Page 2 The Skanner Portland & Seattle May 1, 2019
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Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Gag Rule Threatens the Health of People of Color
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
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Executive Editor
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News Editor
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Graphic Designer
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Seattle Office Coordinator
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Photographer
2017
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Opinion
onald Trump’s new gag
rule is disastrous poli-
cy that will dispropor-
tionately impact com-
munities of color, making
existing barriers to health
care for people of color even
worse. It “gags” doctors and
prevents them from telling
patients about all of their op-
tions, including abortion. It
also threatens to block access
to basic care at reproductive
health centers.
The idea of doctors with-
holding
information
or
knowingly not offering pa-
tients access to available
services is the antithesis of
patient-centered care and, in
this case, disproportionately
impacts women who would
not otherwise be able to iden-
tify and access those services
on their own. The gag rule is
unethical, illegal and harmful
to public health.
Planned Parenthood health
centers provide access to cru-
cial preventive healthcare
services to underserved com-
munities in Oregon through
Title X, the nation’s program
for affordable birth con-
trol and other reproductive
health care. Services provid-
ed through Title X are so es-
sential — including wellness
exams; STI testing, education
Sirius
Bonner
Planned
Parenthood
Columbia
Willamette
and counseling; and breast
and cervical cancer screen-
ings.
Almost 50,000 Oregonians
receive care through Title X.
For many of our patients, we
are their only source of care.
There is already a massive
divide between who does and
“
The gag rule
is unethical,
illegal and
harmful to
public health
doesn’t have health care in
Oregon, and the gag rule will
only worsen these racial, so-
cioeconomic and geographi-
cal health disparities. Due to
discriminatory public policy
and systemic racism, women
of color and women with low
incomes already face barriers
in accessing health care and,
under this gag rule, they’re
going to bear the brunt of the
harm.
Of Planned Parenthood Co-
lumbia Willamette’s Title X
patients in Oregon, 5 percent
identify as Black or African
American and 22 percent
identify as Hispanic or Lati-
no. Research shows that the
barriers to health care that
many women of color face
often result in delayed diag-
noses, higher rates of breast
and cervical cancer, and in-
creased mortality rates for
breast cancer.
Families that are struggling
to make ends meet and peo-
ple who live in rural areas
must have the same access to
full, unbiased information
from their doctor as everyone
else. Planned Parenthood will
never force our clinicians
to withhold medical infor-
mation from our patients,
and we will fight the Trump
administration in the courts
to protect everyone’s funda-
mental right to health care.
Last month, a federal dis-
trict court judge in Oregon
issued a preliminary injunc-
tion to block the gag rule.
However, this is still a tempo-
rary reprieve.
The gag rule is just the lat-
est step in Trump’s efforts to
ban abortion, restrict repro-
ductive rights and block care
at Planned Parenthood. If Roe
vs. Wade is overturned, more
than one in three women of
reproductive age in this coun-
try could be left without ac-
cess to abortion in their home
state. This includes nearly
3.5 million Black or African
American women, more than
4.3 million Hispanic or Latino
women, more than 800,000
Asian women and nearly
300,000 American Indian or
Alaska Native women of re-
productive age.
It’s clear that this admin-
istration is punishing com-
munity members who are
the most impacted by health,
education and economic in-
equities — the communities
who continue to be targeted
by racist, homophobic, xeno-
phobia and ableist policies
and laws. Meanwhile, the gov-
ernment continues to cut so-
cial service programs such as
child care, education, housing
support and other integral
services that our families rely
on, making its agenda clear.
At a time of rising maternal
mortality and escalating STI
infections, politicians need to
stop attacking women’s rights
and instead work with doc-
tors and public health leaders
to increase access to health
care.
Trump, Media Assaults on Omar a New Low for US Politics
A
merican politics ap-
pears to have hit a new
low.
According to reports,
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar
has beefed up security fol-
lowing the vicious attacks
she’s received and even news
reports that paint her as
un-American.
What’s worse, the attacks
stem from tweets made
against her by President Don-
ald Trump.
“The criticisms of Congress-
woman Omar, what Trump
has been saying about her, is
reprehensible,” said New Jer-
sey Sen. Cory Booker, a Demo-
cratic presidential candidate.
“It is trafficking in Islam-
ophobia, and should be con-
demned by everyone,” Booker
said.
One of the first Muslim
women to serve in Congress,
Omar has come under repeat-
ed attack from the president
and others, including Fox
News as a result of her ques-
tioning America’s relation-
ship with Israel.
“We will never forget,”
Trump tweeted in all-capital
letters recently, attaching a
video that spliced together
comments Omar made with
footage of the Sept. 11, 2001
terror attacks.
Some media favorable to
the president have also at-
tacked Omar and despite
death threats made against
her, Trump has continued his
assault by calling her — with-
out any supporting evidence
Stacy M.
Brown
NNPA
Columnist
and against her denials — “an-
ti-Semitic,” and “anti-Israel.”
Booker noted that Trump
has also attacked other Afri-
can American women leaders
like California Rep. Maxine
Waters.
“
It is traffick-
ing in Islam-
ophobia, and
should be
condemned
by everyone
“The kind of language this
president uses, especially
about black women in power,
is toxic,” Booker said.
That Trump claims he’s not
racist isn’t satisfactory, Book-
er said.
“It’s not enough to say, I’m
not a racist. We must all be
anti-racist,” he said.
The rhetoric by Trump
and his allies against Omar
have resulted in the Senator
ramping up security, partic-
ularly as she’s received death
threats.
Recently, a Rhode Island
man allegedly threatened to
“kill every Democrat in the
world,” federal officials said.
Matthew Haviland, 30,
of North Kingstown was
charged after sending ap-
proximately 28 threatening
emails on March 10 to a col-
lege professor, whose name
and affiliation was withheld
by federal officials. Haviland
is facing federal threat
charges and cyberstalking.
In an affidavit, FBI task
force officer Richard Laft, Jr.
wrote that the professor told
authorities Haviland’s “views
regarding abortion and pol-
itics have become more ex-
treme” within the last year.
The professor, who had
been friends with Haviland
for about 11 years, believed
Haviland’s views changed
because “of the way the news
media portrays” President
Donald Trump, Laft wrote.
Authorities said Omar was
among the Democrats whom
Haviland threatened to kill.
Latagia Copeland-Tyronce,
a writer and journalist out of
Detroit, said as a black wom-
an and social justice advocate,
she knows “all too well what
it feels like to be attacked for
speaking up and out.”
“And, as such, I believe that
there should be a zero-tol-
erance policy in regards to
our black representatives in
Congress,” Copeland-Tyronce
said.
“We, as a people, cannot al-
low our black leaders to be
attacked for their advocacy.
I am a proponent of freedom
of speech and freedom of the
press, however, abuse and
racism crosses the line and
should be called out when and
where it rears its ugly head,”
she said.
Dr. Omekongo Dibinga, an
American University profes-
sor and director of Upstander
International, said it’s imper-
ative that all stand up to big-
otry.
“We need to fight fire with
facts. I know that President
Trump has ushered in the era
of fake news and alternative
facts, but I believe at the end
of the day, the reality of his
policies of lies and dissen-
sion will do him in, even with
his followers as the effects of
[Former President] Barack
Obama’s positive economy
begin to dwindle and they re-
alized he never cared about
them in the first place,” Dibin-
ga said.
Shiwon Oh of Sogang Uni-
versity in Seoul, South Korea,
said Trump’s presidency ex-
poses a racist underbelly of
America that has always been
there from the beginning.
“He just gave validation to
their opinions and beliefs
that its influence is now seep-
ing into mainstream media
channels like Fox News,” Oh
said.
“All people can do is contin-
ue countering the lies with
facts, voicing their opposi-
tion to racial oppression, and
urging their communities to
be on the right side of history,
even if it means being ridi-
culed by some,” she said.
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