Posts by Amie Newman

Amie Newman is Communications Manager for Aradia Women's Health Center in Seattle, Washington.

American Medical Association Picks Fight With Ricki Lake
Posted by Amie Newman, RH Reality Check on June 18, 2008 at 11:13 AM.

In an unmistakably insecure and aggressive move, the American Medical Association (AMA) adopted a resolution at its annual meeting last weekend to introduce legislation outlawing home birth - according to The Big Push for Midwives.

According to the hard-working women of The Big Push for Midwives campaign, faced with the sisyphean task of convincing the American mainstream medical establishment that midwifery is a viable option for birthing women:

"It's unclear what penalties the AMA will seek to impose on women who choose to give birth at home, either for religious, cultural or financial reasons-or just because they didn't make it to the hospital in time," said Susan Jenkins, Legal Counsel for The Big Push for Midwives 2008 campaign. "What we do know, however, is that any state that enacts such a law will immediately find itself in court, since a law dictating where a woman must give birth would be a clear violation of fundamental rights to privacy and other freedoms currently protected by the U.S. Constitution."

In other words, advocating for legislation of this kind has the eery ring of familiarity. Legislative attempts at "criminalizing motherhood" have at their core coercive control over pregnancy and childbirth. Regina McKnight was recently released from jail after a judge overturned her homicide conviction for giving birth to a stillborn baby.

Likewise, Colorado's ballot initiative in support of a "personhood amendment", would have untold consequences for pregnant women who accidentally or otherwise miscarry a pregnancy. If a fertilized egg is conferred "personhood" status why would a miscarriage not be investigated as potential murder?

The legal issues surrounding "fundamental rights to privacy" also, of course, reverberate throughout the discussions around Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to have an abortion in this country. Those who fight

rigorously to strip away womens' legal right to an abortion somehow seem to skirt the issue of what might happen to a woman if she does choose to access an illegal abortion.

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Clinton Campaign Is Backwards on Racist Drug War
Posted by Tony Newman, Huffington Post on December 13, 2007 at 12:01 PM.

Every presidential election year there is a news cycle about candidates' drug use. The "I did not inhale" statement by then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton was one of the most humorous and pitiful "admissions" that still makes the eyes roll. Another pathetic example of hypocrisy came from George W. Bush. "Mr. Straight Shooter" still refuses to answer questions about his "youthful indiscretions," and the record has been expunged. In this context, Sen. Barack Obama's honesty on this topic was so refreshing. In his book, Dreams from My Father, Obama openly admits to not only smoking marijuana but trying cocaine. We also have read about Obama's current struggles over giving up cigarettes.

Why should any of us be surprised that any politician, whether it be Sen. Obama, former Vice President Gore, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, has tried (and maybe even enjoyed) marijuana or other drugs. Remember, despite 40 years of attempting to make a "Drug-Free America," half of all high school students have tried marijuana before they graduate from high school.

Tens of millions of Americans still use drugs (alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, Viagra, cocaine, caffeine, prescription drugs) both for pleasure and to soothe pain. The fact that Obama used drugs in his youth only humanizes him. I believe that it will backfire for Hillary and her campaign to try to "Willie Horton" Obama on the drug question. Hillary is still facing anger from voters for her cynical support of Bush's devastating war in Iraq. Far from showing leadership, Hillary has constantly been behind the curve and public sentiment regarding the war in Iraq. And now Hillary is showing that she is behind the curve when it comes to the other war: the war on drugs.

Not only is her campaign trying to take down Obama with drug baiting, she is also backwards when it comes to our racist drug laws. Federal mandatory minimums enacted by Congress in the 1980s punished sellers of crack cocaine 100 times more severely than those convicted of powder-cocaine offenses. Five grams of crack means an automatic five years in jail. It takes up to 500 grams of powdered cocaine for the same punishment. This has not led to less drug use but, instead, a prison system that mass incarcerates African Americans and Latinos. While drug abuse doesn't discriminate, our drug policies do. Despite equal drug use among blacks and whites, blacks go to jail on drug charges at 13 times the rate of whites. Hillary Clinton is the only major Democratic presidential candidate who did not support the Sentencing Commission's unanimous vote this week to apply recent sentencing reductions for crack-cocaine offenses retroactively.

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Excessive Force Used in Marijuana Arrests
Posted by Tony Newman on September 10, 2007 at 4:01 PM.

In 2006, nearly 32,000 New Yorkers were busted for possessing marijuana -- 87 percent of whom were either black or Hispanic, despite equal drug use among blacks and whites.

Here are photos of one of those arrests. Eight cops, both plainclothes and in uniform, are making this arrest on Gay St. in the West Village. Is this the best use of police officers' time? Will this have an impact on marijuana use in the city? Is this how we want our tax-dollars spent?

Photos provided by the William Moses Kunstler Fund

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What happens when pro-choice women are frustrated with the pro-choice movement?
Posted by Amie Newman on April 12, 2007 at 9:28 AM.

Guest post by Amie Newman, associate editor for RH Reality Check.

Women's abortion experiences. There are statistics and there are stories. Numbers are solid, final and finite. One million women will have an abortion in the United States this year; thirty-five percent of women in this country will have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old. For every number in black and white, however, there is a story in grey. There is always the woman, of course. And there is always an abortion. Sometimes there is a fetus, sometimes it is called a baby, sometimes "my baby." Maybe there is a partner. There is sadness for some, guilt for others. Relief overwhelms many. There is always, however, a story. A growing and vocal movement of women creating public forums to communicate their personal abortion experiences and stories is encouraging; from films like The Abortion Diaries to Speak Out: I Had An Abortion and web sites like Imnotsorry.net.

Our Truths-Nuestras Verdades, the new abortion zine published by Exhale, is one such project that aims to transform the societal dialogue around abortion by creating a (bilingual) space for women to share their stories (full disclosure: I was on the original Board of Directors for the zine).

As Aspen Baker, executive director of Exhale and editor of Our Truths puts it:

In the pages of Our Truths-Nuestras Verdades, women are the truthtellers. They are their own witnesses, their own advocates. It is their voices that will bust myths, challenge stereotypes, and confront judgment. They will help pave a new road toward a social climate free from abortion stigma and overflowing with our truths.

Emily Louise Barcklow, a former abortion clinic staffer and current graduate student living in Mexico, originally started Our Truths-Nuestras Verdades, the first and only bilingual -- Spanish and English -- abortion zine published in the United States, in response to her feelings of disconnect with the larger pro-choice movement. Specifically, Barcklow felt frustrated with the pro-choice movement's ...

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"Ashley's Treatment" & Abortion Rights
Posted by Amie Newman on February 16, 2007 at 7:28 AM.

Her parents lovingly named her their "pillow angel" because she is "so sweet and stays right where we place her -- usually on a pillow." But the simple and ethereal term belies the controversy that has surrounded Ashley, the "pillow angel", and her parents for the last six weeks.

In January of this year, a story broke that unleashed a media torrent and a worldwide discussion outwardly centered on medical ethics. Unpeel the layers, however, and you find a story that shares a great deal in common with the quest for reproductive justice and what it means to be able to sincerely and lovingly make a choice that may seem, to outsiders, the wrong choice -- and therefore the unacceptable choice -- but an individual's loving choice all the same. At the center of the story...

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