Post Roe Realities

>> Close captions are available ASLinterpretation and will be pinned as a presenter and for other access needsplease email us. I want to introduce myself I am Hugo Trevino my pronouns arehe/him/is I am a Latino, I'm Mexican, brown skin I have dark brown black hair,dark brown eyes I am a wheelchair user and I'm wearing a pink dress code, amaroon lapel and also wearing a floral shirt. I will be hosting this evening.This evening was planned -- everything is being recorded and this event wasplanned by disability leaders from our sponsors and organization. University ofIllinois Institute on disability and human development UIC disability culturalcenter UIC women's and leadership resource Center, national network of abortionfunds, the Chicagoland disabled people of color coalition and plannedparenthood Illinois Action. We are excited and thankful to have you here andthe fall of Roe versus Wade will have a disproportionate attack on disabledpeople yet we are in a committee that is often left out of the discussion.Today we will learn from experts and activists about the unique effects thisissue will have on our community our rights in Illinois and how we can organizeto take action. Before we get started are you a senator from the state ofIllinois? She has a few words for us in this upcoming video. >> Sen. Duckworth: I wish I could be with you in person today but I wantto thank you all for your work ensuring people vertically women withdisabilities among women of color and black and brown women all have access tohigh-quality affordable healthcare including reproductive and prenatal care.This is work crucial for years with the Supreme Court overturning Roe versusWade and states including our neighbors and banning abortion care the criticalimportance of the work you do will only continue to grow. We know people withdisability are not only less likely to receive constant contraceptioncounseling but at greater risk for adverse outcomes and all too often they likeaccess to healthcare facilities that have providers trained on their unique anddiverse needs. In Congress I have been pushing and prodding to ensure womenwith disabilities and all Americans can get the comprehensive empathetichealthcare they need and deserve for example I helped introduce equal access toabortion coverage in healthcare which would permanently reverse the Hydeamendment and left unjust abortion coverage restrictions for those who dependon Medicaid and other sponsored healthcare plans. Last month my colleagues Sen.Murray and I introduced the reproductive healthcare accessibility act to helpensure women with disabilities get the informed care they need to have controlover their own bodies. If law our would find training from providing healthcarewith people of this abilities increase representation of people withdisabilities in the medical workforce find education programs and focus on thesexual and reproductive health care needs of people with disabilities andestablish a new technical assistance Center to provide recreations and bestpractices regarding sexual and reproductive health care for people withdisabilities. I'm proud to help interests this bill to ensure all 61 millionAmericans are not left behind in getting the care we need when we need it. Ivoted to pass a women's health protection act to protect the right of all womenincluding women with disabilities to make their own reproductive care decisionsby formally codifying Roe versus Wade. And portly Republicans blocked thelifesaving legislation and we know their efforts are not about protecting lifeif the anti-choice movement wanted to protect life they would be workingnonstop to address discrimination and barriers to full healthcare access thatwomen with disabilities have faced putting all their efforts into addressingthe growing maternal mortality crisis that is taking a tragic number of blackmothers lies. They would be pushing for desperately needed policies thatsupport parents like affordable childcare and paid parental leave but they arenot. I'm proud that Illinois has some of the strongest protections forreproductive health in the country. Folks like you are here to help people fromacross the Midwest and our work continues and I refuse to let my daughtersgrope in a root world with fewer rights than I had I won't stopworking to enshrine role be weighed into law and ensure reproductive freedomsare protected for all regardless of disability skin color ZIP Code. thank youall again for pushing for better more inclusive America >> HUGO: Thank you so much Sen. Duckworth for sending that video and forfighting for us in DC. We have a fantastic lineup and rather than introducingmyself I will let them introduce each other. Panelist present back to back andwe will have time for question answer from the audience at the end. Our first speakeris Dr. Robin Powell, an associate professor at the University of OklahomaCollege of Law where she -- she is also the principal author >> Thank you so much for inviting me to participate in thispresentation.my name is Robin Powell my pronouns are she/her and I am a whitewoman sitting in a power wheelchair and I have brown hair and a green and whiteshirt. Before I talk about the experiences of disabled people, and how we haveheard the Dobbs decision will harm us I want to bring us back and I encourageus when we think about these issues to really think about this from areproductive justice perspective and I think that is really critical as we moveforward and for those not familiar reproductive justice is based on three keypillars, the first being the right to have a child the second being the rightdo not have a child in the third being the right to be able to parent one'schild safely and with dignity. I say this because all these issues aresomething that disabled people continue to experience oppression in. They aredenied reproductive freedom across the board while abortion is one area thereare many. When we think about Dobbs and what we do from here, we need tounderstand the historical context.to be sure disabled people have been fightingfor reproductive freedom for centuries. That is not an exaggeration, we can seethat in the late 1800s the eugenics movement took off and eugenics movement wasbased on the notion that certain communities including disabled people andother marginalized committees should not be reproducing. Eugenics movementreally affected disabled people in three critical ways, the first being hisdiffusional station, second being forced sterilization, which gained theblessing of the Supreme Court in the 1927 decision which I will note has neverbeen overturned. And the third is marriage restrictions, that is lawsprohibiting certain disabled people from marrying or only allowed disabledpeople to marry after the age of 45 because that is generally considered thereproductive age. When we think about how we got here and what the reproductive experiences areof people with disabilities we need to remember history and how the history isreally deeply present even today in 2022. abortion rights are critical for people with disabilities. For number ofreasons which I want to briefly outline. The first, as Sen. Duckworth alluded,disabled people particularly multiply marginalized experience pervasivereproductive health inequities. Significant rates of maternal morbidity and mortality,because pregnancy related, Cajun, also more likely to have pregnancy relatedcompetitions such as preeclampsia, early term delivery, and other kinds ofthings like that. Disabled people are experiencing really significant adversematernal and child health outcomes. They also experience other healthinequities and other areas related to reproduction so for instance disabledpeople are less likely to have regular Pap smears, or testing for sexuallytransmitted infections, less likely to get breast cancer screening, so reallydisabled people are already experiencing significant health inequities. I tellyou this because rather than focus on taking more rights in healthcare awayfrom people we need to be doing the opposite and try to improve our healthcare.Abortion rights can be particularly helpful for disabled people who have otherunique medical needs. If you are on certain medications you typically have towe now have them before you go through a pregnancy and if you have an unplannedpregnancy which is fairly common among disabled people for a variety ofreasons, then you have not had that opportunity to wean off and you arepossibly, if you just stop taking them are in significant risk. We are puttingpeople with disabilities in a very difficult and cruel position if we areforcing them to continue with unintended or unwanted pregnancies. The second reason why abortion rights particular important for disabled peopleis related to the first that disabled people have inadequate access toreproductive health services and information. People with disabilities cannoteven access basic reproductive health care, OB/GYN offices are inaccessiblelacking physical access, do not provide any sort of sign language interpretersor communication access, they are completely inaccessible to people withdisabilities. That also includes reproductive health information such as sex ed-- we know people are less likely to receive sexual education and also lesslikely to be provided contraception. All these issues lead to poor outcomes fordisabled people. And again we need to remember this. The third is that people with disabilities experience really extreme severeeconomic advantages.people with disability's are far more likely to live inpoverty, to be economically disadvantaged, to not have adequate resources, andimportantly, we see the number one reason that people in general seek abortioncare is because they feel they are not financially able to take on additionalchildren or have any children. We are possibly, if we force people to continuewith the pregnancy we are putting them in more extreme economic disadvantagesso we are worsening the situation. The fourth reason that abortion rights are so critical for people withdisabilities is they experience substantially higher rates of intimate partnerviolence and sexual violence than other people. We see that some studies havefound that people with intellectual disabilities or seven times more likely toexperience sexual violence than nondisabled people. This is a situation wherepeople with disabilities are being violated and often that may result in andintended pregnancy. And we have to remember that those same people often theperpetrators of sexual violence are the ones that allow, that have control overwhether people with disabilities are able to use contraception or reallyreproductive coercion where some people are forced to continue with thepregnancy they did not want by their perpetrator. We know these perpetrators ofsexual violence are so often caregivers and family members. The fifth and final reason I really believe in abortion rights are uniquely andcritically important for people with disabilities is because of the challengesthat disabled people have endured, leading to bodily autonomy and self-determination.We have been fighting for the right to just make basic decisions aboutourselves and our lives in our bodies, we have fought this particular listingviewpoint that we are not the experts on our lives and we are finally gettingsomewhere with this and by taking these abortion right away, you are takingaway our bodily autonomy and self-determination so this is something peoplewith disabilities have been fighting for Wade to achieve this not take away. Ialso do have some solutions but I think there are ways for. We need to disrupt intersecting oppressions. Every outcome I have mentioned isworse if you are a disabled person of color or a LGBTQI+ person with adisability so multiply marginalized people are even more oppressed in this areaand they are experiencing the most significant reproductive oppression anddenial of a sick reproductive freedom and because of that we need to addressthese issues not just from a viewpoint of ableism looking at all types ofoppression and how they intersect and cause these pretty significant and uniqueexperiences. The second is that people with disabilities need to be centered as leaders inthe movement fighting for abortion freedom and reproductive freedom movingforward. For so long people with disabilities have been excluded from thisdiscourse. There's a number of reasons and one of which is we have a verydifficult history between reproductive rights movement and disability rightsmovement and there is a history that has caused really pervasive tension inmany ways and instead of addressing them but who different groups have avoidedthese issues and we really need to bring disabled people to the table and thatis bring them to the table as a token but promote them as leaders. They need tobe included in all efforts moving forward. The third thing to do is ensure we are protecting autonomy andself-determination. One of the ways we do this is by abolishing guardianship.for those not familiar with guardianship we can look at the experiences ofBrittany Spears who had a conservator which is a guardian and while she wasunder the conservatorship for 13 years she was subjected to forcedcontraception. And what happened to Britney Spears is common among many peoplewith disabilities who are subjected to guardianships and unfortunately unlikeBritney Spears do not have a platform that she did have so it took BritneySpears 13 years to get rid of her conservatorship, guardianship, you canimagine it is more challenging for most people with disabilities so we need tomove forward with moving away from these restrictive policies and instead lookat least restrictive policies such as supported decision-making where peoplewith disability are afforded the opportunity to make their own decisions and wedo so in a way that supports them and instead of making decisions for them wehelp them so that they can ultimately make their own decisions. The fourth thing to do is ensure accessible sexual and reproductive healthservices and information. Every part of sexual and reproductive health must befully accessible to disabled people. This means complying with federaldisability rights laws and this does include abortion providers. We also needto ensure that people with disabilities can access abortion if they need totravel out-of-state and I have seen abortion funds start to look at how theyare providing transportation to individuals and is it accessible and Iencourage folks who think about these access barriers moving forward. And finally we need to ensure and guarantee rights, justice and wellness fordisabled people and their families. We need to ensure people with disabilitiesare in a better economic standpoint so they have ultimate joints but they don'tfeel pigeonholed into some decision. To ensure they have all theirtransportation needs met and all their other determinants of health met so theycan make decisions that they believe are best for them while also having theright resources available to them. And we also need to do things like Sen.Duckworth mentioned, getting rid of the Hyde amendment, most people withdisabilities are Medicaid beneficiaries and we know federal funding can not gotowards abortion which means we are really limiting people's disability accessto abortion services. Medicaid must include abortion services and passlegislation expanding access to abortion and other healthcare and ensuringdisabled people receive sexual education contraception and everything else theyneed so they are able to make the best decisions for themselves. I will and andthank you all and I will pass this on to Emory. >> I am Ameri, a white woman with short round here brown eyes and a blackjacket and a pattern type.I'm the director of the women's reproductive rightsproject for the ACLU of Illinois and one of our core priority areas at the ACLUof Illinois is work to expand and protect access and reproductive rights andaccess to healthcare and reproductive rights in the state of Illinois. It isreally my pleasure to be here to be able to patent a little broader picture andtalk about where things stand in the state of Illinois. If you are familiarwith the maps that are depicted the 26 states that are poised to abolishabortion, Illinois is an island in a sea of states surrounding better veryhostile to abortion rights and most of the states already have abortion bandsthat are in place. This was not always the case, in Illinois, for many decadeswe had terrible laws regarding abortion that were getting past and were on thebooks. For decades going back to the 70s and here at the ACLU we have been incourt fighting and trying to block those bands from going into effect and tryto keep abortion restrictions from hampering the healthcare that abortionproviders are providing an making it very hard for people to get care.we haveheard about the Hyde amendment, and Henry Hyde also hails from the state ofIllinois. From decades of fighting back we actually were in a pretty good place we hadpretty good laws here in Illinois but as a result of all of these court orders.All of which turned in large part on the protections of Roe versus Wade and the199 92 case2 ) versus Casey. The 2016 election came upon us, and what did that mean for all these courtorders we had that were holding back all these really terrible abortion restrictionsin Illinois? At the same time the political climate change in Illinois, afterthe election of 2016 we were able to shift that approach from fighting in thecourt to hold off these abortion restrictions to working in the legislature inIllinois to get proactive legislation passed regarding reproductive rights. Iwill walk through three pieces of recent legislation that helped us in Illinoisprepare for the post Roe versus Wade era so we can access healthcare and alsofor people who cannot access in their own state have a place they can come toget the reproductive health care. The first of the three measures was signed in 2017 it was a law signed byGovernor Romer and it removed a trigger language that was in Illinois thatwould have brought back old abortion bands if Roe fell. I'm sure people arefamiliar with trigger brands that have gone into effect in many states. Withroe being overturned. And extending Medicaid coverage to abortion so the Hyde amendment prohibitedfederal funds being used for abortion care in most situations, here in Illinoisthe state uses its own funds to provide Medicaid covered for people seekinghealthcare that has helped people in Illinois. We went back to the Gen. assembly in 2019 and went to Springfield and had theopportunity to go back and do a lot more comprehensive legislation with regardto reproductive rights. That was when we passed the Illinois reproductivehealth act and this was groundbreaking legislation, the only legislation of itskind in the Midwest and very few states have legislation that is thisproductive. The reproductive health act of did three things, it codified Roeinto state law so there's a right to an abortion clearly spelled out inIllinois law. The second thing I did was remove a lot of archaic language fromour books. All these bands that I got into effect, these old provisions,spousal consent provision that was still on the books, they were still sittingout there, so they reproductive health act took all those off the books. Andreplaced it with a very modern law that ties regulation of abortion to medicalstandards and evidence-based practices. And establishes a fundamental right tomake all decisions about reproductive healthcare. I will talk and finish goingthrough the rest of the legislation and I will talk specifically about what thereproductive health act did and what that means in particular for disabledpeople. The third thing reproductive health act it was require private insurancecoverage of abortion care so a plan in Illinois must cover abortion care aswell. After the reproductive health act we had one remaining obstacle to abortioncare that was still on the books that did not cleaned up with the reproductivehealth act in 2019, our Illinois parental notice of abortion law. In 2021legislators went back to sprinkled and repealed that law, through the youthhealth and safety act and people babies are familiar with the last couple ofweeks there was a new store getting a lot of attention about a young woman inFlorida where they had a Florida involvement law and had a judicial bypass togo ask a judge for a waiver to notify her parents and the judge denied judicialbypass because her grades were not good enough.that is something that couldhave happened in Illinois year ago had we not repealed the parental notice ofabortion law, involving parents and their abortion decision and those who don'thave very good reasons and the law is putting them people who are not a goodfamily situations and safe home situations in danger with a lot. These healthand safety, also established a working group to take a closer look at the needsof pregnant parenting youth. That is really what set the stage for theregulation, not just abortion but reproductive healthcare in the state ofIllinois. It protects autonomous decision-making around reproductivehealthcare. Reproductive health care is defined very broadly. It is not justthe right to have an abortion, it is right not to have an abortion, it is rightto refuse or use contraception. To give birth, to make one's own decisionsabout maternity care, about what childbirth looks like, these are allfundamental rights and if there is any sort of governmental interference withthese rights governmental interference will be invalid under the reproductivehealth act. For it to be upheld it has to be consistent with accepted standardsof clinical practice, has to be evidence-based it has to be narrowly tailoredfor a limited purpose of affecting the health of the person seekingreproductive health care and in a matter restrict their autonomousdecision-making. It puts a lot of production around individual's ability tomake their own decisions in conjunction with their healthcare provider. As Dr. Powell talk about people with disability have long been denied controlover their own bodies, some through paternalism and stereotypes including theirability to consent to reproductive health care, ability to understand medicalinformation, and the act production decision-making from this kind ofpaternalistic governmental interference. We also know disability is a verybroad term, that can mean a lot of things and by centering decision-making andaccepted standards of medical practice, it allows people to make the bestdecisions for themselves with their healthcare team taking into account theirown circumstances, their own needs, their own situations and again that wouldbe the case for making decisions around contraception, abortion, medical care,during pregnancy. Disabilities may complicate pregnancy. As a result, bands and abortion thatrestrict where the decision could've been made can rush people into decisionsabout whether or not to terminate her pregnancy, often before they may be ableto get a complete picture of the risks and challenges associated with a pregnancy.Under Illinois law abortion is protected until the point of viability which isaround 24 weeks. And like states that may have abortion bands earlier inpregnancy, Illinois law protects the right to make a decision about abortion upuntil about 24 weeks. After that point abortion is still available if it is toprotect the life or health of the pregnant person. The reproductive health act would also extend to a situation where someone maybe coerced into a labor induction or a C-section. Reproductive health actprohibits the government from penalizing or punishing someone based on theirconduct if the purpose of the punishment is to penalize the pregnancy outcome.That would apply in a case where someone was told they must have a C-section oryou will be referred to DCFS or something like that. And the issue of forced sterilization the reproductive health act would protectautonomous decision-making as well, Illinois does have a forced sterilizationlaw under the probate act of 1975, under that act a legal guardian can petitionfor sterilization of a ward but the court determines that the award isincapable of consent and it would be in the best interest of the Ward. There'sa lot of tension between how that provision would be interpreted in conjunctionwith the reproductive health act, that would be an open legal question. Therehas only been one reported case under the law and the sterilization was deniedbecause the court determined there were other contraceptive solutions availablebut that case was from 2008 which is not that far in the distant past. That an overview of Illinois law, the thing I would like to close with is tosay, it is really important that in Illinois we do not take for granted what wehave, we are very fortunate we have lawmakers go to Springfield to get thislegislation passed. And to get this work done to protect people in the stateand demonstrate that in Illinois we trust people to make these decisions forthemselves. But every time we have gestation passed in Illinois, the lawmakerswho are ready and left immediately, on the other side ready to choose bills tooverturn the legislation that we just passed. Every time we get a good billpassed we see challenges in court. The reproductive health impact has beenchallenged now in court. For example.this is an election year in Illinois aseveryone knows the races up and down the ballot that includes two IllinoisSupreme Court seats, and that is a good legislation gets passed it getschallenged in court it will go up to the same courts so it is really importantfor people to continue to engage and let your legislators know that youappreciate them and stand by the political process. Talk to your friends andfamily about who was on the Supreme Court who is all about so we can protectwhat we have done here in Illinois. Thank you so much for having me and I will now pass over to Christina. >> CRISTINA: Hi everyone, thank you. I use she/her pronouns to describemyself I'm a white woman wearing a black colored blouse I have about theshoulder round length hair, behind me is a gray background with a green star inthe upper right corner of the screen with the words equip for equality wrappedabove and below it. I am an attorney at equip for equality and we are a civilrights organization for people with disabilities in Illinois. We provide legalservices, legal advocacy services to people with disabilities in many areas.Including access to healthcare and self-determination which are very importantto our discussion here today. People with disabilities are oftenExclude fromthese conversations about reproductive right and care and we find thisexclusion is based on several false assumptions. Those include people withdisabilities should not and should not have sexual lives and should notreproduce, and people with disabilities are often not able to make theirdecisions. About their own bodies. And they need others to make those decisionsfor them. These assumptions show that people with disabilities really do needto be part of these conversations. The clients we work with, they come to uswith problems that show they are just like everyone else and they have the sameconcerns and wants and desires for their life.they have sex, have a desire forrelationship, they want to have children and want to have abortions.Fortunately abortion is legal in Illinois but unfortunately as many speakershave talked about, people with disabilities in Illinois disproportionatelyexperience disadvantages that may increase their need for abortion services evenmore than anyone else. I will focus on three different issues or areas that may increase or affect anindividual's need for abortion services and some issues that clients come to uswith and we work to address. The first is that individuals with disabilities face many different barriers inaccessing and receiving healthcare. These barriers result in having on equal orinadequate access to healthcare services. We have represented clients who aredeaf, whose medical providers will not provide them sign my wood interpretersfor appointments as a result they are unable to communicate with their doctorsand their available treatment.we have also seen individuals with physicaldisabilities will get to their appointments and find they cannot get on an examtable because it cannot be lowered far enough to a height where they cantransfer from a wheelchair. We have also heard from clients who tell us theyhave been told they cannot bring service animal to a medical appointment.inaddition many clients come to us who are denied access to treatment from theirMedicaid MCOs. All these issues represent extra burdens on people withdisabilities which affect their health and access to care. In order to addressthese issues the Americans With Disabilities Act prohibits medical providersfrom discriminating against people with disabilities and these need to beenforced more and education in the medical field needs to be increased of theserequirements. As has been mentioned Medicaid coverage should be expanded. Access, the second issue to touch on, how access to abortion is also criticalfor people with disabilities because they sometimes have a higher need. Due tohigher rates of maternal mortality and serious health risks they may experiencefor pregnancy. People with disabilities are more likely than not disabledpeople to experience sexual assault.this is according to statistics from theBureau of Justice statistics, the likelihood is also increased for people whohave multiple disabilities. In this can be linked to how people with disabilities lack access toinformation about reproductive health and healthy relationships. Informationthat should be provided includes the right to bodily integrity, their right toprivacy, the right to personal choice. And right to treatment planning thatsupports their rights to sexual health.healthy sexual practices. And be freefrom sexual exploitation and abuse. There is a law in Illinois that was put in place in the last few years thatrequires residential and vocational service providers to individuals withintellectual and developmental disabilities to provide appropriate sexeducation in these areas to their participants. We have yet to see evidencethat this law is being implemented and adhered to. We think that this law needsto be followed and needs to be enforced further. The third area I want to talk about is guardianship. this is another area thatprevents people from disabilities from exercising their full reproductivefreedom. In Illinois a court appoint a guardian over an individual where it isshown that because of an individual's disability they are unable to makeresponsible decisions about their care or their finances. If an individual hasa guardian over their healthcare decisions then that person can have theauthority to make decisions about contraceptives, abortions, sexual educationand who the individual indicates or interacts with. Under Illinois lawguardians are supposed to make decisions according to an individual's expresspreferences. Unless that preference is likely to cause substantial harm to thatperson's welfare. Unfortunately we see many situations where guardians do notfollow this requirement and really overstep their boundaries. We have seenguardians, after learning that an individual with a develop mental disabilitywas in a relationship with their roommate in the home they lived in in thecommunity, a solo home is a community integrated living regimen, the Guardian,after learning that the individual that they had guardianship over was in arelationship with a roommate and was having sex, they threatened to move theindividual to a different home against their wishes even though they wereinformed that the relationship was consensual. And they wanted to be in thisrelationship with this individual. We have also seen a situation where a guardian attempted to obtain an order ofprotection against another resident after learning that they were in arelationship and having sex with the individual that they had guardianshipover. If this would have been in place this would have had the effect ofevicting the individual from their home. The effect of guardians overstepping their bounds can have a great effect onindividuals lives in these areas. In addition without access, if the situationbecame more access to abortion in Illinois was restricted, we would beconcerned that guardians may become fearful that their wards will becomepregnant and have not have access to abortion and they may try to get theirwards sterilized or they will try to restrict intercourse to prevent pregnancy.As was mentioned, Illinois law does have strong procedural and substantivesafeguards in place which requires a guardian to obtain permission from a courtbefore authorizing sterilization. We would be concerned that sterilization isnot a practice that we want to go back to using widely. Sterilization is anirreversible medical procedure in most women it is pretty invasive as one needsto be sedated and can have profound physical and psychological effects if it isperformed against an individual's will. In summary, and number of these topics, I could go on speaking all day about.We wanted to raise these stories from some of the barriers that individualsface that we worked on and the importance of protecting the right to abortionin Illinois and expanding access even to individuals with disabilities. Becauseof their increased need in some of these areas. Now I will turn it over to Keidra at the with disability and justice expert. >> KEIDRA : Thank you for having me today. I am the digital engagementand accessibility manager at national network of abortion funds, NNAF mypronouns are she/her and my visual description is I am a black woman wearingred cat eye glasses that Afro pop and wearing a black shirt that says everyone lovessomeone who had an abortion. I'm sitting in my working space/kitchen. Today I want to talk my perspective as a disabled black woman working inreproductive justice especially since the weeks and months since the Dobbsdecision and talk about what some of the things that folks can do now to takeaction in this moment along those intersections. Right now with the fall of Roe and during a mass disabling pandemic there'sbeen a shift in perspective from the general public and also from the media whoare experiencing and witnessing more barriers in their own healthcare be itreproductive or other types of healthcare. We are witnessing experiences fromtheir friends and loved ones and because of that the general public is able totalk about and acknowledge and identify barriers to health care that folks havenot always been willing to acknowledge or feel comfortable with acknowledgingpublicly. Dr. Powell outlined the pillars of reproductive justice, the right tohave a child, the right to not have a child, the right to parent a child withdignity and in a safe environment. I want to connect those pillars ofreproductive justice with disability justice because there's a lot ofsimilarities. Both disability justice and reproductive justice are frameworksthat highlight bodily autonomy and self-determination and both disabilityjustice and reproductive justice highlight how race, class, gender, and othersegments of identity intersect in people's lives. And how access to healthcareis shaped by those different intersections, whether it is racial healthcareinequities, the healthcare inequities faced by LGBTQ plus people, bias frommedical providers, sexual violence, poverty. When it comes to abortion care,state and federal restrictions on abortion that, like insurance coverage bands,crisis pregnancy centers that mislead people about reproductive care options,government mandates, all these things add to the delays that disabled peopleface when accessing abortion care and reproductive health care. The disability justice and reproductive justice acknowledge the limits of thelaw and legality in achieving true justice for all. You will hear a lot ofpeople in reproductive justice movement talk about how Roe versus Wade is afloor-to-ceiling NEC similarly folks with disability justice talk about how theAmericans With Disabilities Act is the floor not the ceiling. Legal rights arethe start. But they are the minimum of what people need for full axis tohealthcare and justice. In my work at NNAF I have seen a real desire from newer supporters who want todo a lot more on the groundwork in both reproductive justice and disabilityjustice and not knowing where to start. I see more people want to work moredirectly in helping abortion seekers navigate the barriers, more than justwriting a check or attending a protest or in addition to doing those things. Inaddition to political mobilization there is also a robust inform ecosystem ofabortion access in this country support that have been preparing for thismoment for decades now. I want to talk a bit about this ecosystem and outlinesome of the layers. You might've heard about abortion funds in the last few months in the past postDobbs abortion funds have become the new hip thing. Many abortion funds haveexisted for decades now, abortion funds are a grassroots organization, mostlyvolunteer, and work to remove financial and logistical access and they do thisin a few ways, some funds work, to help pay for financing peoples abortion andother funds do something called practical support, in terms of offering andsupporting transportation, childcare, language translation services, doulaservices, offering a place to stay for folks who have to travel to get thereabortion. Right now there are over 90 organizations in NNAF network in severalorganizations that are not in the network, that we also work together acrossthe country, even in states where have there are currently abortionrestrictions and bands and many bands are still active but there are many whohave had to shift or scale down their work in order to state abortion bands.What we do at NNAF's provide structural support such as helping with legaldefense fees, resources, offering technical assistance, helping organizationsdeal with online harassment and data privacy issues, and a lot of the work isvery state and local-based now and we more challenging more challenging thanever due to the threat of criminalization and it is a challenge time for us itis really important for people who do want to get involved, getting connectedwith the state abortion find is more important than ever because in many casesthese are the folks that know what is best about what is going on and what ishappening on the ground for people actively skip seeking abortion care in yourstate.you can find your local abortion fun@abortionfunds.org or go to I needand A .com and locate independent clinics and funds in your area which I highlyrecommend. Here in Chicago we have the amazing and mighty Chicago abortionfind, it does amazing work in the Midwest access does at practical support workfor folks that are traveling from neighboring states. For practical supportapiary is a place to go for people who work with client intake hosting andtransportation. There are also abortion doulas individuals who are trained tohelp provide emotional support for those navigating abortion. Product Mia.orghere in Chicago is doing abortion doula training later this fall and alsoabortion doula training guide for anybody interested in abortion doula work overall.Clinic escorts help assist patients at abortion clinics, welcoming and helpingthem get in and out of clinics safely. Choice action team in Illinois is agreat example of a place that trains clinic escorts. National abortionstorytelling organizations such as we testify and shout your abortion who wantto publicly share their own abortion stories through the media or hearings tohelp counter misinformation and Boston abortion Sigma and also educate folksabout their personal experiences in accessing care. Digital defense fund if you have a tech skill it is important now security anddata privacy is crucial issue now for folks who are helping folks seek abortioncare. If you are a lawyer, if when how is an organization you can plug into.These are organizations that work together in collaboration with each other andthey all would benefit from expertise and voices of disabled people.Dr. Powellhave talked about the reproductive rights and justice opens have not beenaccessible or inclusive with disabled people. And I have experienced that firsthand as well. Still using eugenicist rhetoric or ableist language orassumptions in communications, ignoring access needs of abortion seekers anddisabled folks within the movement as well. I think we need more voices to callout this entrenched ableism and more people within reproductive rights justiceto directly address the challenges and barriers that disabled people face inabortion access. For example and this was mentioned by many speakers earlier,advocating for better physical access and clinics. Or people needing to travelout of state and use remote add telehealth services for medication abortion.Many of those remote and telehealth platforms are not accessible for folks withdisabilities.issues of forced sterilization and conservatorships. It is crucialnow for the program to abandon this ableist rhetoric and a language and stigmabecause it is further marginalizing disabled people who need care and disabledpeople within the movement and it is important for reproductive organizationsclinics and people in them to prioritize and invest accessible information andservices. I am stealing a lot more cross movement organizations organizing andcollaboration especially among younger BIPOC activists and grassroots,advocates for youth, Gen Z for change, black feminist futures, a lot of, a lotof it is not happening publicly because increased threat of criminalization, people are takingthat in different spaces, doing online. But it is happening and it is hearteningfor me.
I hope in this moment there is an opening that will really highlight and upliftdisabled folks to be the center more in this movement. Because disabled peopleneed and deserve access or affordable healthcare including reproductivehealthcare and including abortion. And there are disabled people who alreadyare leaders in the movement who can speak to these issues and be leaders andadvocates.
Thank you everyone for hearing me. If you would like to hear more aboutabortion funds or any organizations I have mentioned shoot me an email atkeidra @abortion funds.org and thank you so much.
Next up is Michelle Garcia at Access Living.

>> MICHELLE: Hi everyone, let me turn on my camera.
I hope you can see me.
I'm in a hotel, dark room, I may Latinx woman in a wheelchair wearing a stripedwhite and blue top. I have blondish brown hair and I'm happy to be here.
I am the manager of community organizing and development at Access Living. Ibeen organizing for Access living for 15 years but have been organizing for abit longer than that. Today I want to touch a couple points with you around thework I been doing with access Living and how this work relates to ourdiscussion we are having tonight and how to become allies and how we have beenable to support the work we have been doing. And how important it is, howimportant Allyship is to us and this work that we do, that we all do.
And I agree with the previous speakers, we all need to increase in thismovement around working with reproductive justice.
I have been working with Access living for 15 years or so, I used to be, as oflast year I organized a group of Latinx and immigrant folks because I was theimmigrant Latinx organizer but as of June of this year -- last year -- I'vebeen promoted to manager and this has brought me even more into the work so Iorganized and oversee, organizing the issues of immigration, housing, racialjustice, healthcare, all these areas I oversee but I also am very passionate ofthe work that I do so I am involved in all these areas.
I wanted to give you a couple of examples of the work in the things we aredoing. For example one of the campaigns that has been really key for Accessliving is the organizing work we have been working on is the emergency servicesand support act, maybe you have heard of it what it is intended to do, is tobring in mental health providers to situations if a person is having a mentalhealth crisis instead of calling and police through nine and one they call amental health provider to attend that crisis because we know more than likelythat if they call the police the situation escalates to something we don'twant. Which is a person in jail or worse, dead. Because we have seen it morethan once -- once is one too many. CEFA has been implemented since last year,that is when it was signed into law, it is supposed to be implementationfull-blown by January of next year, right now it is in the process of gettingall the committees together that will be working on it throughout the state.Because we want it to be successful in making sure that everybody throughoutIllinois as access to services and supports they need in the event they aregoing through a mental health crisis. We don't want police to be the onescalled in these emergency. That is one of the things we have been working onquite a bit. I want to start off, I went to full blown in, but I wanted tostart off by letting you know there is a couple of pillars I wanted to touchbase with you and. first what does Access living do and how do we organizeabout organizing housing and healthcare and racial justice and immigration. Andgive you a couple of examples of what it is that we are working on. Which isthe SESA piece and also to some of the tactics that we have found useful in howwe use these tactics to advance in our organizing. I say this because ourorganizing, as has been mentioned, I believe it was the colic from Equip forEquality, we go to Springfield and go to our legislators we will not get whatwe need or want so we need to be very diligent, so we strategize we havetactics, so just talking to you about how we do that, through Access living,and of course there is always barriers to the work we do. Talking about that.And in terms of, in particular reproductive rights and justice. I also want totalk about that. And I want to talk about the barriers that we face and how wecan remove those barriers and lastly of course the key to all this, talk aboutally ship and for me having ally ship is key if we don't work together we haveto all work together, we are all working on the same issue.
When we talk about organizing different spaces and how these tactics work, forexample, we talk about when you organize different spaces you need to ensurethere is attention to accessibility details. Ensuring there is attention to thespace itself that folks understand that we as disabled folks also need to beincluded in the conversation how the action is done, what will happen, and Isay this because we organize one spaces that are not mainly disability, theyare not mainly disability focused. We have to educate. And let them know, wewant to work together we have to understand where we come from that thedisability community needs to make sure the space is accessible when you'replanning a rally or planning a March, making sure the disability community isincluded. And how that will impact her change the overall set up or seen ofwhat you are trying to get across. And making sure they don't see it as, herecome these people, but thank you for letting us know and making sure that theyknow, not just for this time but for the future. And they will want to workwith you again and they will not ask one or two or three times over, they willalready be in their mindset of how they talk to them about setting aside abudget or something for their allies and having an accessibility budget, stufflike that. Talking about leveraging social media, how they do that, making sureit is accessible and how to engage their leaders. Disability leaders andothers, more effectively. How to organize more effectively within thecommunity. So we have done that quite successfully, and I will give you a quickexample. Our Latinx and immigration group has done several actions with anorganization in Illinois called the Illinois coalition of immigrant and refugeerights, and we have been very successful in working with them and it was notall easy it once but it got easier because we were, we will work with you ifyou work with us kind of thing. And making sure the spaces were accessible, butwe had interpreters. We have been able to create that coalition and partnershipa lot stronger. We continue to work a lot more cohesively together in ourpartnerships and in different areas like healthcare and others as well. Wealways say, we have the same within the disability community; if you want tohave a seat at the table we need to make sure we are at the table and we cannotjust pretend that nobody, just like anybody pretending they know what they aredoing or saying about us. We have to be at the table. That's what we try to dowith organizations or coalitions that are not necessarily disabilityspecific.and even if they are, but more so if they are not, making sure theyknow about disability and how they can work with us!
Sorry if I talked about fast! Let me know if you need me to slow down!
Also, as I was saying, a lot of the times, and it happens a lot with ourcommunity, we are excluded from conversations about healthcare, talking aboutreproductive justice, and we heard from the previous speakers how they justwant to manage our lives. She can have an abortion, or she should not. It is mybody I decide what the heck I want to do with my own body. If I want to have anabortion, if I don't, it is my body, they should ask me, the individual.Because they have a deep-rooted ableism system, this translates to suppressionof the voice in organizing spaces. Is very important now more than ever to takea step to amplify our voices and not stateside within our community of peoplewith disabilities, and others of course. But as people with disabilities weneed to elevate the voice and say no, I want to speak up.it is my body. I havethe right to say yes or no. And I want to give a quick example, having to dowith culture, earlier when I was introducing myself, I come from a Latinximmigrant background, because I'm a immigrant woman with a disability I wouldnot be able to have children but at the same time when I told my mother when Iwas 20 something years old, I was not having children and I decided for my ownhealth that I was not having children. That super upset and said, you willdamage your whole life if you go through with a procedure that will enable youto not have children. First, you don't want be to have children but when I tellyou that I do not want to have children, then you are, all upset. Which one isit? It is because they were not deciding for me. They wanted that, to decidethat for me whether I could have children or not. But again, whose choice wasit, mine. And it is mine, nobody else's.
With that -- I want to talk to you more about what kind of steps can we take tosupport access to healthcare and services. Right now I know in Illinois theyhave given access to healthcare through Medicaid to undocumented individuals aswell which is a great piece. I am ecstatic that we have it. But I don't -- eventhough they have the Medicaid piece they still don't have access to allhealthcare. They still are not free to decide whether they can accessreproductive health care for themselves. They are afraid, I friends of mine whoare undocumented immigrants with disabilities and they are afraid of going to adoctor or hospital and saying, not just because they have a disability butbecause their status. I say this because it is very important to clarify, makesure that we understand that is, this is also a status kind of issue. Eventhough it should be for everybody, it is not. As of now for everybody. I wantto let you all know that this is something we should constantly be fighting foras well.
Another thing I want to talk to you about, other types of supports, we needhelp with, and through Access living, is mutual aid, for example, is wouldenable better access to organizing healthcare in general. Is several mutual aidmethods we can use, fundraising or whatever else we can use. People who want toally, organizes to consider providing support, providing grants or writing anaction --
[[inaudible] audio]
garbled audio
can you hear me? Sorry my connection is unstable. Supporting access toabortions, of course we are here because we are in support but if you don't, orif you know somebody who doesn't, making sure you ally, or make them an ally,let's do an event support abortion our something. And show we must havecommunity allyship around this issue and other issues that impact us all aspart of our society. Be it abortion, healthcare, housing. These issues impactus all as people with disabilities. We definitely have to stick together inorder you have that strong voice.
I really want to thank first of all the host
I am very honored for the invitation and thank you for your attention andlistening to me. I want to take this opportunity, I will put my information inthe chat!
Garbled audio
I will -- you can connect with me via email or call me. And I will pass it onto Hugo

>> HUGO: Once again I am Hugo Trevino. Thank you so much to all thepanelists and I really enjoyed it.we are now going to move over to Q&A.Group rules, weekly wanted to say, for anyone that wants to ask a questionplease make sure you use inclusive language or at least gender-neutrallanguage.whenever possible. And so so you know you can submit questions throughthe Q&A box either below or above the screen, and I will read the questionsout loud. And panelists can answer any of these questions.
I am going to go ahead and start off the questions, there are so many good was.The first question I will throw out,
how can disabled people find accessible and disability aware abortionproviders?

>> keidra: IT is quite a challenge actually that Planned Parenthoodproviders that they could have some of that information but is also independentabortion providers would likely have some of that information, I mentionedearlier reproductive rights and justice movement is very slow when it comes tointegrating information about accessible care for abortion. This is somethingthat in the past year or so clinics have been more aware of bringing to theforefront so I think in the coming months and years we will be seeing more directinformation about providers that provide accessible care to disabled people. Ineed an A.org has very up-to-date and granular information about differentproviders. And what they offer and I think those are some places that you canstart to get that information so also it is really important now to push a lotof these organizations to start to carry that information. That is really thekey right now is more people demand that information as a part of the offeringsat reproductive rights and justice organizations do more we will see itintegrated and prioritize.

>> HUGO: Thank you so much.

>> AMERI: Abortion is really singled out in healthcare and other'd thereis statement society and it happens in healthcare and that is why abortionoccurs often in clinics that are separate from where people get the rest oftheir healthcare. I think this is where we see a really unfortunateramification is that people already have healthcare providers that they seethat are accessible to them and because of the way that abortion has beenother'd or an exception to the rest of the healthcare system they cannot getthat care there.

>> HUGO: Next question we have
what questions are important for disabled people to ask an abortion provider inorder to find out if they are disability aware and accessible?

>> CRISTINA: I can talk about this, it depends on what the individual'sneeds are and if they want to, if they are in a wheelchair and they want tomake sure that the building has an elevator, asking about that when makingappointments. If they need ASL interpreter because they are deaf, notify theindividual was making the appointment that that is what they need. It dependson what the individual needs in order to feel like they can effectivelycommunicate.and get the physical access that they need. Unfortunately if theyexperience barriers during those conversations, somebody says, we can't providethat, knowing what your rights are and telling them they have an obligation todo so, asking to speak with a supervisor, the office manager, or doctorUnfortunately if that does not get them anywhere then the home considercontacting all lawyer, contact us.or look to filing a complaint with variousagencies, with the hospital, internal complaint with the hospital. By bringingit to somebody's attention. But

>> HUGO: Somebody wanted to know
what about disabled people who are not pregnant but can become pregnant?

>> DR. Powell: One of the things that we have to emphasize is theseissues of reproductive justice and reproductive health, they are not justwomen's issues and that is one of the flaws of our activism we need to ensurethat we are being inclusive and intentional item pretty confident I saiddisabled people all the time, I think the only time I really ever talk aboutdisabled women with regard to abortion and reproductive issues is some sidingspecific studies that were only limited to women but I think we do need toexpand our horizons and recognize that there is a substantial LGBTQ populationof people with disabilities so it is important we do this.

>> HUGO: Thank you or that answer, this question says,
historical tension between disability movement and the reproductive rightsmovement, can you elaborate more on that and do you see that changing?

>> DR. Powell: And others have also alluded to this but one of thebiggest criticisms from disability rights activists of the movement is the wayin which they use ableism/eugenics based arguments to support the right toaccess to abortion and I can give you a few examples, one of which is a fewyears ago, many reproductive rights groups really used the argument that weneed to ensure abortion is fully available for a long period of time becausewhat if there is a disability diagnosis. What if there is a fetal disabilitydiagnosis and we need to ensure everyone can't terminate the pregnancy and thatgives a message that if you have a fetal disability diagnosis that abortion isthe right thing because having a child with a disability would be tragic insomething you should try to avoid and you can get these issues in a way thatsupports autonomy while not being ableist. We saw this again with the Zikavirus, we would not want to have additional children born with disabilities.Those are some of the tensions that have existed over time, abortions toprevent disability. I think we are seeing a lot of movement, this event is justone of countless examples where we are bringing their communities together.There has been great work around the Center for reproductive rights, PlannedParenthood has done great work, the list goes on and. And also for disabilityrights amenity has to address these issues because disability rights groupshave traditionally avoided these issues because they are on comfortable.Unfortunately that has left people with disability is upon in all this andthinking about abortions for down syndrome and how anti-choice activists pushthis, this is a disability rights issue we care about disabled people we dowant people terminating pregnancy because the baby has down syndrome or someother disability, and that is very disingenuous because they don't care aboutdisability support once someone is born. If they were genuinely concerned theywould be paying additional family supported special education etc. Is a disingenuoustarget that has used disabled people as a pawn in disabled rights groups haveavoided that because that does require us to really respond to these issues ina way that respects disability rights and also reproductive rights and there isa way forward but we all need to get together and do that.

>> HUGO: Thank you so much for that question. I also see it in theQ&A so when asked
do centers for independent living receive information about practitioners whohave high standards of accessible healthcare including abortion and otherreproductive health care? Can people turn to their independent centers forliving for this information?
Maybe that would've been a question for Michelle that but she's out of the chatat the moment. Maybe it will be answered in chat. For our next question, we had
though Illinois is a sanctuary state how can service providers and medicalplaces either begin or continue to provide equitable resource to people withdisabilities who engage in ethical consensual non-monogamy or for sex workerswithout shaming?
>> AMERI: You again you see the effect of abortion -related care, singledout done somewhere apart from where people get the best of their healthcare.People may already have healthcare providers who they feel are respectful. Andaccommodate their needs. Abortion care has been so regulated in this countryand people have to go elsewhere to get it away from healthcare providers sothey already are comfortable with so that is one of the unfortunate ways thatwe have seen this play out.From a legal perspective.

>> HUGO: Thank you. Another question,
will overturning Roe versus Wade make it easier to put someone with adisability into guardianship, guardianship removes many choices such as forcingpeople to have abortions or will it force people into parenthood?

>> DR. Powell: I think there are some connections and it is way too soonto know the answer but I would say there is going to be more effort to reallyrestrict disabled people's freedom and I say that because we can see if we lookat court decisions around allowing forced sterilization of a disabled personsometimes court will reject it, there is an abortion available should thisperson become pregnant.in some court, that is the backup plan because of coursewe want people with disabilities to reproduce because that is the belief, or wedon't want people with disabilities to make the decision so from apaternalistic standpoint that has been the view that at least abortion wasavailable, you could maybe force on someone or not, so I think there is thatpotential whether through increased guardianship's or increased courtauthorized sterilizations. And I would note, we should understand thatsterilization occur in a very coercive way even if they are not coerced throughthe court, and as a disabled woman I can tell you personally that I have anoffer to hysterectomy more times than I can ever count on two hands.and when Iresponded that I may have children someday, that a hysterectomy would not bethe thing, doctors are often shocked by the idea that I would even think abouthaving children and I say this because I am someone with a lot of privilege,highly educated, income, white, and a number rights and most people withdisabilities are not as privileged and I will over worry that people withdisabilities are talking to these sterilization procedures -- or -- not allowedto have them because there are concerns they may be don't understand thedecision.

>> HUGO: Thank you so much. A follow-up question,
someone want to know,
in regard to guardianship can someone who is in a guardianship seek support toaccess an abortion considering they are sometimes time limits for when you canhave an abortion and court proceedings -- is that something that can also seekaccess to and how?

>> DR. Powell: I was waiting to see if anybody else -- I think that thereare, if you have a guardian who has control over your medical decision-making,typically if the guardian and the individual are in some sort of disagreementthey would need to seek a court authorization and you can get emergency ordersbut things are still slow/an attorney-client relationship it is also reallyhard to get legal representation if you are under guardianship because.there'sa lot of confusion and uncertainty among legal professionals whether a Guardiancan enter into so a lot of people might not even want to take on this issuebecause of all that uncertainty.

>> Cristina: In Illinois there are certain areas where an individual hasa right to an attorney, if they are at the outset of the case, where they areseeking to avoid having a guardian in place, they have a right to an attorneyif they are seeking to modify the guardianship or terminate. They also have aright to an attorney in addition, and a sterilization, in response to asterilization petition if they have a position that is adverse to the garden,they also have a right to an attorney. We also get involved in guardianshipcases and other circumstances. And in some counties maybe we do face someopposition at times to getting involved and representing the individual underguardianship.there is also in -- judges will appoint somebody called a guardianad litem who does not represent the person that they represent their bestinterest and they are supposed to do an investigation for the court, be thereeyes and ears and make a recommendation to the court. Sometimes their positionis adverse to the person with the disability. We do have to argue sometimesthat both are needed if the court thanks that our roles are the same and theydon't need both of us involved. But if, I can't think of a situation where wehave seen this, but if a guardian and an individual's the individual was to geta guardian and the guardian will not consent, that issue needs to be broughtbefore the court. I can also imagine if the individual and the guardiandisagree on this issue there might be a lot of, many other areas that andchoices that these two disagree with. And the guardian is not following thedecision-making mandate and their duty to help the individual leader the mostindependent life they can. We often argue for the court that that guardianmight need to be, needs to be removed, if they are not respecting theindividuals choices and those choices are reasonable, and not likely to lead tosubstantial harm, that is really not a good matchup.an individual does have aright to inform the court about who their preference for a guardian is and thecourt should take that into account.I would argue that if a guardian is notrespecting individuals wishes on this issue, there are probably many otherissues that are not, as well and the court should explore that.
And you are always welcome to contact the Equip for Equality to see if that isthe case we need to get involved is ordered five advisor individuals what therights are.

>> DR. Powell: This question is multifaceted and although I have not fromMassachusetts, but from a state that has very abortion-rights and in ourConstitution, until now I was fortunate but I bring that up because there was acase in Massachusetts about 10 years ago where there was a woman withpsychiatric disabilities who was pregnant and the state Department of mentalhealth encouraged her parents to seek guardianship for the entire purpose offorcing her to terminate her pregnancy. She was adamant, opposed to abortion,highly religious, explaining very much it was not a question of what shewanted, she was very outspoken about what she wanted and did not want and thecourt, the lower court approved her guardianship and they said, they approvedthe abortion and they said, you might as well sterilize this woman also sawthis on fortunate thing does not happen again. Fortunately, on appeal this wasreversed and the appeal process, the pregnancy process was only nine months butthe fact that that could happen state like Massachusetts did worry peoplebecause we have some of the stronger abortion rights laws and disability rightslaws in general so it is something to consider on both sides because that was avery highly publicized case where the family sought guardianship for the solepurpose of forcing an abortion.


>> HUGO: Thank you. The next question, do you see the president set bygobs infringing on the rights of disabled folks in other ways?

>> AMERI I think Dobbs is going to lead to infringements on all sorts ofrights besides abortion. The language in the decision, is based on theoriginalist approach, the court does not see the abortion rate in their in thewords, and so the next question is, was a right to abortion part of the nationshistory and tradition when the 14th amendment was ratified? And the court says,no because the 14th amendment was ratified, none of the people ratifying itwere women, the court goes through a historical analysis. That is how the courtconcludes and dabbed there is no right for abortion. The court says that it isnot, abortion is different, this does not mean that LGBTQ rights are an issue,that other right around contraception our initial, if you follow the reasoningand their analysis, all these very personal rights, the decisions people have,the decisions people make about the rights, about who they marry, about theirsexual partners, all these sort of things we would consider part of a right toprivacy, it was right that somebody had in 1868, those may be on the table andI think we will see continuing battles how we see how this plays out with LGBTQrights probably next on the chopping block Dobbs leaves a lot of rights at riskfor a lot of people

>> DR. Powell: I just talked about this in my family law class 4 hoursago, this whole case was based on the unenumerated rights and that has beenexpanded to contraception, same-sex marriage, privacy, areas of familyformation, the list goes on and on, and you can -- and medical decision-making-- your right to medical decision-making. If we start to chip away at one pieceof that, who knows how far this can go. I think there could be a domino effect,and the self-advocacy network issue this reef a few months ago outlining theimplications of Dobbs being overturned in Roe and how that could affect peoplewith disabilities people I think it does an excellent job highlighting exactlythese issues and I would also say that from a legal perspective, Dobbsthroughout the idea of stare decisis and people expect to know the law and noyour own individual rights and plan your life and what does laws are and staredecisis is important that the courts are not supposed to throw away rights andthey have shown a complete disregard for stare decisis where they overthrewalmost 50 years of legal precedent in the right to abortion. Huge legalimplication.

>> HUGO: Thank you once again. The next question, we want to ask,
do abortion find support access needs like securing an ASL interpreter,transportation, help to get needed accommodations for disabled people or othergeneral accommodations?
>> I heard abortion funds but not the rest of his -- I am having somesound issues. Could somebody put the question in again --

>> HUGO: I will punch the question into the chat so you can see. Theregoes.

>> KEIDRA: Two answer that question, all abortion funds across thecountry are independent based in what capacity they have to offer thoseaccommodations and support those accommodations but the role of practicalsupport organizations which many abortion funds are is to offer support andadvocacy for accommodations so transportation, ASL translation, languagetranslation all that falls under the purview of practical supportorganizations, that many abortion funds are so depends on defined themselvesand whether they have the capacity and since most funds are volunteer avolunteer support to be able to do that work.

>> ROBIN: Dr. Powell, Mississippi has a band for this issue and am surethere's other examples but I would say the lawyer in me will remind people thatabortion providers also have to provide accommodations so they do not have toprovide your transportation they have to provide physical access andinterpretation so while we know abortion funds of limited resources we shouldmake sure healthcare providers are also following their legal obligation.

>> HUGO: Perfect. There is a question in the Q&A, and we only havenine
for disabled people in states with the most restrictive antiabortion laws whatcan we do to take care of ourselves during this time? Is there something we cando to prepare for the worst case scenarios, to guardians in the states havepower to disregard self-determination or is it in Illinois or other states?

>> DR. Powell: Since I'm in one of the most restrictive states,, ingeneral, whether you are disabled or not, people are very proactively ensuringthey have contraception access, and Plan B and trying to make the most of theterrible situation. And also, I am volunteering for abortion funds trying tohelp people navigate if they need to travel so a person having your ducks in arow and I hate to even think that way but unfortunately and I want to remindpeople to vote. One of the biggest solutions is go to the polls and votebecause the only way to turn this entire nightmare around is to vote.

>> KEIDRA: Another important thing in this moment, I worked digital, andthat is really not something that you want to do in a time duringcriminalization and surveillance on social media. One of the things we see alot with abortion funds is people putting personal information online, in orderto get advice, care, many of these abortion laws are meant to punish folks forputting personal information out about how far along they are in theirpregnancy, where they go for help, and in some cases criminalizing those whoseek to support those who are looking for care. We tend in a very digitalfocused environment we want to put as much information out there to helpawareness and in this case do not necessarily lean towards putting informationout on social media, even email in some cases can be kind of risky, the moreyou can find in person ways to communicate with folks and that is harder fordisabled folks on so many levels. We depend on digital to communicate with eachother.but that is what makes it especially dangerous, the same digital networksthat we rely on to support each other to get information are the same sourcesfor potential criminalization and surveillance that might harm us and beingvery aware of that now and understanding what information you are putting outand to whom, this is why it is so important to be included two networks ofsupport that understand this and will protect you and understand the law andwhat to share and whatnot to share. Be careful about the information putting atinformation on apps and different online platforms.



>> Cristina Those are really great points and I want to also recommendany new tool we have in Illinois, supportive decision-making past about a yearago and went into effect earlier this year. It has been passed in a growingnumber of states, I think under 20, but in this model, unlike guardianship,there is not a substitute decision-maker in place, the individual still retainsthe rights to make their own decisions. And identifies a supporter who is oneto turn to either for access to information or healthcare or help them accessbenefits. In Illinois it is only available to individuals with a development orintellectual disability but my understanding is that Illinois is unique in thisregard and in other states that is not the case. It might be expanded to otherpopulations. But that is not the case now. But if someone else look to see if,in your if that is available in your state. At least here in Illinois, I don'tneed a guardian I have the support and services in place that I need if I needhelp making decisions were gathering information. And things like that. Or lookup with the legislative efforts are in your state to try to get that past.

>> HUGO: We have two more minutes, hopefully we can entities quickly, Iwill combine them.
Is abortion covered by Medicare and are abortion providers also covered by theADA for excess ability?

>> Abortion providers are covered by the ADA.

>> Is been a few other states that allow for state funds but from moststates no, because the Hyde amendment prohibits federal funding to go towardswedding except for very rare instances.

You are muted

>> HUGO: We still have two more minutes --
what can disabled people do if an abortion provider refuses care due to theirdisability?

>> DR. Powell: Called their production and access agency like equip forequality and other organizations -- or Kristina after

>> CRISTINA: I was going to say the same thing, contact us, contactanother disability rights lawyer, contact the Center for Independent living. Ifyou need help.trying to connect with legal services.

>> HUGO: I think we are almost out of time, we have one more minute. Onefinal question, or we are out of time -- I do want to let people know we willbe sending out resources and all the information mentioned during the event metin a follow-up email so look out for that. I want to thank everyone for theirconversations that are super important especially for the disability communityit is definitely something that, nothing about us without us, I appreciate theinformation today thank you everyone joining us on the call we had a reallyamazing attendance so thank you all on the panel for your information is justinvaluable.

>> Thanks everyone