A Message from our Director
At the center of every form of interpersonal violence and abuse is the idea that : "You and your body mean nothing to me. I will do with you and your body as I please." As such, interpersonal violence - including child abuse - is deeply disempowering. Power-over is an assault on personal choice.
Choice and empowerment, consequently, are instrumental factors in violence prevention and trauma healing.
At 90by30, we believe that choice, equity and empowerment must be centered in harm reduction work; we are, fundamentally, pro-choice. We support the right to choose one's own reproductive health decisions and believe that equitable access to high-quality health care is a basic human right. The statement below will be shared over 90by30 social media, and will live on the 90by30 website moving forward.
I encourage you to reach out to our staff if you would like to talk through 90by30's choice to make a statement on reproductive choice. Sara and I are always interested in your reflections, as are Leah and Caroline. Contact information for each of us is below.
Thank you for your investment in Lane County children, youth and families.
Jeff
90by30 Statement on Reproductive Choice
90by30’s mission is to reduce child abuse and neglect in Lane County. Advocating for child and family wellness includes combating systems that disproportionately harm marginalized BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and other communities and securing the right to bodily autonomy and personal choice. Standing with survivors – whether that be interpersonal, state or systemic violence – is centered in our commitment to the reduction of harm. We support the right to choose one’s own reproductive health decisions and believe that equitable access to high quality health care is a basic human right. This means that 90by30 stands for the right to reproductive health care, including abortion.
90by30 is an evidence based, research informed organization. The following facts support the statement above.
- Child abuse is defined as, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and seeing or hearing intimate partner violence. Children born from unwanted pregnancies (when abortions were not accessible) experienced worse maternal bonding and economic insecurity and increased risk of being raised in a home with domestic violence (Foster et al., 2018, Roberts et al., 2014)
- Advocating for child and family wellness includes prioritizing the right to bodily autonomy for all and pushing back against systems that disproportionately harm marginalized BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and other communities. Abortion restrictions disproportionately impact BIPOC communities, LGBTQ+ communities, low income communities, immigrant communities, youth, and people with disabilities (Guttmacher Institute, 2022).
- 90by30 believes child abuse is prevented when kids are connected, families are supported, and community members take positive action. In order to support families we must support their right to make decisions that make sense for them. We know that 60 percent of people who have received an abortion had one or more previous children (CDC, 2019).
The research is very clear that harm reduction and family wellness must include access to choice in reproductive health care. We acknowledge that this topic - access to reproductive choice including abortion - evokes powerful emotion. Like other tough topics (gun control and vaccines as other examples), it is likely that our personal feelings and beliefs will vary from one another. However, as an evidence-informed organization and as part of a research center, 90by30’s public stance unequivocally supports access to abortion, and the right to choose.