Palin And Alaska Native Women « The Washington Independent
Jul 31, 20203.4K Shares1.7M Views
Blogging off my beat for a minute, I wanted to add a few points to the Gov. Sarah Palin discussion. We’re hearing a lot aboutPalin as the “glass-ceiling-shattering” nominee, meant to soak up votes of women who supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton — and just as much about how she’s unlikely to succeed in doing so.
Reports are saying that Palin’s stands on issues of abortion and sex education may be attractingevangelical voters and perhaps scaring offClinton supporters. What we haven’t heard much about, though, is how her positions on women’s health have played out in Palin’s home state.
Alaska’s population is15.4 percent Alaska Native or Native American — the largest percentage of any U.S. state. That’s relevant to a discussion on women’s issues for a few big reasons. The rate of rape and sexual assault among Indian women is3.5 times higher than among women of any other racial group in America. In addition, sexual assault victims in Indian country frequently lack access to basic health resources, including rape kits and screening for sexually transmitted diseases.
This is especially true in Alaska and other rural areas. In some parts of Alaska, rape victims have to travel for days just to reach an Indian Health Service clinic, according to human-rights reports by Amnesty International. And many Indian Health Service clinics have no trained staff members who can provide physical and mental health resources for victims. (You can read about one Alaskan woman’s story — and the stories of other Indian women — in a pieceI wrote last year.)
Palin opposes abortion, even incases of rape and incest. Roughly 25 percent of rapes result in unwanted pregnancies.
Alaska Native women already face discrimination when it comes to their right to choose. Thanks to the Hyde amendment, the Indian Health Service can’t use federal money to pay for abortions, except in cases of rape, incest against a minor or when the mother’s life is at risk.
In an interviewlast year, Charon Asetoyer, the director of the Native American Women’s Health Education Resources Center, had this to say about the Hyde amendment: “We’re the only race in the country that is denied access to abortion merely because of our race.”
Palin’ support of such legislation — and her stands on reproductive health in general — shows she might well be out of step with a large percentage of the women of her own state. We’ll have to wait and see how women across the country respond to her.
Camilo Wood
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