Shen, Eveline. “Prop 4 Victory Brief - Reproductive Justice at the Ballot Box.” Volume. The Momentum Series, 2008.
Annotation
This report commends the many reproductive justice organizations that worked together during the 2008 election season to register, educate and mobilize voters to become more informed about Proposition 4, which would have prohibited an abortion for minors until 48 hours after their physician notifies the minor’s parent or legal guardian. Thought it does not go into detail about the legislative language, the report mentions the impact it would have had on young women and their reproductive rights to have safe and confidential medical care and shares the experiences and stories of young women, reproductive justice activists and community organizers battle to defeat Prop 4. It discusses how, during the 2008 campaign season, reproductive justice organizations worked with each other by creating a Reproductive Justice Alliance to defeat ballot initiatives such as Proposition 4 and 8 that would have affected communities of color, immigrants, refugees and increased reproductive oppression, and worked together to make many made phone calls, created flyers and organized press conferences, radio and print interviews to inform them of the ballot initiatives (Propositions 4, 6, 8 and 9). It states that campaign materials like “robo calls” often do not reflect the voices, languages or faces of all communities. In defeating Prop 4, reproductive justice advocates had to understand that many communities often rely on local and ethnic media to watch, learn and gather information about elections. Some of the organizations that participated in this movement throughout California were: Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice, California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, Black Women for Wellness and the Khmer Girls for Action.
This report seeks to make voters and their communities more aware about the election process, its propositions and ballot initiatives, while continuing advocacy for the Reproductive rights and justice.