Panel on COVID-19 and Reproductive Justice

Tuesday, October 6, 6-7 p.m.

RSVP and submit questions for our panelists here. 

Join us via Google Meet: http://meet.google.com/tkz-ukjp-rqs

The COVID-19 pandemic has converged with long-standing reproductive health and justice inequities. Conservative lawmakers have sought to capitalize on the pandemic by defining abortion as "non-essential" healthcare; people seeking sexual and reproductive healthcare face new logistic and economic barriers; and now, more than ever, women bear the brunt of unpaid caregiving, struggling to balance—or choose between—homeschooling their children and paid work. These new and compounded inequities, like so many of the pandemic's effects, are disproportionately borne by poor people and people of color. Yet there have also been some unexpected silver linings, such as expanded availability of telehealth and medication abortion. 

The panel will feature the following legal advocates, medical providers, and grassroots volunteers tackling these issues and more: 

Arpita Appannagari is the Policy and Partnerships Manager at the National Institute for Reproductive Health. At NIRH, Arpita supports state and local advocates to create and pass proactive policies around reproductive rights and justice. Her background and work experience are primarily in community organizing, policy advocacy, and movement building.

Dr. Marji Gold is a family medicine physician at Montefiore Medical Center and a professor in the Department of Family and Social Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is a leader in reproductive health services, specifically the integration of reproductive health care and abortion care in family medicine and primary care training.

Anna Popinchalk is a board member for the New York Abortion Access Fund (NYAAF), where she serves as one of the Intake Co-Managers. NYAAF supports anyone who is unable to pay fully for an abortion and is living in or traveling to New York State by providing financial assistance and connections to other resources. In her role she supports the NYAAF Intake Program and their volunteer case managers. 

Rachel Reeves is a staff attorney with the Reproductive Freedom Project at the American Civil Liberties Union. She is currently litigating numerous cases, including challenges to the FDA’s restrictions on the distribution of mifepristone (the medication abortion pill), medically unnecessary state restrictions targeting abortion clinics, and de facto bans on abortion.