Honoring the Legacy of an Alumna Who Championed Health, Human Rights
The Institute for Women’s Leadership hosts second Anita Datar Lecture on Women’s Global Health
Anita Ashok Datar dedicated her adult life to advocating for the health and human rights of those most vulnerable.
The Rutgers alumna, a public health policy expert who worked around the globe with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), was one of 21 people killed on Nov. 20, 2015, during a terrorist attack in Bamako, Mali, where she was working to improve the region’s response to HIV/AIDS and reproductive health options.
The 1995 graduate’s legacy will be honored in the second Anita Ashok Datar Lecture on Women’s Global Health: “Advocating for Justice in Women’s Global Health.” The lecture, established by the Institute for Women’s Leadership, features Cecile Richards, former president of Planned Parenthood, at 7 p.m., Nov. 12, in Trayes Hall of the Douglass Student Center, 100 George St., New Brunswick. The lecture is open to the public and the Rutgers community.
Richards is a national leader for women’s rights and social and economic justice, and the author of New York Times best seller Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead. As president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund for 12 years, Richards worked to increase affordable access to reproductive health care and to build a healthier and safer world for women and young people. In 2011 and 2012, she was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World.
Rutgers Today spoke with Richards about the reproductive health care issues facing U.S. women today.
People tend to focus on abortion when talking about reproductive health. Can you please highlight the other facets of reproductive health care that impact women in this country and where you see room for improvement?
Richards: Let’s just start by recognizing that access to safe and legal abortion is an integral part of reproductive health care. So is birth control, which is used by more than 90 percent of women in their lifetimes. So is maternity care, which, before the Affordable Care Act, was covered by just 12 percent of insurance plans.
For all the progress we’ve made in this country around reproductive health outcomes, that progress has been uneven. Depending on where you live and your income, access to birth control and abortion is dramatically different. For people in the southern United States, you are still more likely to face an unintended pregnancy, an STD, an HIV diagnosis. LGBTQ Americans still face tremendous barriers to health care.
And for women of color in this country, the disparities in health care are an outrage. We’re living through a maternal mortality crisis, and it has not gotten nearly enough attention. Maternal mortality rates are actually rising in the U.S., and black women are three to four times more likely to die of complications from pregnancy or childbirth than white women. In New York City, where I live, black women are 12 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. We need to take on systemic racism and discrimination in this country, first and foremost in our health care system. That means fighting any efforts that make it harder for women to get maternity care, prenatal care, and other preventive care.
What can people in the academic community do at the local level to improve women's access to reproductive health care?
Richards: We’ve never needed smart, credible experts in our public discourse more than we do right now. There has never been a more important time to stand up for evidence-based sex education, for programs that prevent teen and unintended pregnancy, for no-copay birth control, for access to Planned Parenthood, and for all of the important gains women have made under the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act, in my opinion, is the biggest leap forward for women’s health in a generation, and it happened thanks in no small part to members of the public health and academic community. Research that documents the impact of new laws designed to limit access to reproductive health care is incredibly important, especially as these go to court.
The appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court has sparked concerns over whether Roe v. Wade could be overturned or women’s reproductive rights could be chipped away. What should concern pro-choice advocates most?
Richards: This president made a campaign promise that he would only appoint justices to the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe v. Wade, so we have every reason to think access to safe and legal abortion is facing the biggest threat since it was decided. Here’s the good news, though: public support for Roe v. Wade is at a record high. Seventy-one percent of Americans do not want to see it overturned. We cannot go back to the days when young, healthy women died in hospital emergency rooms and back alleys – the result of botched, illegal abortions. Without a constitutional protection, access to safe and legal abortion will depend on what state you live in or how much money you have, and that would be a tragedy.
How can people and lawmakers on both sides of this issue find common ground and make real progress for women's reproductive health care?
Richards: Here’s something we don’t talk about enough. Thanks in part to no-copay birth control under the Affordable Care Act, America is at a historic low for teen pregnancy and a 30-year low for unintended pregnancy. This administration is doing everything it can to end teen pregnancy prevention programs, when what we should be doing is building on the progress we’ve made. No matter your ideology, surely we should all be able to agree that we don’t want more unintended pregnancy.