The United States has not upheld its treaties to provide health and education to all citizens of tribal nations and has implemented – and continues to implement – policies that have a negative impact upon Native people.
Indigenous Women Rising honors “Native & Indigenous People’s inherent right to equitable and culturally safe health options through accessible health education, resources, and advocacy.” They are particularly committed to restoring body-autonomy to women. This sovereignty, inherent in Native cultures, includes “access to traditional knowledge and medicines, which ensured every person was emotionally, physically, spiritually, and mentally able to determine for themselves when to begin a family.”
Currently, Indigenous Women Rising provides Indigenous people with the capacity to become pregnant funds to obtain an abortion in the United States as well as access to midwives, doulas, and other quality care for people choosing to give birth. They provide sex education and also advocate for the rights of Indigenous women and two spirit people.
Native people have suffered disproportionately not only throughout the history of the United States but most recently throughout the coronavirus pandemic, and reproductive health for all is now threatened by the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I will be supporting Indigenous Women Rising for the next six months and invite you to learn more about them and join me in supporting their work.
Beautiful World 