Why did I ride my bike across the country?
From 2002-2007, I worked to promote reproductive justice and engage people in advocacy to increase access to reproductive health care, and educate people about sexuality. In that time I learned a lot about the state of reproductive health care and sex-positivity in California.
Thanks to the efforts of some truly heroic women and men, California has some of the most progressive laws in the nation guaranteeing access to reproductive health care. The state does not take federal funding for abstinence-only sex education and even has a law mandating that sex education has to be comprehensive. Low-income women can get emergency funding for abortion care, regardless of immigrant status. In the Bay Area, where I worked, I was surrounded by fierce and inspiring activists who work to destigmatize sexuality and create a culture where sexuality is celebrated as a normal, healthy part of being human.
Which is all wonderful and fabulous, but I started wondering about the rest of the country. I knew that in most states it’s almost absurdly difficult to access many kinds of reproductive health care, but I didn’t know what that actually meant. What do the people who work in the clinics experience? Are there supportive networks that sustain their passion and enthusiasm? How has the rise of abstinence-only education affected reproductive health care providers? What is it like to be a sex educator in Kansas? Or Wyoming?
I wanted to know the answers to these questions, and like so many before me, I wanted to ask them myself.
