Intersections – abortion, medicaid, criminalization and more

Every time I sit down to write a post, I’m astonished at how much has happened since the last one. The number of profoundly significant events happening on a regular basis is quite a lot to absorb. One of the best ways to survive this is to notice the deep connections across issues, allowing us to see many events as the expression of a few shared underlying causes, which not only focuses our attention and work, but also leads to much more powerful funding strategies.  

For example, criminalization and abortion have often been treated and funded as two totally separate issue areas. These differences have been reinforced by race and class differences and the disparate social networks occupying the most prominent advocacy groups. However, these two areas are deeply linked, which is becoming increasingly clear right now, as laws around the country are going into effect that will criminalize women, their allies, and health providers for providing reproductive services; as elected prosecutors are in the spotlight for their power to enforce or not enforce such laws (with 5 elected prosecutors on the front lines in Texas right now, and conflicts arising even in progressive California (see also here and here)); and as organizations consider how they will relate to the sudden stigmatizing criminalization of their work and staff. 

On a deeper level, the racist stereotype that White women were in danger of being defiled by Black men was used over and over again to justify vicious punishments and racial stratification, and those same purity themes have been deeply woven into the history of reproductive oppression in this country. As Talia Levin wrote some weeks ago in response to the white supremacist massacre of 10 Black people in Buffalo, NY, “Once you understand an obsession with racial composition and white fertility to be the driving engine of Republican politics, a number of seemingly disparate movements begin to fit together into an ugly whole.” For a concrete example of how this is playing out now, see this story about the Republican candidate for DA in Fort Worth who started his career by trying to make it harder to get a divorce.

Many leaders and groups on the ground, particularly ones led by women of color in the South, are way ahead on this analysis, leading with a frame of reproductive justice. Nonprofit Quarterly recently put out a great article explaining this idea and linking to many leading intersectional organizations. I recommend it to you! See also this report from Interrupting Criminalization that contextualizes the struggle against criminalization of abortion in the context of wider struggles against criminalization. 

For another example, see this article from Bolts on the intersection between medicaid expansion and prison reform. Bolts writes, 

People released from incarceration often struggle to secure health insurance—an even greater hurdle in states that restrict Medicaid eligibility. People in those states also have fewer options if they want to access treatment for issues that are widely criminalized like mental illness or substance use. These ramifications have helped fuel campaigns to expand Medicaid, most recently in Missouri, a state ravaged by the opioid crisis. While Americans for Prosperity does support some criminal justice reforms in red states, they also fight efforts to strengthen public services and health programs that could shrink incarceration. 

One more example (there are so many) – organizers and community members in Atlanta are waging twin battles right now to stop the city from (1) using eminent domain to displace longtime Black residents, citing flooding – this type of displacement creates instability that will put residents more at risk of criminalization and negative health outcomes; and (2) cutting down 85 acres of forest land, which are crucial to preventing flooding, in order to built an enormous police academy building.  

In my experience, the closer to the ground you look, the more likely it is that the groups working on an issue are leading with an intersectional analysis — they can’t afford not to. We would do well to align our understandings with those perspectives.