All the way back at WAM (wow, was that really a month ago already?), I attended a workshop with Loretta Ross of Sister Song called New Technology, New Activism. Loretta Ross is one of my personal activist heroes, which is why I attended. I certainly didn’t leave disappointed, as she and Serena Garcia, also of Sister Song, introduced us to MappingOurRights.org. And I thought it was one of the greatest things ever.
Mapping Our Rights is a collaborative project between Sister Song, Ipas, the National Gay and Lesbian Taskforce, and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The idea behind the map is pretty much what the name suggests — to take a look at rights across the United States on a state by state basis, from a reproductive justice standpoint.
They have worked out a system for ranking all of the states in the nation. You can take a look at all of the points of this system by clicking on the Laws & Policies left-hand sidebar, and they include things from abortion accessibility to LGBT rights and the legal status of midwifery. Hover over a law/policy, and you can read about it in the box above, and how penalty points were assigned for that particular policy.
Even better, you can take a general look at how states stack up for each and every policy. With the Laws & Policies sidebar open, you can click “Clear All Policies” to clear the map, then click on the policy you want to see. The map will change colors (blue best, red worst) based on that one criteria. Add another criteria, and the map will change again to reflect both.
Clicking on a state gives you a whole nice overview of specific policies in that state. Charts appear with basic health and reproductive rights related statistics, including a breakdown of many statistics by race. Below is a personal story about someone who has been affected by the state’s policies. And to the right is a list of penalty points for the state.
So, take Florida for instance. You’ll see in the right-hand bar that they incurred a 100 point fee for confidential planning services for minors. Why? Click the left-hand sidebar, open up that same criteria, and you’ll see that the penalty was given to “States that have no policy allowing minors to consent to reproductive-health services or only allow consent in very specific circumstances (e.g. if the minor is married, a parent or pregnant).” So, clearly, Florida has some parental consent laws going on. And then you can go off to do further research.
You can also rate the map by using the Tell Us What You Think button at the bottom. I mention this specifically because it has an option to provide suggestions for things you’d like to see added to the map, and I’m sure that all of us can think of a bunch. I personally believe very strongly, for example, that sexual violence is a reproductive justice issue. So I’d like to see some more information with regards to that beyond EC emergency room access.
But still, as is, it’s an amazing start. I find it to be an incredibly useful for a whole bunch of purposes. Activists, grassroots organizers, concerned citizens — and yes, of course, bloggers — can definitely benefit from this kind of easy snapshot. There have to be a ton of uses for it. Which is why I’m writing about it — because I know that I’m going to be using it all the time.