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Fall 2005

Ten Reasons Why Prisons are Bad for Reproductive Freedom

DifferenTakes Series
37 ~ Fall 2005
[PDF Version]
By Eesha Pandit

The nightly news is ridden with gruesome tales of increasing crime in our communities. Daily, battles are fought and lost in the ‘war on crime’ and the ‘war on drugs,’ both of which are pseudonyms for the criminalization of poverty. Are our communities stronger and healthier as we become increasingly dependent on systems of incarceration to solve social problems?

Eesha Pandit is Associate Director of Programs at the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College.

References

  1. Bureau of Justice Statistics as of June 30, 2003.
  2. Not Part of My Sentence: Violation of the Human Rights in Custody: Impact on Children of Women in Prison, Amnesty International Report, 1999.
  3. Nkechi Taifa, “Roadblocked Re-Entry: The Prison After Imprisonment,” http://opensocietypolicycenter.org/pdf/roadblocked.pdf, last visited November 13, 2002.
  4. Gardiner, Gareth S. and Richard N. McKinney, “The Great American War on Drugs: Another Failure of Tough Guy Management,” Journal of Drug Issues No. 21(3), 1991, pp 605-616.
  5. “What’s Wrong with the Drug War?: Mandatory Minimum Sentencing,” Drug Policy Alliance, http://www.drugpolicy.org/drugwar/mandatorymin/, last visited August 19, 2005.
  6. Seventy percent of women are incarcerated for relatively minor, non-violent crimes. See endnote 4.
  7. See endnote 1.
  8. “Factsheet: Women in Prison,” The Sentencing Project, http://www.sentencingproject.org/pdfs/1032.pdf, last visited March 8, 2005.
  9. Gilfus, Mary, “Women’s Experiences of Abuse as a Risk Factor for Incarceration,”
    http://www.vaw.umn.edu/documents/vawnet/arincarceration/arincarceration.html, last visited June 30, 2004.
  10. Allard, Patricia, “Life Sentences: Denying Welfare Benefits To Women Convicted Of Drug Offenses,” The Sentencing Project, February 2002.
  11. Davis, Angela, Are Prisons Obsolete? Seven Stories Press, NY, 2003, pp 60-83.
  12. Zielbauer, Paul von, “As Health Care in Jails Goes Private, 10 Days Can Be a Death Sentence,” New York Times, February 27, 2005.
  13. Chandler, Cynthia, “Death and Dying in America: The Prison Industrial Complex’s Impact on Women’s Health,” Berkeley Women’s Law Journal, Vol.40, 2003.
  14. See endnote 2.
  15. Barry, Ellen, “Women Prisoners and Health Care: Locked Up and Locked Out,” in Kary Moss, ed., Man-Made Health Care, Durham: Duke University Press, 1996.
  16. Roth, Rachel, “Do Prisoners Have Abortion Rights?” Feminist Studies, Vol. 30, No. 2, 2004.
  17. See endnote 13.
  18. See endnote 2.
  19. Chandler, Cynthia and Carol Kingery, “Speaking Out Against State Violence: Activist HIV-Positive Women Prisoners Redefine Social Justice,” in Silliman, Jael and Anannya Bhattacharjee, eds., Policing the National Body, South End Press, Boston, MA, 2002, p19.
  20. Paltrow, Lynn M., “Punishing Women for their Actions During Pregnancy: An Approach That Undermines the Health of Women and Children,” Center for Reproductive Law & Policy, 1996, http://www.nida.nih.gov/pdf/darhw/467-502_paltrow.pdf, June 24, 2003, last visited August 26, 2005.
  21. See endnote 2.
  22. Roth, Rachael, “Searching for the State: Who Governs Prisoners’ Reproductive Rights?” Social Politics, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2004.
  23. “Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex,” Joint Critical Resistance - Incite Statement, http://www.incite-national.org/involve/statement.html, last visited August 26, 2005.
  24. Bhattacharjee, Anannya, Whose Safety? Women of Color and the Violence of Law Enforcement, Justice Visions Working Paper, American Friends Service Committee and the Committee on Women, Population and the Environment, Philadelphia, 2001, http://www.afsc.org/community/Whoseexec.pdf, last visited August 29, 2005.
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The Politics of Abortion and Reproductive Justice: Strategies for a Stronger Movement

DifferenTakes Series
38 ~ Fall 2005
[PDF Version]
By Marlene Gerber Fried

The current battle over the nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court illustrates the continued centrality of the abortion issue in U.S. politics. On one side is the anti-abortion movement, dedicated to making abortion illegal and relying on George Bush to appoint Supreme Court justices dedicated to this goal. On the other side advocates for reproductive rights continue to fight to preserve legal abortion as a fundamental right necessary for women's equality and health.

Marlene Gerber Fried is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program at Hampshire College. She is a long-time reproductive rights activist both nationally and internationally, and serves on the boards of the National Network of Abortion Funds, the Abortion Access Project, and the Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights. She is co-author with Jael Silliman, Loretta Ross and Elena Gutiérrez of Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice , South End Press, November, 2004.

References

  1. "Safe Abortion: Technical and Policy Guidance for Health Systems," World Health Organization, 2003, p.10.
  2. "Abortion Facts," http://womenonwaves.org, last visited: June 28, 2004.
  3. "Abortion in Context: United States and Worldwide," Issues in Brief, 1999 Series. No.1, p.32, Alan Guttmacher Institute.
  4. For more information see: "Justice Demands Abortion Funding," National Network of Abortion Funds, http://nnaf.org, April 2004; "Revisiting Public Funding of Abortion for Poor Women," The Guttmacher Report on Public Policy, April 2000.
  5. The term "partial birth abortion" is purely political. It does not refer to any one procedure or gestational period, and it is not recognized by any medical authority. If found constitutional, the ban would compromise women's access to the safest abortion procedures. Our Bodies, Ourselves, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2005, pp 410-411.
  6. Abortion was legalized in the U.S. in 1973 with Roe v. Wade, a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
  7. "What if Roe Fell? The State by State Consequences of Overturning Roe v. Wade," Center for Reproductive Rights, September 2004.
  8. The State Department was added in 2003.
  9. Silliman et al, Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice, South End Press, Boston, 2004, p30.
  10. Ibid.
  11. Silliman, Jael and Anannya Bhatcharjee, Policing the National Body: Race, Gender and Criminalization , South End Press, Boston, 2002.
  12. "Unregulated Stem Cell Research May Put Women's Health At Risk," Center for Genetics and Society, http://www.genetics-andsociety.org/resources/cgs/20050307_cirm.
  13. Saletan, William, "Safe, Legal, and Never," http://slate.msn.com/id/2112712, last visited 1/26/05.
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