ICYMI, we recently announced we are making some changes at GirlTalkHQ. Read the full post here for more. But don’t worry, we are still in full operation mode, and are still dedicated to sharing awesome content, inspiring stories about women changing their world, and speaking truth to power.
One of the reasons for our changes is because our editor-in-chief and founder, Asha Dahya, has embarked on a special project that touches on a topic that is very important to us. She is in the early stages of a new documentary series called ‘LIFE AT ALL COSTS: Going Beyond Pro Choice vs. Pro Life’.
The project touches on her own background as a former conservative Christian turned progressive women’s rights advocate, on her journey to find common ground between two opposing sides, and create a whole new narrative around reproductive rights that is lead by compassion, humanity, and women’s personal stories. All you have to do is look at the current political landscape surrounding abortion and reproductive healthcare to understand how divided and controversial it is. This needs to change.
But Asha’s series is not just focused on abortion. It is about so much more. Zooming out a few levels, she will explore topics like birth control, sex education, paid leave, maternal mortality, poverty, foster care, teen mothers, race and being pregnant while incarcerated.
One of her biggest passions is to reclaim the word “life” to mean something more than just a stance on abortion. What does it truly mean to value and support life in all forms? It goes way beyond just pregnancy and birth, and that is what this docu-series aims to look at. This is not just a conservative or liberal issue, it is a human one. Asking some challenging questions and sharing some startling information, LIFE AT ALL COSTS, wants people from both sides of the aisle to come together and tackle reproductive issues in a positive and powerful way to create lasting and meaningful change.
Here is a snippet of some shocking facts around reproductive justice, rights and healthcare in America today:
-Only 22 states require public schools to teach comprehensive sex education, and only 13 of those require the information to be medically accurate. States enforcing “abstinence only” have the highest rates of teen pregnancies and STDs.
-American rates of pregnancy or childbirth complications are among the highest in the developed world, and rising. Carrying a baby to term in the US is 90 times more likely to kill you than having a legal abortion, and for black women the rates are higher.
-An estimated 60% of child sex trafficking victims in the United States come from foster care.
-Although teen pregnancy rates are declining overall, the U.S. rate is substantially higher than other Western industrialized nations. By age 30, only 1.5% of teen mothers will have earned a college degree. This can lead to other negative outcomes such as illiteracy and poverty.
-12,000 women are pregnant in custody every year, and 28 states have no laws against shackling them during labor. Only 54% of pregnant women who are incarcerated are reported to receive adequate pregnancy-related health care.
If these statistics concern you in any way, there is a way you can get involved. Media is an incredibly powerful tool for change, and that is why Asha is making this series. She has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Seed & Spark to film the pilot episode, which will then be presented to larger networks in the hope to get the green light to make the full series.
We would love to have you contribute to the campaign while it is running, until April 10, and share it with your friends, family, colleagues and social network. Watch the video below to get a glimpse of what ‘LIFE AT ALL COSTS: Going Beyond Pro Choice vs. Pro Life’ is all about, and donate here: https://www.seedandspark.com/fund/life-at-all-costs#story