Too often women’s issues are hushed, silenced or pushed to the margins. Women are cloaked in shame.
Even worse, their pathways to help are stacked with roadblock after roadblock.
Conversations about motherhood and women’s health have turned saccharine - as if women should be grateful for any small act of charity that the general population tosses in their direction. Instead, the conversation should be reframed around the simple task of trusting half the population to make informed decisions about their own well-being.
Too often, people who profess my same faith use it as a weapon to shame and marginalize women. In fact, Jesus reached out to ostracized women over and over again to restore them to health and community.
I know a thing or two about women’s reproductive health: how important it is to have affordable access to preventative care, what difference information and education can make in health care decisions, how affordable health support drastically improves development outcomes and the importance of pay equity so women can support a growing family.
I long for the day when we no longer need to hold these press conferences because there is no question about women’s rights and health needs.