By: Duneshka Cruz On Wednesday (March 1, 2017), I attended “The Nation, The State, and You: The Politics of Women’s Reproductive Rights.” I really looked forward to this deliberation because with the recent events regarding women’s reproductive rights being decided for them, it was nice to be able to productively have a conversation about it.
The first approach we looked at was Control at the Federal Level. This discussion also merged with the state level approach. We compared both and we realized that although we didn’t love that women are basically losing their rights to their own bodies, we also didn’t want to have what is implemented now taken away. It could just be a whole lot worse. We also thought that there is good and bad with the state control because states vary in opinion. However, that’s also the very reason why it’s also bad because if we just leave it up to the states then the states that don’t believe in women having access to contraceptives will automatically be able to control that. It’s a very difficult topic to find a solution for. During the federal level conversation, I was able to learn about policies that I didn’t know were in place. For example, I didn’t know anything about the Hyde Amendment, which basically is a legislative provision excepting the use of federal funds to pay for abortion except to save the life of a woman, or if the pregnancy arises from incest or rape. It has blocked federal Medicaid funding for abortion services. Although I do agree with the exceptions, I also think that the decision should be left to the woman, her doctor, and her family. Politicians, especially a group of men, shouldn’t be deciding what is best for all women. The last approach we looked at was at the community level. Something we all agreed upon was that many people aren’t really educated on contraceptives and what their options are. Therefore, it should be discussed in health or sexual education in order for people to make decisions with knowledge behind it. It would be beneficial to have people learn about this as they’re learning about sex. Many people brought up the fact that sexual education sometimes just works to try and fear teens into becoming abstinent, which is not a bad thing. However, it is wishful thinking to assume that all teens will just wait. Some are more curious than others and they will engage in intercourse at a young age. This is why it’s important for girls to know about what is out there in order for them to be safe. If we just keep it quiet and not acknowledge it, that won’t help anyone. The final consensus of our group was that even though there are many disagreements as to how women’s reproductive rights are being handled right now, we also wouldn’t want it to completely go away because then we would lose the little bit of rights that we do have right now. There’s more to be discussed on the issue but I liked that the deliberation provided us with a sample email to write to our senators or a sample phone call. It’s important to have resources and ways in which to contact authorities if we want to make a change in what is happening.
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By: Duneshka Cruz On Wednesday (March 1, 2017), I attended “The Nation, The State, and You: The Politics of Women’s Reproductive Rights.” I really looked forward to this deliberation because with the recent events regarding women’s reproductive rights being decided for them, it was nice to be able to productively have a conversation about it.
The first approach we looked at was Control at the Federal Level. This discussion also merged with the state level approach. We compared both and we realized that although we didn’t love that women are basically losing their rights to their own bodies, we also didn’t want to have what is implemented now taken away. It could just be a whole lot worse. We also thought that there is good and bad with the state control because states vary in opinion. However, that’s also the very reason why it’s also bad because if we just leave it up to the states then the states that don’t believe in women having access to contraceptives will automatically be able to control that. It’s a very difficult topic to find a solution for. During the federal level conversation, I was able to learn about policies that I didn’t know were in place. For example, I didn’t know anything about the Hyde Amendment, which basically is a legislative provision excepting the use of federal funds to pay for abortion except to save the life of a woman, or if the pregnancy arises from incest or rape. It has blocked federal Medicaid funding for abortion services. Although I do agree with the exceptions, I also think that the decision should be left to the woman, her doctor, and her family. Politicians, especially a group of men, shouldn’t be deciding what is best for all women. The last approach we looked at was at the community level. Something we all agreed upon was that many people aren’t really educated on contraceptives and what their options are. Therefore, it should be discussed in health or sexual education in order for people to make decisions with knowledge behind it. It would be beneficial to have people learn about this as they’re learning about sex. Many people brought up the fact that sexual education sometimes just works to try and fear teens into becoming abstinent, which is not a bad thing. However, it is wishful thinking to assume that all teens will just wait. Some are more curious than others and they will engage in intercourse at a young age. This is why it’s important for girls to know about what is out there in order for them to be safe. If we just keep it quiet and not acknowledge it, that won’t help anyone. The final consensus of our group was that even though there are many disagreements as to how women’s reproductive rights are being handled right now, we also wouldn’t want it to completely go away because then we would lose the little bit of rights that we do have right now. There’s more to be discussed on the issue but I liked that the deliberation provided us with a sample email to write to our senators or a sample phone call. It’s important to have resources and ways in which to contact authorities if we want to make a change in what is happening. By: Duneshka Cruz On Monday (February 27, 2017), I attended a deliberation called “Too Stressed to Confess: The Stigma Surrounding Mental Health.” I really enjoyed the deliberation because I have a friend that deals with a strong anxiety disorder and generally I feel that people don’t take all mental health cases seriously. So many people use the word anxiety when they really mean nervous and they don’t notice that anxiety is an actual mental health issue. I also liked being able to see people’s opinions on mental health in general and how to address the problem of people not being funded medically.
The group had three approaches: Improving Access to Care, Legal Complications, and Addressing the Stigma. For the first approach, we primarily focused on why people aren’t being helped with medical bills for mental health care. There were many ideas being discussed such as that it’s hard for people to visualize it because it’s not a physical illness. Another problem is that it’s harder to put a time table on mental health treatment because it’s not something that can be necessarily cured in a six-week period like a broken arm for example, therefore it may then be hard to lay out costs. Ideas like these were really interesting to hear because I hadn’t thought of it before. We also discussed trying to reduce the fear of being diagnosed. A way to do this was creating more stringent laws to protect mentally ill workers and work towards reducing stigma. This could aid in reducing costs related to undiagnosed mentally illness to employers and it will make it more likely that mentally ill individuals will seek care. However, there are always the cons and one for this strategy was that it may increase insurance costs to employers. Despite the possible troubles, our general consensus was that there for sure should be an increase in funding for medical treatment for individuals with mental health issues because it should be seen just as equal as a physical illness. These individuals need equal attention. The second approach was how mental health affects people in the workplace, military, court, and in getting firearms. At the beginning, firearms took over the conversation. It leaned more towards the fact that mental health patients are usually automatically seen as violent because of media portraying criminals as mentally unstable. As well as people being diagnosed as having a mental problem after committing a crime in order to get a less severe sentence. We then moved on to talking about how some people may be discriminated against in the workplace for having mental health issues and then being paid less or even not offered a job. Someone brought up the fact that some businesses may pay the individual less money because their productivity level would be low. At the end, we came to consensus that disclosing if the person has a mental illness should not be required in a job application unless the person believes that it will be affecting their performance in the job. No one should be denied the option of having a job because of a preconceived notion that having a mental illness will affect their work ethic. Lastly, we talked about the best way of addressing the stigma behind mental illness. Media and education were the two big targets of the discussion. With media, many people believed that there should be more accurate portrayals of mentally ill individuals. People should not always be perceived in television as just being their disorder. They should be introduced as having a disorder but not making it be the definition of the person. Another strategy was hitting the education system. There should be ways to implement learning of mental illnesses in classes such as Psychology, which surprisingly doesn’t get much focus according to those who took the class in high school. I was one of them and I agreed that it wasn’t really talked about. Overall, I believe that the biggest way to get people to talk about this is through education and awareness. It’s the only way that people will finally understand that these disorders aren’t just things people make up. It’s not a way to get attention or just a phase, but actually affecting people’s lives. |
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