squeezed out of George Floyd in an all too familiar scene of system-enabled brutality against Black men. Yet, we know that systemic racism isn’t limited to police departments — it is hardwired into our economic, political, and judicial systems. It’s in our institutions, including our health care system. No institution in America, including we at Planned Parenthood, has avoided tangling with the vestiges of racism. Dismantling it begins with acknowledging its existence, and then taking actions to eliminate it, and the impact on the people it targets.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio and Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio stand with Black people and others across Ohio and the rest of the United States who have taken to the streets over the past week to protest the murder of George Floyd and to speak out against the violence perpetrated by police departments around the country.

Over this week we watched peaceful protesters face pepper spray, tear gas, and rubber bullets for demanding change that is long overdue for Black people in America. In my lifetime, this is not new. In a time before social media, I remember 1961 and the beatings of the Freedom Riders. In 1968 it was the civil disobedience after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and in 1992, Los Angeles exploded in response to the acquittal of the four brutal police officers who beat Rodney King to within an inch of his life.

People of conscience who respect human dignity should not and cannot stand on the sidelines. We have a responsibility to demand justice for Mr. Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and countless other Black and Brown people who have been brutalized and murdered at the hands of police.

We cannot stop at calling out violent racism that has gone viral — we need to take the risks that include changing power structures in our own organizations, and in the public and private systems that discriminate against Black people.

I know that Black Lives Matter! Like 48 million Black Americans I live and understand the trauma of being Black in America. I know this country can do better. I challenge this country to do better. I commit to using our Planned Parenthood resources to serve our Ohio patients — who are Black, Brown and White. They mostly live in areas that are medically underserved and struggle financially near the federal poverty level. They seek and we give them non-judgmental care and protect their right to autonomy over their bodies.

This work is a journey that we must go on together if we want meaningful and lasting change. We offer the following resources to you, if you are looking for ways to engage in this moment by learning, listening, or seeking change. For education on anti-racism, here are some resources. If you’re able, please donate to these local resources that are assisting people who demand change: Columbus Freedom Fund, Cleveland Black Lives Matter, Cincinnati Bail-Out Fund, Dayton Racial Injustice Fund, Canton/Akron Bail Fund, and the Toledo Community Solidarity Response Network.

The struggle continues,

Iris E. Harvey

President & CEO
Planned Parenthood Advocates of Ohio & Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio

Black Lives Matter was originally published in O-H! on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.