Sex & Health in Brief

by ALICE BUTTRICK

Octo­ber 2009

Adri­enne Wal­lace, a junior fel­low in the Soci­ol­ogy Depart­ment, is form­ing an all-University Repro­duc­tive Jus­tice Coali­tion with the aim of unit­ing pro-choice minds across the cam­pus towards action­able issues on Yale’s cam­pus. Her agenda cur­rently includes con­sent edu­ca­tion, issues of access and the pub­li­ciz­ing of resources, and ini­ti­at­ing a much-needed escort­ing pro­gram at the Planned Par­ent­hood of Con­necti­cut on Edwards and Whit­ney.  Ms. Wal­lace is also explor­ing the pos­si­bil­ity for a Doula project (inspired by the New York group, abortiondoula.org) on our cam­pus. The Doula project trains peo­ple to fol­low women through their preg­nan­cies, whether to birth or to early ter­mi­na­tion, ensur­ing that all women under­stand their options and have sup­port every step of the way. The Coalition’s goals will evolve to include input from all lev­els of Uni­ver­sity life. We applaud this col­lab­o­ra­tive effort to improve the health and repro­duc­tive options of women on and around Yale’s cam­pus. If you have sug­ges­tions for the goals of the Repro­duc­tive Jus­tice Coali­tion or would like to find out how to get involved, please email Ms. Wal­lace at adrienne.wallace@yale.edu.

Planned Par­ent­hood of Con­necti­cut and Planned Par­ent­hood of Rhode Island are com­bin­ing to become Planned Par­ent­hood of New Eng­land in the upcom­ing months.

A dis­turb­ing new anti-choice cam­paign has sprung up on cam­pus. Images of an embryo labeled “Baby Lucy” appear each week in pro­gres­sive stages of devel­op­ment, in an effort to por­tray a fetus as a baby and thereby dis­cour­age abor­tions. It appears to be based on a sim­i­lar cam­paign run a few years ago at Har­vard. In that effort, new posters every week showed the pro­gres­sion of a fer­til­ized egg through a full preg­nancy. The embryo was named and given a future as a fem­i­nist race-car dri­ver. The suc­cess of that cam­paign has dri­ven anti-choice move­ments to rev­o­lu­tion­ize their mate­r­ial strate­gies. “Baby Lucy” is spon­sored by Choose Life at Yale, a group with pre­dom­i­nantly male membership.

Alice But­trick is a senior in Yale Col­lege. She is the Sex & Health Edi­tor for Broad Recog­ni­tion.