Oct. 1 national actions to focus on Latino and Indigenous reproductive justice

On Saturday, Oct. 1, community speak-outs in numerous U.S. towns, including Aurora, will highlight issues related to Latino and Native American reproductive health and family needs.

With a unified national theme, "¡Rosie Jiménez, presente! Reproductive justice for all!," the actions will remember a young Chicana mother who in October 1977 died from an unsafe abortion after the Hyde Amendment cut off federal funds for the procedure.

The gatherings also will address the continuing problems of forced sterilization and racial disparities in infant and maternal death rates. And they will draw attention to a challenge to the Indian Child Welfare Act that is coming before the U.S. Supreme Court in the session that begins Oct. 3. This act requires that Native American homes be prioritized for foster care and adoptions of Indigenous children.

The National Mobilization for Reproductive Justice is working with local sponsors to build rallies in New York, Phoenix, Seattle, San Francisco, and Aurora, Illinois.

The Aurora event begins at 11:30 a.m. at Water Street Mall, 44 E. Downer Place. It is sponsored by Indivisible Aurora and Illinois Radical Women.

Local event organizer Mary Ann Curtis says "The tragic death of Rosie Jiménez dramatizes how poor people and women of color are hardest hit when reproductive care and bodily autonomy are denied."

She said the rallies will address reproductive justice as a broad range of issues that includes border separation of immigrant families, affordable child care, and ending bigotry and homophobia/transphobia.

More information about the national and local actions is available at www.ReproJusticeNow.org; or email info@indivisibleaurora.org and rw.illinois@radicalwomen.org.