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Hell Yes, Women are Betrayed…by all Manner of Things.

| Reproaction

Water is wet, the sun will set and then rise, and those opposed to abortion will stop at nothing to shut reproductive health center doors. So, there’s another heavily edited video from the same people who brought you all the other heavily edited anti-Planned Parenthood videos, served up with rallies and ridiculousness on the #WomenBetrayed hashtag, while the pro-choice Twitterverse has gathered to defend Planned Parenthood in general and fetal tissue donation specifically.

While that defense is totally understandable, it comes at a heavy cost. If our movement is going to advance, we need to be proactive and not just reactive.

So, this Friday at 2 p.m. ET Reproaction is hosting a Twitter chat about all the things we should be talking about right now. We invite you to join the conversation and weigh in on what #ActuallyWomen are betrayed by, or capable of, or need. It’s time to shift this conversation to our own terms, and to the conversations we actually need to have.

Because women are betrayed by the lack of attention paid to the death of Ralkina Jones, a black woman found dead in her jail cell in Cleveland Heights this past weekend. Police violence against women of color is a reproductive justice issue, and people deserve to live and raise families in communities free of violence and oppression.

Women are betrayed by deceptive videos that draw attention away from Friday’s court ruling that locking immigrant mothers and their children in detention centers violates the 1997 Flores Agreement, or how immigrant mothers and their children still face uncertain futures even though judges have already begun ordering the release of many held in custody.

Women are betrayed by the disgusting lack of outcry over the fact that the US has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed nation, but there aren’t any slickly edited videos denouncing the fact that among the top causes of pregnancy-related death are cardiovascular disease, infection or sepsis, and hemorrhage.

Women are betrayed by the fact that the mainstream press can barely be bothered to note the murder of the 11th transgender woman this year, KC Haggard…and by the unbearable knowledge that KC Haggard won’t be the last murdered transgender person the press will rush to ignore.

And women continue to be betrayed by our decades old lack of outrage that most women who survived forced sterilization in this country have yet to be given an apology, and justice isn’t even on the table.

Hell yes, women are betrayed…by all manner of things. And, women deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Join the conversation this Friday at 2 p.m. ET and weigh in on what #WomenActually should be talking about and taking action on.

[Originally posted on Tumblr.]

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