North by Northwestern

On Thursday night, five female professionals within the sphere of reproductive health gathered at Harris Hall to discuss their experiences in the field, speaking on the groundbreaking work they are doing throughout the greater Illinois community. The event, titled “The State of Reproductive Justice,” was co-sponsored by the International Gender Equality Movement (iGem) organization on campus along with PHE, UNICEF, GlobeMed, NUCHC and SHAPE.

The panelists spoke upon the different challenges faced within reproductive health and how their individual work focused on tackling these issues head-on. Each panelist brought a different area of reproductive justice to the table for discussion.

Kathy Waligora, the director of the Health Reform Initiative at EverThrive Illinois, spoke about how she’s shifted her focus to the dynamics between health insurance and public policy, underscoring the effects the two have on access to contraception and abortion. By listening to real women's experiences with the Affordable Care Act and understanding the limitations insurance plans were placing on access to contraception, Waligora said Illinois was able to pass the most comprehensive law in the country regarding access to methods of contraception. She also highlighted how important it is that policy makers understand real women’s experiences.

Brielle Osting, the manager of the Maternal Infant Mortality Initiative at EverThrive Illinois, discussed the importance of passing a fair and responsible budget in Illinois. Having mostly done work on reducing racial and ethnic disparities in maternal outcomes, she said if a budget is slashed it is “a huge threat to racial equity.”

Divya Mallampati, an OBGYN resident at Northwestern and 2009 alum, talked about the importance of understanding reproductive justice within a broader definition. Since the term is usually only associated with family planning and pregnancy, Mallampati said it was crucial to understand that there are differences in justice and different dimensions of reproductive health.

Pamela Tassin, who has worked at the AIDS Foundation in Chicago for about a year, touched upon the challenge in overcoming stigma within HIV. “We’re really trying for clinicians and the public to make a paradigm shift” she said, in regards to way HIV is talked about and viewed in society.

Lizzy Appleby, Pride Youth Program Coordinator at the Angles organization, reached out to the students in the audience, addressing the stigma and shame younger generations face in sexual health matters within greater society. She spoke about the necessity of broadening the reproductive health conversation to include young people – the real challenge, she suggests, is getting these conversations beyond just the rigid classroom discussion. “How do we get young people to have conversations with the adults in their lives, with their parents, health care providers …?” she asked.

These five women also shared their insight on topics of gender inclusivity within sex-ed, the missing link between facts and misconceptions with HIV, racism in the context of health and how political beliefs influence individual health care practice. The panel brought information from all different areas of the field of health care and created a dialogue that was inclusive of all gender identities and races.

Weinberg senior Sanjana Lakshmi said she really enjoyed that the panel didn't focus solely on women's health. 

"It took into account gender identity, being accessible … and reproductive systems that are available to everyone,” she said.

The panelists ended on a discussion of the ways in which Northwestern students could get involved in the fight for reproductive justice. Waligora stressed the weight of this year’s election in the continuing fight for better reproductive health care – but “it goes so far beyond the presidential elections,” she said. Health care and policy are local, Waligora said, and the trends we see in candidates today are not promising.

“A lot of our politicians don’t understand and don’t care how these things intersect,” Waligora said. The other panelists chimed in to emphasize how important it is that students raise their voices in regards to this issue.

“Individual women’s stories can move legislatures and can bring people to the table,” Osting said.

Jane Yun, a Weinberg freshman, said it was very moving when Appleby “spoke about how as Northwestern students we tend to think with big goals in mind for our futures, but we can affect people in our own communities. We forget we can have an impact … and it’s still as significant as that big goal in mind.”