Webinar Series 2020: Strategies in Reproductive Health Activism
Strategies in Reproductive Health Activism
With Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff, researcher and community organizer
The rise of far-right governments in many jurisdictions across the globe risks undoing years of steady progress on reproductive rights, and there is much work to be done everywhere. This work takes many forms, and a wide range of strategies are employed by activists working on issues relating to reproductive health.
This talk surveys a number of these strategies. It will highlight efforts across Canada to increase access to prescription contraception, including the AccessBC Campaign in British Columbia and the ContraceptiON Campaign in Ontario.
The talk will then delve into the strategy of Women on Waves (WoW), an international non-governmental organization that seeks to prevent unsafe abortions and unwanted pregnancies. This organization is notable for deploying sexual health and abortion clinics on board vessels just outside of the territorial waters of countries with restrictive access to abortion, and even delivering abortion medication via drone and robot.
The talk concludes with a survey of two ongoing issues in Canada – crisis pregnancy centres and maternity homes – and explores strategies for tackling these entities that prey on people in vulnerable situations.
Dr. Teale Phelps Bondaroff is a researcher and community organizer with a PhD in politics and international studies from the University of Cambridge, and BAs in political science and international relations from the University of Calgary.
Teale is the Research Coordinator for the BC Humanist Association, the Director of Research for OceansAsia, a marine conservation organization based out of Hong Kong, the Chair and Co-founder of the AccessBC Campaign for free prescription contraception, and a volunteer member of the board of the Greater Victoria Placemaking Network. His academic research examines the strategic use of international law by non-state actors.
You can learn more about Dr. Phelps Bondaroff at his website: www.teale.ca.