Category Archives: Human Reproduction

A serpentine man and woman with child, sculpted by Qaunaq Mikkigak of Cape Dorset, Nunavut. Photo: Ansgar Walk

Indigenous peoples have inhabited the Arctic since time immemorial, establishing rich regional cultures and governance systems long before the introduction of modern borders. The Arctic Institutes 2022 Colonialism Series explores the colonial histories of Arctic nations and the still-evolving relationships between settler governments and Arctic Indigenous peoples in a time of renewed Arctic exploration and development.

The intention of this research is to draw connections between historical and contemporary colonialism in so-called canada (canada), and the lack of reproductive justice for Arctic Indigenous communities. This research will demonstrate the ways in which colonialism has historically revoked reproductive justice from Indigenous communities, and in which the contemporary Arctic geopolitical circumstances further emphasize difficulties in accessing reproductive care. Further, this research will seek to identify a lack of Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice within a larger legacy of colonial genocide, by imposing measures intended to prevent the births of Indigenous children, and by forcibly displacing Indigenous children from their communities.

Though the scope of this work is focused on colonial genocide and reproductive justice in Arctic Indigenous communities, it is important to note the ways in which colonial genocide perpetrated through the revocation of reproductive justice impacted Indigenous communities across canada. Violence perpetrated through the separation of children, forced sterilizations, a lack of comprehensive and culturally-informed sexual education, and a lack of basic human needs to food, water, and shelter are not unique to Arctic Indigenous communities. As such, while this research will focus specifically on Arctic Indigenous communities, colonial genocide has impacted reproductive justice in Indigenous communities across canada. Further research should be devoted to the diversity of these impacts on different Indigenous communities.

It is also important to note that this work will specifically address forcible sterilization processes, predominantly tubal ligation; it does not cover canadas history of performing forced vasectomies on Indigenous people. This is due to the disproportionate percentage of tubal litigations forcefully performed on Indigenous people.1)Lombard AR (2018) Without Prejudice: Examination of Canadas State Report, 65th Session. Maurice Law, 15 October, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CAT_CSS_CAN_32800_E.pdf. Accessed on 2 October 2022 Further research would be useful to identify how gender uniquely informed medical procedures forced onto Indigenous communities.

This paper spells canada in lower case to resist the legitimization of the colonial state and as a deliberate act of resistance. Finally, gender neutral language is used throughout this paper, to acknowledge the diversity of identities and Indigenous conceptualizations of the gender spectrum.

This work will begin by acknowledging the limitations of this research followed by a note on language used throughout. The paper focuses on reproductive justice in Arctic Indigenous communities followed by a section that expands the impact of colonialism on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice. The final section expands on themes of colonialism, reproductive justice and genocide and outlines recommendations for future policy and research.

It is crucial that as researchers we situate our voices within the literature, and identify the limitations that may impact this work. As two settler and one First Nations researchers, we acknowledge the need to amplify Arctic Indigenous voices, and the ways in which our own research lacks this lived experience. This piece is intended to aid in stimulating conversation surrounding Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, as an underrepresented topic in western academia. All conversations should center the voices of Arctic Indigenous communities.

Additionally, it is important to acknowledge the constraints imposed by western secondary research methods, which often underestimate the value of qualitative research and oral storytelling. This removal of emotion and depersonalization of research has had a negative impact on the way Indigenous communities have come to be represented in western academia.

This paper uses the Reproductive Justice Framework to guide an understanding of colonial impacts on Indigenous peoples autonomy over their health, bodies, and decisions.

In 1994, the Black Womens Caucus of the Illinois Pro-Choice Alliance determined the need to adopt a human rights framework for low-income communities and people of colour that addressed issues of bodily autonomy within reproductive decision-making.2)In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda. Reproductive Justice. https://blackrj.org/our-issues/reproductive-justice/. Accessed on 25 March 2022 As such, the Reproductive Justice Framework defines the human right to control ones sexuality, gender, work, and reproduction.3)In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda. Reproductive Justice. https://blackrj.org/our-issues/reproductive-justice/. Accessed on 25 March 2022 The reproductive justice framework moves beyond simply considering abortion rights, and addresses the social, economic, and political systems that impact an individuals capacity to make healthy decisions about their bodies, families, and communities.4)In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda. Reproductive Justice. https://blackrj.org/our-issues/reproductive-justice/. Accessed on 25 March 2022 The three main tenets of the Reproductive Justice Framework state: a) the right to have children; b) the right not to have children; and c) the right to nurture children in a safe and healthy environment.5)In Our Own Voice: National Black Womens Reproductive Justice Agenda. Reproductive Justice. https://blackrj.org/our-issues/reproductive-justice/. Accessed on 25 March 2022

This research will argue canadas actions impede on all three tenets of the Reproductive Justice Framework.

The Canadian Medical Protection Association specifies that in order for a medical patient to consent to a procedure, they must be properly informed, they must have the capacity to consent, and that consent must be voluntary.6)CMPA (2006) Consent: A guide for Canadian physicians (4th ed.) Canadian Medical Protective Association Any procedure performed when a patient is under the threat of coercion, or unaware of the full consequence of the procedure, is by nature, nonconsensual. As such, the use of the word forced is intentional throughout this paper.

In order to understand the ways in which colonialism revoked Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, it is important to first establish the ways in which Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice is unique, making it a threat to colonial domination.

In pre-contact societies, Arctic Indigenous peoples held full autonomy of their bodies and sexual abilities. Artic pre-contact societies allowed for full fluidity of relationships; essentially referring to an individuals relationships outside of the western idea of what romantic and sexual relationships look like (i.e. monogamy). Pre-contact societies were often described by their freedom of autonomy.7)Chansonneuve D (2005) Reclaiming connections: Understanding residential school trauma among aboriginal people: A resource manual. Aboriginal Healing Foundation. This was true for adults in regards to their relationships and sexual freedoms; however, it also applied more broadly to relationships that community members created in their own lives and among other members of the community. This explained fluidity in relationships extends to communal relationships. Arctic Indigenous children were very freely accepted into other homes and many children came into the care of other community members, separate from their parents without judgment. These so-called adoptive parents acted as a community support to one another, ensuring that the children were taken care of and held safe. This role of customary adoption in Inuit communities was a clear representation of the interconnectedness of Inuit societies.8)PIWC (2006) The Inuit way: A guide to Inuit culture. Ottawa: Pauktuutit Inuit Women of Canada

These themes of sexual autonomy and community fluidity are exemplary of the strong foundations embedded in Inuit reproductive culture. As such, it is natural that these aspects of Arctic Indigenous culture became the base cause of violent assimilation tactics, used by colonizers to control Arctic Indigenous peoples.

This section will demonstrate the ways in which historical and contemporary colonial policies and practices have negatively impacted Arctic Indigenous communities rights to reproductive justice by infringing on their right to parent, right not to parent, and right to parent in a healthy and sustainable environment.

The government of canada has a vested interest in the removal of Indigenous peoples from their land and communities. Reproductive justice became a primary way of enacting this removal, and infringement on ones right to parent was enacted both by stealing Arctic Indigenous children from their families through the residential schooling and child welfare systems and by forcibly sterilizing Indigenous people.9)Chansonneuve D (2005) Reclaiming connections: Understanding residential school trauma among aboriginal people: A resource manual. Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

The government of canada began legislating residential schools in 1885 in order to legally remove Indigenous children from parental and community care.10)Chansonneuve D (2005) Reclaiming connections: Understanding residential school trauma among aboriginal people: A resource manual. Aboriginal Healing Foundation. The violent removal of Indigenous children from their families also meant the revocation of Indigenous peoples ability to parent. By 1964, 75% of Inuit school-age children were in attendance at residential schools.11)Chansonneuve D (2005) Reclaiming connections: Understanding residential school trauma among aboriginal people: A resource manual. Aboriginal Healing Foundation. These schools demonstrate the violent intentions of severing opportunities for Arctic Indigenous parenthood, as part of a grander colonial project.

The government continues to revoke Arctic Indigenous peoples right to parent through the child welfare system. Intergenerational trauma from colonial legacies such as residential schools has led to Indigenous communities experiencing high levels of poverty, alcohol abuse, and housing instability12)Healey GK (2017) What if our health care systems embodied the values of our communities? A reflection from Nunavut. The Arctic Institute, 20 June, https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/health-care-systems-values-communities-nunavut/. Accessed on 2 October 2022 all which are considered to be reasons for removal of children by the state.13)Badry D & Wight Felske A (2020) An examination of three key factors: Alcohol, trauma and child welfare: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and the Northwest Territories of Canada. First Peoples Child & Family Review 8(1): 130142. The states self-appointed power to remove children from their homes and communities allows for the continuous irrevocable traumatization of Arctic Indigenous children, families, and communities.

The other vile and invasive colonial revocation of Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice came in the form of forced sterilizations. The practice of forced sterilization in a canadian context dates back to the early 1900s and has been reported as an ongoing practice as recently as 2012.14)Lombard AR (2018) Without Prejudice: Examination of Canadas State Report, 65th Session. Maurice Law, 15 October, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CAT_CSS_CAN_32800_E.pdf. Accessed on 2 October 2022; Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150 Inuit sterilizations were carried out without patients consent both in the North and in provincial institutions throughout the 1900s.15)Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150 A submission of data by the Medical Services Branch in 1976 brought about by a parliamentary inquiry found that Indigenous patients were disproportionately targeted by forced sterilization.16)Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150 The inquiry found that between the years of 1966-1976, 70 sterilizations were performed on Arctic Indigenous community members.17)Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150 The collection of Medical Services files omitted from the parliamentary inquiry, however, show that between the years of 1970-1973, 180 Indigenous people were sterilized across 33 Arctic Indigenous settlements.18)Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150 It is important to note that the six Arctic Indigenous settlements selected for the parliamentary inquiry were the communities with the least number of sterilizations.19)Stote K (2012) The coercive sterilization of Aboriginal women in Canada. American Indian Culture and Research Journal 36(3): 117150

In some instances, medical professionals sought consent for tubal ligation using coercion, the leveraging of stressful situations, or misinformation.20)Lombard AR (2018) Without Prejudice: Examination of Canadas State Report, 65th Session. Maurice Law, 15 October, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CAT_CSS_CAN_32800_E.pdf. Accessed on 2 October 2022 In other instances, doctors simply forewent seeking consent and performed these procedures without the patients knowledge.21)Lombard AR (2018) Without Prejudice: Examination of Canadas State Report, 65th Session. Maurice Law, 15 October, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CAT_CSS_CAN_32800_E.pdf. Accessed on 2 October 2022 Morningstar Mercredi describes her traumatic experience of forced sterilization in her book Sacred Bundles Unborn.22)Mercredi M (2021) Sacred bundles unborn. Friesenpress It took place when she was alone and underage. In all cases, the violent and irreversible revocation of an Indigenous persons right to parent through the severance of reproductive organs is an ongoing practice of colonial genocide.

In sum, the right to parent poses obvious threats to any colonial project, as it ensures the opportunity for sustained Indigenous presence in canada. As such, canada used residential schools, child welfare practices, and forced sterilization in order to revoke this right, causing lasting negative impacts within Arctic Indigenous communities.

The second tenet of the Reproductive Justice Framework enshrines ones right not to parent. When considering the right to make a choice about having children, it is integral that one is fully equipped with knowledge and education surrounding their sexual health. The canadian state is responsible for a lack of comprehensive sexual health awareness and education in Arctic Indigenous communities, preventing youth from making informed decisions about reproduction.

A study conducted in 2015 by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) confirmed this, finding that sexual health education was inconsistent across the country as well as within provinces and territories.23)Hulme J, Dunn S, Guilbert E, Soon J & Norman W (2015) Barriers and facilitators to family planning access in Canada. Healthcare Policy | Politiques De Sant 10(3): 4863 The majority of family planning education in Arctic Indigenous communities remains culturally irrelevant, focused solely on the prevention of births and, in some cases, includes abstinence teachings24)Government of Yukon (2020) Find information about sex education programs. 5 November, https://yukon.ca/en/health-and-wellness/health-concerns-diseases-and-conditions/find-information-about-sex-education. Accessed on 25 March 2022; Hulme J, Dunn S, Guilbert E, Soon J & Norman W (2015) Barriers and facilitators to family planning access in Canada. Healthcare Policy | Politiques De Sant 10(3): 4863; Lys C & Reading C (2012) Coming of age: How young women in the Northwest Territories understand the barriers and facilitators to positive, empowered, and Safer Sexual Health. International Journal of Circumpolar Health 71(1).

Furthermore, the NCBI study found that Arctic Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to physician bias and outdated practices.25)Hulme J, Dunn S, Guilbert E, Soon J & Norman W (2015) Barriers and facilitators to family planning access in Canada. Healthcare Policy | Politiques De Sant 10(3): 4863 In a 2013 study which explored five personal stories of sexual health education and services in Yukon, participants shared that the lack of anonymity and access to health services such as STI testing led them to avoid these services altogether.26)Rudachyk L (2013) Womens stories of Access: Sexual Health Education and services in Yukon. Ottawa: Carleton University In addition, participants shared that when seeking an abortion, they hitchhiked for hours to other communities in order to access anonymous and judgement-free health care.27)Rudachyk L (2013) Womens stories of Access: Sexual Health Education and services in Yukon. Ottawa: Carleton University Access to abortion care is particularly limited in Arctic Indigenous communities, where 64% of the population lives 100km or more from the nearest physician.28)Lys C & Reading C (2012) Coming of age: How young women in the Northwest Territories understand the barriers and facilitators to positive, empowered, and Safer Sexual Health. International Journal of Circumpolar Health 71(1). This is further exacerbated by the fact that amongst Yellowknife, Nunavut and Yukon, there are only four total providers for safe access to abortion.29)Action Canada SHR (2019) Access at a Glance: Abortion Services in Canada. Action Canada for Sexual Health & Rights, https://www.actioncanadashr.org/resources/factsheets-guidelines/2019-09-19-access-glance-abortion-services-canada. Accessed on 2 October 2022

Combined, this data is vital in understanding the scale and scope of what constitutes a clear and comprehensive understanding of sexual health, and the ways in which that understanding has been historically and contemporarily denied to Arctic Indigenous youth. By failing to provide this, the canadian government actively infringes on the reproductive justice rights of Arctic Indigenous communities.

The right to parent healthily and sustainably is dependent on access to basic human needs such as water, food, and shelter. Yet, colonial policies such as relocations, settlement programs, and residential schooling have curtailed Arctic Indigenous mobility and subsequent access to adequate housing and food security since the 1900s.30)INFSS (2021) Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. Ottawa: Inuit Nunangat Food Security Strategy When discussing the right to parent healthily and sustainably, it is important to note that inadequate Arctic housing infrastructure and food insecurity are two social determinants of health that have been heavily impacted by canadian colonial policies.

Access to adequate housing is necessary in ensuring the health and safety of ones child. The chronic housing shortage faced by Arctic Indigenous communities exacerbated by the lack of social support31)Tranter E (2020) Nunavut MLAs concerned about territorys high birth rate, taboo around accessing reproductive health services. Nunatsiaq News, 25 February, https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/nunavut-mlas-concerned-about-territorys-high-birth-rate-taboo-around-accessing-reproductive-health-services/ directly impacts the health of Arctic Indigenous communities, as living situations are often overcrowded, affecting indoor air quality and sanitation.32)Knotsch C & Kinnon D (2011) If Not Now When? Addressing the Ongoing Inuit Housing Crisis in Canada. Ottawa: National Aboriginal Health Organization As of 2016, in Inuit Nunangat, 51.7% of Inuit lived in crowded conditions, and 31% lived in houses requiring major repairs. Housing infrastructure is also a severe hindrance to socio-economic development, which relies on community infrastructure that can provide a good quality of life for community members.33)Mihychuk M (2019) A Path to Growth: Investing in the North. Ottawa: House of Commons Canada

Food insecurity is another social determinant of health that impedes on the right of Arctic Indigenous parents to raise their children in a healthy and sustainable environment. The severity of food insecurity among Arctic Indigenous communities is one of the longest-lasting public health crises in canada, and is attributable to intersecting driving factors, including but not limited to: poverty; climate change; inadequate infrastructure; high cost of living; and systemic racism.34)INFSS (2021) Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami. Ottawa: Inuit Nunangat Food Security Strategy In fact, food security statistics from the years 2011-2012 states that Nunavut had a food insecurity rate over four times that of the national average, and that the highest rates of food insecurity are found across the three Arctic territories.35)Roshanafshar S & Hawkins E (2015) Food insecurity in Canada. Ottawa: Statistics Canada

Beyond physical health, it is important to acknowledge the cultural and spiritual health impacts that canadian colonialism has had on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice. Territorial policies related to childbirth and delivery systemically hastened cultural erosion, as most community members were required to be removed to a distant hospital or birthing clinic.36)Thibeault R (2002) Fostering Healing through Occupation: The Case of the Canadian Inuit. Journal of Occupational Science 9(3): 153158 This prevented the ability to perform birthing celebrations and rituals which are important to Arctic Indigenous cultural and spiritual health.

As such, the holistic perspective offered by the Reproductive Justice Framework is particularly useful in understanding that social and cultural determinants of health are integral to Arctic Indigenous reproductive rights. Arctic Indigenous communities deserved and continue to deserve to thrive through parenthood, both physically and culturally. However, it is these thriving communities that are considered antithetical to the success of the canadian colonial project.

So far, this paper has aimed to demonstrate the historical and contemporary impacts of the canadian colonial project on Arctic Indigenous communities access to reproductive justice. This colonial project was purposeful and could be interpreted as an intent to destroy in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group37)UN (1948) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. United Nations, p.280 Revoking Indigenous reproductive justice was just one tool that the canadian state used to commit genocide against Indigenous people, by violating Article 2d and 2e of the United Nations Genocide Convention.

The UNGC defines genocide in five categorized acts: a) killing members of the group; b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; and e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.38)UN (1948) Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. United Nations, p280, Art. 2

The canadian states infringement on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice could be considered genocide based on Article 2d and 2e of the UNGC. Specifically, Article 2d on the prevention of births is relevant to canadas history of forced sterilization of Arctic Indigenous women. In fact, the current lawsuit led by Alisa Lombard seeks justice for Indigenous victims of forced sterilization in Saskatchewan, with cases as recent as 2018.39)Lombard AR (2018) Without Prejudice: Examination of Canadas State Report, 65th Session. Maurice Law, 15 October, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/CAN/INT_CAT_CSS_CAN_32800_E.pdf. Accessed on 2 October 2022; The Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights (2021) Forced and coerced sterilization of persons in Canada. Ottawa: Senate Canada Similarly, canadas responsibility for residential schools and its modern counterpart, the child welfare system could be considered a violation of Article 2e, which highlights forcible transfer of children.

The states 1966 decision to incorporate only UNGC Articles 2a and 2b into the canadian Criminal Code is further evidence of the intentionality behind canadas avoided accountability for their history of genocide.40)MacDonald DB (2019) Understanding Genocide: Raphael Lemkin, the UN Genocide Convention, and International Law in The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press

This research discusses the impacts of canadian colonialism on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, and its potential constitution as genocide under the UNGC Article 2d and e. This research is intended to be a contribution to the discussion on Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice, which should evolve as more research is conducted in new and innovative ways. As such, our recommendations are geared to researchers and academics who are interested in engaging with the topic of Arctic Indigenous reproductive justice:

Maya Crawford (she/her) is an Algonquin and settler woman from the Snimikobi Community in the Ottawa Valley. Currently an undergraduate student at the University of Ottawa, Maya is in her 4th year majoring in Conflict Studies and Human Rights with a minor in Indigenous Studies. As an Indigenous academic, Mayas research has focused on oral storytelling as knowledge, the reality and interconnectivity of Indigenous and Migrant lived experiences on Turtle Island, and providing Indigenous youth with a platform to educate. Jayde Lavoie (she/her) is a queer settler, artist, and academic situated on Tiohti:ke (Montreal), the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Kanienkeh:ka Nation. A University of Ottawa graduate of Conflict Studies and Human Rights with a minor in Indigenous Studies, Jaydes research interests have predominantly focused on Canadas colonial history, climate justice, and Arctic policy. Reanne Bremner (she/her) is a graduate of Political Science with a focus on woman and gender studies and Indigenous feminisms from the University of Ottawa. As a queer settler currently situated on Tiohti:ke (Montreal), the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Kanienkeh:ka Nation, Reannes work centers around human rights education, community-based programming, and youth empowerment with an emphasis on an intersectional and human rights based approach.

Link:
Colonialism and Reproductive Justice in Arctic Canada: The Neglected Historical and Contemporary Analysis of Genocidal Policies on Arctic Indigeneous...

Carnivore keepers at the Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) in Front Royal, Virginia, welcomed a litter of two cheetah cubs. First-time mother, 4-year-old female Amani, birthed the cubs Oct. 3 around 9:17 p.m. and 11:05 p.m. ET. This is also the first litter sired by 7-year-old father Asante. As the first offspring of both parents, the cubs are genetically valuable. They appear to be strong, active, vocalizing and nursing well. Animal care staff are closely monitoring Amani and her cubs behaviors via the Cheetah Cub Cam on the Zoos website. Virtual visitors can also observe Amani and her cubs on this temporary platform until the cubs leave the dens.

Keepers will leave Amani to bond with and care for her cubs without interference, so it may be some time before they can determine the cubs sexes. They will perform a health check on the cubs when Amani is comfortable leaving them for an extended period.

Seeing Amani successfully care for this litterher firstwith confidence is very rewarding, said Adrienne Crosier, cheetah biologist at NZCBI and head of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums Cheetah Species Survival Plan (SSP). Being able to watch our cheetah family grow, play and explore their surroundings is incredibly special. We hope this experience brings Cheetah Cub Cam viewers joy and helps them feel a deeper connection to this vulnerable species.

NZCBI is part of the Cheetah Breeding Center Coalitiona group of 10 cheetah breeding centers across the United States that aim to create and maintain a sustainable North American cheetah population under human care. These cubs are a significant addition to the Cheetah SSP, as each individual contributes to this program.

The SSP scientists determine which animals to breed by considering their genetic makeup, health and temperament, among other factors. Amani and Asante were paired and bred naturally July 2 and 3. Keepers trained Amani to voluntarily participate in ultrasounds, and veterinarians confirmed her pregnancy Aug 8. Since 2007, 17 litters of cheetah cubs have been born at NZCBIs Front Royal campus.

Significant scientific studies by NZCBI researchers have demonstrated that maintaining breeding males in group coalitions (as they would live in the wilds of Africa) promotes reproductive performance, specifically improving sperm quality. Other ongoing research focuses on gamete (sperm and egg) biology, health and disease, the influence of age on reproduction, as well as understanding the hormonal complexities of the species. Such data is used by conservationists to modify reproductive strategies for this vulnerable felid, including ensuring that prime-breeding-age cheetahs are maintained in spacious breeding centers, such as at NZCBI, to promote optimal reproduction and cub production.

Cheetahs live in small, isolated populations mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Many of their strongholds are in eastern and southern African parks. Due to human conflict and poaching, habitat and prey-base loss, there are only an estimated 7,000 to 7,500 cheetahs left in the wild. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers cheetahs vulnerable to extinction.

The Smithsonians National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) leads the Smithsonians global effort to save species, better understand ecosystems and train future generations of conservationists. Its two campuses are home to more than 2,000 animals, including some of the worlds most critically endangered species. Always free of charge, the Zoos 163-acre park in the heart of Washington, D.C., features 1,800 animals representing 360 species and is a popular destination for children and families. At the Conservation Biology Institutes 3,200-acre campus in Virginia, breeding and veterinary research on 200 animals representing 20 species provide critical data for the management of animals in human care and valuable insights for conservation of wild populations. NZCBIs 305 staff and scientists work in Washington, D.C., Virginia and with partners at field sites across the United States and in more than 30 countries to save wildlife, collaborate with communities and conserve native habitats. NZCBI is a long-standing accredited member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums.

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Read the original:
Cheetah Cubs Are Born at Front Royal Campus, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute - Smithsonian Institution

Jack London 1: The Call of the WildThe Wolf in Dogs Clothing [1]Jack London, The Call of the Wild, original edition of 1903

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheeps clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves, warns Jesus (Matthew 7:15). According to Jesus, wolf is a metaphor for false prophet. According to American novelist Jack London, wolf is a metaphor for the fallen human race. In one of the most widely read novels of all time, The Call of the Wild, along with sequels White Fang and The Sea Wolf, London undresses the wolf hiding in human clothing.

Just a quick reminder of the plot. Buck, a pet dog from Santa Clara Valley in California, was dognapped and taken to Alaska to pull sleds. In the Klondike, away from civilization, Buck began to revert to an earlier stage of evolution. The dominant primordial beast was strong in Buck, writes London. After a fight with another dog, Spitz, Buck emerges triumphant over Spitz just as the wolf becomes triumphant over the dog. Buck stood and looked on, the successful champion, the dominant primordial beast who had made his kill and found it good (London, Call of the Wild).

What is true for the wolf within Buck is as true for the wolf within the human. The dog slaver gained dominance over Buck by hitting him with a club.

After a particularly fierce blow he [Buck] crawled to his feet, too dazed to rush. He staggered limply about, the blood flowing from nose and mouth and ears, his beautiful coat sprayed and flecked with bloody slaver. The man advanced and deliberately dealt him a frightful blow on the nose. All the pain he had endured was as nothing compared with the exquisite agony of this (London, Call of the Wild).

What Jack London himself witnessed in the Klondike that became background for his wolf books was human nature in the raw. When gold prospectors from California and the rest of the world converged on Alaska in the 1890s, they left their modern humanity behind. The civil became uncivil. The humane became inhuman. Law and order were discarded and replaced by the Law of Club and Fang. The primordial wolf, once suppressed, emerged again in both dog and human with ferocity and bloodshed. At any moment, London implied, what we know as orderly civilization could suddenly revert to an earlier stage of evolution where nature is blood red in tooth and claw (Tennyson, In Memoriam).

Might there be a dovetail between Jack Londons evolutionary anthropology and the public theologians understanding of original sin? Was the masterful teller of dog stories actually a literary philosopher exploring human nature? Was London even conscious that he was synthesizing science with religion?

Here are our existential questions: are we Homo sapiens more civilized than a wolf pack? If not, can we hope for redemption descending from heaven in the form a UFO coming to Earth to advance our civilization beyond the wolf stage of evolution? Will extraterrestrial aliens provide the grace we need to transcend our inherited wolf traits?

What!? UFOs!? How do these things fit together?

In this Patheos Public Theology series analyzing a portion of the corpus of prodigious California novelist and short story author, Jack London, we will apply the analytic tools developed in the field of Theology and Literature. Specifically, we will follow the path blazed by one of my favorite University of Chicago professors, Nathan A. Scott (1925-2006).

We have only one topical question: will we Homo sapiens evolve into civilized creatures that outgrow our wolflike tendencies toward violence? We will ask this one question multiple times as we review Jack Londons different writings. Heres whats coming.

Jack London 1: The Call of the Wild

Jack London 2: White Fang

Jack London 3: The Sea Wolf

Jack London 4: Lone Wolf Ethics

Jack London 5: Wolf Pack Ethics

Jack London 6: Wolf & Lamb Ethics

Jack London 7: The Red One

Oh, yes, multiple movies have been made ofThe Call of the Wildover the decades. Most recently in 2020 (Hulu online), The Call of the Wildfilm starred Harrison Ford. Ford played a man named John Thornton, not Buck. In the 1935 film, it was Clark Gable (full movie online). And, in the 1997 version, it was Rutger Hauer as John Thornton and Richard Dreyfuss as narrator. You can watch a 2009 childrens variant with Christopher Lloyd here.

The field of Theology and Literature has fallen on rough times. More frequently today, universities offer courses on Theology and Film.

I was privileged to study under Nathan A. Scott at the University of Chicago. Dr. Scott was a pioneer in the field of Theology and Literature (Scott 1994). He borrowed from Paul Tillich the notion that religion is the depth of culture and culture the form of religion, a notion amplified by Reinhold Niebuhr and Langdon Gilkey (Tillich 1951-1963, 3: 158). Scott applied this notionthe depth of cultureeffectively to his literary criticism. Not only did this provide a new set of insights regarding literature, it also enriched theology.

Christian theology, as a result of its dialogue with great literature of the modern period, will find itself more richly repaid (in terms of deepened awareness of both of itself and of the age) than any other similar transaction it may undertake.(Scott 1994) [2]

What I so appreciated as a student was the way Scott could make transparent the religious depth hidden beneath secular surfaces. Scott asked Tillichs question: what is ultimate? Scott did not ask any questions about science. But I certainly do.

May we expand Theology & Literature into Theology, Science & Literature? A Scott student now a professor at Baylor University, Ralph C. Wood, gives us permission. Both scientific and religious knowledge flourish when they engage present concerns by way of antecedent experience, and thus as they formulate judgments and principles via constant modification and enlargement. (Wood 2012, 31). London the fictional author provides the low hanging fruit of antecedent experience which the public theologian will find easy picking.

As you will soon see, I plan to ask questions about science. When we turn to Americas most widely read author of the first quarter of the twentieth century, Jack London, Charles Darwins theory of evolution explodes like fire works on the 4th of July. Without attending to the science, the reader could not grasp Londons anthropology. It is in the evolutionary anthropology where we find religious depth.

In 1915, the father of depth psychology, Sigmund Freud drew a conclusion Jack London had arrived at two decades earlier. The primitive, savage and evil impulses of mankind have not vanished in any individual, but are simply waiting for the opportunity to show themselves again.

Now to our topical question: does a ravenous wolf lurk within each of us? Only some of us? Must we remain ever alert to the danger that our repressed evolutionary past will surge forth in viciousness, chaos, destruction? Is our civilized order threatened at every moment with dissolving into a cauldron of primeval violence?

Jack London thought so while in Alaska during the Klondike God Rush, 1896-1899. Today, we ask with London: do both dogs and humans bear the genes of a common ancestor, the wolf? If so, must our future be determined by our evolutionary past?

There is more. Much more. The prescient Jack London a century ago asked a very contemporary question: did interstellar travelers intervene in Earths evolution in order to accelerate human development? Are we Homo sapiens a hybrid progeny of terrestrial apes and extraterrestrial geneticists? If so, why does the ravaging world still growl within the terrestrial soul?

Or, to put it another way, should we spend more time in front of our TVs watching Ancient Aliens?

On the one hand, according to London, todays Homo sapiens could without notice suddenly revert to our ravenous wolf past. On the other hand, according to London, Jesus points us to an egalitarian, humane, and socialist future. London had considered writing a short story about Jesus. Then, he thought better of it and abandoned the idea(Williams, Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London 1902-1907. 2021, 37).

Lets say this again. On the one hand, Charles Darwins law of natural selection or Herbert Spencers survival of the fittest incarcerates Homo sapiens in a primeval past from which we can never on our own escape.

On the other hand, the science of Marxist socialismwhich enamored London the labor organizerpromises human transformation. It promises temporal transcendence. It promises an egalitarian, prosperous, and humane future. Redemption will come through revolution.

London was an supporter of the Bolshevik momentum leading to the revolution of 1917 in Russia. He endorsed Marxist socialism. The Call of the Wildbecame required reading for school children for many years in both the Soviet Union and Maoist China. Jack Londons name is engraved on a wall in the Kremlin. Just how, we ask, can we reconcile Londons atavism via evolution with his anticipation of a post-revolutionary utopia?

So, which is it? Are we imprisoned in our past or liberated for our future? That is the human struggle that points us to religious depth. At least as deep as London can dig.

Here, in this small bite, is the fare garnished and served up in thirty-nine books and countless short stories by Californias notorious author, Jack London (1876-1916). Just a little more than a century ago, this adventurer and novelist literally penned three fictional accounts of what I dub, The Wolves of Jack London.[3] The troika includes The Call of the Wild (1903), White Fang (1904), and The Sea-Wolf (1906). Whether in dogs or in their human masters, the convulsive combination of love for life and vicious cruelty surges up from the primordial Wild still lurking within us.

For London there are connections among evolutionary theory, criminality, and primitivism, observes Jay Williams. The impulse to commit crime is something that comes out of the mysterious unknown, or the unconscious(Williams, Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London 1902-1907. 2021, 270). Theologians will think about original sin or even inherited sin here. Theologians will also think about the relationship between natural evil and moral evil.[4] But this is not Londons vocabulary.

Reversion is perennially a threat. At any moment we humans or our dogs may revert to an atavistic heritage that has been apparently lost for a hundred generations. Primeval ferocity is ever ready to pounce. In the 1901 short story, A Relic of the Pliocene, a prehistoric mammoth appears and engages a Klondike hunter in a life-and-death struggle. At any moment, the dead past can live again. Still we ask: can we look forward to a future where that threat will be no more?

White Fang would comprehend a most striking line that appears in David Brooks new book, The Second Mountain. Speaking of her daughter, a young mother says to Brooks, I found I loved her more than evolution required(Brooks 2019, 42). Can the love we share as civilized beings rocket us up and off from our evolutionary launch pad? Or, is the gravity of our ancestral instinct for survival so strong that well inevitably crash back to earth strewn with tooth gnawed bones?

Nature is blood red in tooth and claw, averred Alfred Lord Tennyson in the dinosaur canto of his In Memoriam in the middle of the nineteenth century. According to Michael Lundblad, the law of the jungle later in the nineteenth and early in the twentieth century meant the behavior of wild animals can be equated with natural human instincts not only for competition and reproduction but also for violence and exploitation(Lundblad 2013, 1). Is todays civilization condemned to remain in the past, governed solely by natural selection or the survival-of-the-fittest?

To repeat the theme: the dog becomes a wolf in The Call of the Wild. Buck, a dog from San Francisco goes to Alaska during the gold rush of the 1890s. Instincts hitherto repressed by domestication rush into Bucks consciousness, instincts borne through millions of evolutionary years. He must master or be mastered; while to show mercy was a weakness. Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed. Like Platos Meno, Buck the dog was learning what he already knew from a previous incarnation as a wolf.

After his reversion to the wolf, Buck was chasing a rabbit.

All that stirring of old instincts, which at stated periods drives men out from the sounding cities to forest and plain to kill things by chemically propelled leaden pellets, the blood lust, the joy to killall this was Bucks, only it was infinitely more intimate. He was ranging at the head of the pack, running the wild thing down, the living meat, to kill with his own teeth and wash his muzzle to the eyes in warm blood. (London, The Call of the Wild 1903)

Note that it is not only Buck the dog who washes his muzzle in warm blood. So does the human race.[5]

Philosophically, Jack London was a naturalist. Any naturalistic perspective in our post-Darwinian era must recognize that nature is blood red in tooth and claw, that survival-of-the-fittest determines the winners in the struggle for existence, that killer animals are our ancestors, and that their propensity for violence lives on in Homo sapiens.

Can we ground our ethics in nature understood this way? If nature alone is to provide a foundation for human ethical deliberation, must we construct our ethical superstructure on this evolutionary inheritance? The result would be wolf ethics. In short, a Darwinian naturalist would have no inclination to be nice. How might a public theologian assess this?

Whats next in our Patheos Public Theology series on Jack London? White Fang.Whereas Buck inThe Call of the Wildis a dog who goes to Alaska and becomes a wolf, White Fang is a wolf in Alaska who moves to California and becomes a dog. Look for the next post in this Patheos series on the wolves of Jack London.

Ted Peters is a Lutheran pastor and emeritus seminary professor, teaching theology and ethics. He specializes in the creative mutual interaction between science and theology. He co-edits the journal, Theology and Science. His one volume systematic theology is now in its 3rd edition, GodThe Worlds Future (Fortress 2015). His book, God in Cosmic History, traces the rise of the Axial religions 2500 years ago. He has undertaken a thorough examination of the sin-and-grace dialectic in two works, Sin: Radical Evil in Soul and Society (Eerdmans 1994) and Sin Boldly! (Fortress 2015). Watch for his forthcoming, The Voice of Christian Public Theology (ATF 2022). See his website: TedsTimelyTake.com and Patheos column on Public Theology, https://www.patheos.com/blogs/publictheology/.Ted Peters fictional series of espionage thrillers features Leona Foxx, a hybrid woman who is both a spy and a parish pastor.

I. Incontestably, animals and humans inhabit the same world, the same objective world even if they do not have the same experience of the objectivity of the object 2. Incontestably, animals and humans do not inhabit the same world, for the human world will never be purely and simply identical to the world of animals 3. In spite of this identity and this difference, neither animals of different species, nor humans of different cultures, nor any animal or human individual inhabit the same world as another the difference between one world and another will remain always unbridgeable, because the community of the world is always constructed, simulated by a set of stabilizing apparatuses nowhere and never given in nature. (Derrida, 2009, 8-9)

When applying Derridas view of worldview, Hannah Strmmen tries to reestablish human-animal continuity minus human sovereignty over the animals.

If part of animal studies is attempting to think the animal outside a logic of human sovereignty, and to attempt to rethink humananimal relationships outside, or other to, such a discourse of power, then a different kind of discourse is needed that can do precisely that (Strmmen, 2017, 408).

The power that humans exert over their dogs and other animals in Jack Londons stories stresses both human cruelty and human kindness. Both exemplify sovereignty. Yet, both are intended to convey the wolflike traits still operative at the human level.

Basket, Sam. 1996. Sea Change in The Sea Wolf. In Rereading Jack London, by eds Leonard Cassato and Jeanne Campbell Reesman, 92-109. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.

Berkove, Lawrence. 2004. Jack London and Evolution: From Spencer to Huxley. American Literary Realism 36:3 243-255.

Berkove, Lawrence. 1996. The Myth of Hope in Jack Londons The Red One. In Rereading Jack London, by eds Leonard Cassuto and Jeanne Campbell Reesman, 204-216. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.

Brandt, Kenneth. 2018. Jack London: An Adventurous Mind. In Jack London, by Kenneth K. Brandt. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (Northcote).

Brooks, David. 2019. The Second Mountain. New York: Random House.

Derrida, Jacques. 2009. The Beast and the Sovereign. Vol. I, trans. Geoffrey Bennington. Chicago, IL and London: University of Chicago Press.

Deudney, Daniel. 2020. Dark Skies: Space Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Ellis, James. 1978. A New Reading of The Sea Wolf. In Jack London: Essays in Criticism, by ed Ray Wilson Ownbey, 92-99. Santa Barbara CA: Peregrine Smith.

Faulstick, Dustin. 2015. The Preacher Thought as I Think. Studies in American Naturalism 10:1 1-21.

Kean, Sam. 5/6/2011. Red in Tooth and Claw Among the Literati. Science 332 654-656.

Labor, Earle. 1996. Afterword. In Rereading Jack London, by eds Leonard Cassuto and Jeanne Campbell Reesman, 217-223. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press.

Leder, Steve. 2019. The Beasts Within Us. Time Special Edition on The Science of Good and Evil 84-87.

London, Jack. 1903. The Call of the Wild.

. 1916. The Red One.

. 1906. The Sea Wolf.

. 1904. White Fang.

Lundblad, Michael. 2013. The Birth of a Jungle: Animality in Progressive Era US Literature and Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moritz, Joshua. 2008. Evolutionary Evil and Dawkins Black Box. In The Evolution of Evil, by Martinez J Hewlett, Ted Peters, and Robert John Russell, eds Gaymon Bennett, 143-188. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

Niebuhr, Reinhold. 1941. The Nature and Destiny of Man, 2 Volumes. New York: Scribners.

Oliveri, Vinnie. 2001. Sex, Gender, and Death in The Sea Wolf. Pacific Coast Philology 38 99-115.

Reesman, Jeanne Campbell. 2012. The American Novel: Realism and Naturalism. In A Companion to the American Novel, by ed Alfred Bendixen, 42-59. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Scott, Nathan. 1994. A Ramble on a Road Taken. Christianity and Literature 43 (2): 205-212.

Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S., et.al. 2020. Arctic-adapted dogs emerged at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Science 368:6498 1495-1499.

Stasz, Clarice. 1996. Social Darwinism, Gender, and Humor in Adventure. In Rereading Jack London, by eds Leonard Cassuto and Jeanne Campbell Reesman, 130-140. Stanford CA: Standord University Press.

Strmmen, Hannah. 2017. Literature and Theology 31:4: 405-419.

Tillich, Paul. 1951-1963. Systematic Theology. 1st. 3 Volumes: Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Wilkinson, David. 2013. Science, Religion, and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Williams, Jay. 2014. Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London 1893-1902. Lincoln NB: University of Nebraska Press.

. 2021. Author Under Sail: The Imagination of Jack London 1902-1907. Lincoln NB: University of Nebraska Press.

Wood, Ralph. 2010. Flannery OConner, Benedict XVI, and the Divine Eros. Christianity and Literature 60:1 35-64.

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Jack London 1: The Call of the Wild - Patheos

A September Campus meeting organised by the SIG Fertility Preservation reviewed approaches to fertility preservation in benign conditions such as endometriosis, POI and haematological diseases.

Indeed, the need for doctors to manage expectations in patients having procedures to retain fertility and recognise when the odds are against them was underlined by several presenters at this Campus meeting on fertility preservation for benign indications. Age, ovarian reserve, gender, disease severity, prior surgery/hormone therapy and treatment method were among the many factors cited which can dictate the chance of success.

An extensive range of benign conditions were considered during the meeting, including endometriosis, Klinefelter syndrome, premature ovarian insufficiency and haematological diseases such as sickle cell; data were also presented on FP approaches and outcomes for transgender men and women.

In his presentation on endometriosis, Professor Grynberg, from Antoine Beclere University hospital in Paris, attempted to answer when, how and if to offer FP. However, many unresolved questions remain, such as the timing and impact of controlled ovarian stimulation and egg retrieval on this disease which can present in many different ways - asymptomatic, as pain and as infertility (or in any combination).

However, Grynberg said there is almost no debate around FP for bilateral endometrioma, voluminous unilateral endometrioma, and expected repeated surgeries with intervention taking place ideally before age 35 in order to preserve gametes before a decrease in ovarian reserve.

What about LBRs from frozen eggs? Data on this are limited, said Grynberg, and vary according to several factors such as age and a history (or not) of surgery. A recent observational study described oocyte vitrification as a valid treatment for women with endometriosis, but found that ovarian response and LBR were higher in young (35 years) non-surgical patients than in those who had had surgey.(2)

In conclusion, he said the possibility of FP should always be kept in mind by all physicians dealing with endometriosis but some indications are debateable and evidence for success rates is as yet lacking.

Semen banking is advised for adult male patients who need aggressive gonadotoxic treatment for diseases such as sickle cell. Testicular tissue banking might be an alternative for teenage boys. Ellen Goossens from Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium presented data from her clinic which has, since 2002, banked samples from over 100 patients of whom over half (57%) have non-malignant disorders.

Evidence on the efficacy of fertility restoration has progressed from births in mice to a macaque monkey, and Goossens now has ethical approval for human trials which will feature cryopreserved testicular tissue grafted to the testes and scrotum.

Should clinics offer PGT to patients with hereditary conditions who need FP? That was the question asked by Anne-Marie Gerdes, a former chairperson of the Danish Council on Ethics, who said demand has been increasing for PGT-M and new techniques are being developed.

In Denmark, the criteria for genetic analysis must be known and recognise a significantly increased risk that the child will develop a serious genetic disease or chromosomal aberration. However, there are grey areas in the law which raise ethical concerns. Gerdes said offering PGT can create a slippery slope from serious diseases to normal traits but not offering patients the procedure may encourage fertility tourism.

Freezing the gametes or tissue of someone about to undergo gender re-assignment surgery is another area of FP in benign conditions that brings challenges for clinicians, especially as the literature is limited. Kenny Rodriguez-Wallberg outlined the situation in Sweden where transgender men and women no longer have to be sterilised before they can legally change their gender following a law change in 2013.

Her clinic has redesigned their information brochure to make it acceptable to trans men leaflets now feature a body with ovaries but without feminine curves and adapted how staff interact with patients. A study of 15 patients found that gender incongruence and dysphoria were triggered by genital examinations and physical changes associated with discontinuation of testosterone or hormonal stimulation.(3)

Fertility outcomes for patients who have undergone gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) are comparable to those whose gender identity corresponds to their sex assigned at birth. For trans women, Rodriguez-Wallberg said sperm banking should be offered prior to GAHT. A study of 212 patients found that previous hormone therapy was associated with significantly lower sperm counts and even patients with no prior GAHT history had a high proportion of sperm abnormalities.(4)

There is also a psychological impact for trans men and women. Many still believe fertility is the price to pay for gender transitioning and may face an uncertain future regarding parenthood, despite having FP options.

1. Grynberg M, Sermondade N. Fertility preservation: should we reconsider the terminology? Hum Reprod 2019; 34: 18551857. doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dez1602. Cobo A, Giles J, Paolelli S, et al. Oocyte vitrification for fertility preservation in women with endometriosis: an observational study. Fertil Steril 2020; 113: 836-844. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.fertnstert.2019.11.0173. Armuand G, Dhejne C, Olofsson JI, Rodriguez-Wallberg KA. Transgender men's experiences of fertility preservation: a qualitative study. Hum Reprod 2017; 32: 383390. doi.org/10.1093/humrep/dew3234. Hljestig J, Arver S, Johansson A, Lundberg FE. Sperm quality in transgender women before or after gender affirming hormone therapyA prospective cohort study; Andrology 2021; 9: 1773-1780. doi.org/10.1111/andr.12999

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No guarantee of success for preserving fertility ahead of treatment for benign conditions - ESHRE

US soldiers lined up at Albrecht Drer Airport. (Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / Getty Images)

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In significant parts of this country, the Supreme Courts June 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade returned Americans to a half-century-old situation in which hundreds of thousands of women, faced with unwanted pregnancies, were once forced to resort to costly, potentially deadly underground abortions. My spouses employer, the Pentagon, recently announced that its own abortion policy, which allows military insurance to cover the procedure when a pregnancy results from rape or incest, or poses a threat to the mothers life, still holds.

Sadly enough, this seems an all-too-hollow reassurance, given the reality that pregnant women in the military are, in many places, likely to face an uphill battle finding providers trained andheres the key, of coursewilling to perform the procedure. The Supreme Court abortion ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health leaves it up to the states to determine whether to allow abortions. In doing so, it ensures that the access of military populations to that procedure will be so much more complicated, especially for spouses who need to seek off-base care, including ones like me who have chosen the military insurance option TRICARE Select that allows us to access almost exclusively civilian providers. Americas 2.6 million military dependents now live in a country where an ever-changing patchwork of state laws can make seeking an abortion costly, risky, and stressful in the extreme.

Any military spouse with young children in tow whos had to relocate somewhere in this nations vast network of military bases can tell you that just caring for another person is challenging in itself. Upon learning youre pregnant, you practically need a PhD to locate a competent obstetrician who also accepts military insurance.

And even when you do, dont discount the problems to come. After an ultrasound, my first provider in the militarys TRICARE Select healthcare program told me that my child was missing a foot. (In fact, he was just positioned with his back to the camera.) My second provider almost injured that same child by attempting to apply force during labor when his head was stuck against my hip bone.

And once youve actually had the child, youre likely to find yourself bickering for hours with uninformed military insurance providers simply to get coverage for a breast pump so you can feed your baby and go to work. Your military-approved pediatrician mayor may not!know anything about local TRICARE Select specialists who can help you address common family problems like deployment-related anxiety in kids. And child care? This countrys child care facilities are already stuffed to the gills and thats even more true of military child care centers. Typically enough, I fear, I was on wait lists for them for years without the faintest success.

Now, add the devastating Dobbs decision to that military reproductive healthcare landscape. Imagine that you want and need an abortion and rely on TRICARE Select, especially if you and your family are stationed in one of the 13 states that have near or total bans on the procedure. If youre lucky enough to have the funds and social connections, you may be able to call in your babysitter to watch your older children and let your employer know that youve got to travel out of state for a medical procedureas if they wouldnt know what kind! Then youll spend what disposable income you have, if anypoverty and food insecurity being rampant in todays militaryto head out of state alone in hopes of getting access to an abortion. Current Issue

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You may want your partner to come with you. If hes not deployed and assuming he supports your choice to seek an abortion, the two of you will face a barrier peculiar to military life: Any service member who needs medical leave must request it through a commanding officer. To be sure, the Army and Air Force have issued directives to commanders not requiring soldiers to state why theyre requesting it. Still, its hard to imagine how a pro-life commanding officer wouldnt see right through such a sudden request and deny it. This is one of the many reasons you may find yourself alone on your journey.

And oh, the places youll go! The nearest abortion clinic likely wont be off base over on Main Street. The states with the most restrictive laws governing abortion also have among the highest concentrations of military bases. So military dependents and soldiers whose insurance or health conditions require them to go off base will likely have to travel across state lines (possibly many state lines) to get the services they need and, of course, do so on their own dime. And by the way, the anti-abortion states are also among those with the largest number of per capita troop hometowns, meaning that military personnel from them are unlikely to get access to care if they go home to be with family during a time when they undoubtedly need extra support.

In other words, in the military world, Dobbs is a recipe for disaster.

For those unfamiliar with the militarys insurance system, let me make a key distinction. Military family members like myself get to choose between two main types of health insurance. The first, called TRICARE Prime, lets you access care in Department of Defense healthcare facilities military bases or posts. This is how active-duty troops typically get care as well. A case manager refers you to various primary and specialty-care providers as needed. With TRICARE Prime, youd be using federal facilities, so you might, at least theoretically, have an easier time getting access to an abortion when, under a narrow set of conditions, the federal government is willing to cover such a procedure.

In my experience as a therapist listening to military spouses over the years, to seek healthcare at military facilities almost invariably involves conflicts of interest. Doctors there tend to treat you as though your concerns about your health or that of your children are remarkably insignificant compared to the needs of the troops. They tend to speak to spouses like me as if we were the only ones responsible for the health of our families, in the process essentially dumping such issues (and the services that go with them) onto the unpaid shoulders of us and us alone.

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To offer an example, a mother I knew in Washington State was increasingly worried about her toddlers rapidly declining weight, only to have that phenomenon dismissed by physicians at a military hospital as the result of poor parenting. In the end, her suspicion that her child was gravely ill turned out to be all-too-sadly correct. Another military wife I interviewed went to couples therapy on a military base to discuss how an upcoming move might impact their marriage. The counselor they saw, she told me, emphasized her spouses service to the country, suggesting that she prioritize his career over hers and complete the move.

Perhaps because of such conflicts of interest and the greater choice offered by civilian-based health plans, most military dependents (72 percent in 2020) choose the second military-authorized insurance program, TRICARE Select. There, you manage your own care by finding civilian doctors willing to accept the Select plan or you simply pay out of pocket for civilian providers, hoping for some reimbursement sooner or later. With this option, if you were faced with an unwanted pregnancy, you would be subject to any abortion restrictions in your surrounding area.

Keep in mind that specialty care like obstetric services is not likely to be easy to find when youre looking for military providers in your community. A recent Pentagon evaluation of access to healthcare found that 49 percent of the people with TRICARE Select could not find a specialist in their community who accepted TRICARE patients, nor could 34 percent travel the necessary distance to reach an appropriate specialist. Meanwhile, 46 percent couldnt access a specialist in a timely manner due to long wait lists. Worse yet, overall access to specialist care within 24 to 48 hours for TRICARE Select beneficiaries decreased significantly between 2016 and 2019 and continued to do so through the first half of 2021.

Lack of access is not an accident. Despite the monstrous size of the Pentagon budget in these years, the Department of Defense actually decreased its health expenditures for all medical programs relative to its overall spending between 2017 and 2020.

In such an environment, its hardly surprising that state abortion bans containing exceptions in cases when pregnancy threatens the parents life will not easily result in access to the procedure. For example, Tennessee, home to five military bases and with a per capita troop concentration about 10 percent greater than the national average, provides exceptions to its ban when a parents life is at risk. Heres the catch: doctors need to be prepared to show evidence that the procedure is necessary to prevent the impairment of a parents major bodily functions were the pregnancy to continueenough evidence that a team of prosecutors with its own expert medical witnesses could not convincingly argue otherwise in court. If not, a doctor could face felony charges and up to 15 years in prison.

Under such circumstances, if you were a doctor considering whether to terminate a life-threatening pregnancy for a patient, would you choose the patient or protect your ability to stay with your own family, avoiding the risk of prison? Im not sure what I would do in such a situation.

Theres reason to believe that even military dependents not seeking abortions could end up struggling to get the pregnancy care they need because of the restrictions doctors will face when it comes to treating complicated pregnancies. For example, the drugs used to induce abortion by medication, misoprostol and mifepristone, are also the most effective ones for treating patients experiencing miscarriages. At the Cleveland Clinic Emergency Department, under Ohios new heartbeat ban, which makes it a felony to end a pregnancy after a fetal heartbeat has been detected, women could soon enough have to wait 24 hours before receiving treatment for miscarriages, since anything earlier might qualify as an illegal abortion. Thankfully, for the time being two judges have placed a pause on the ban.

Another troubling fallout from new state abortion bans is the way providers and their patients are now being left to handle exceptions when a pregnancy results from rape. Many abortion bans contain sexual assault reporting requirements that make it all but impossible for doctors to avoid serious liability. For example, Utahs new abortion law permits the procedure in cases of rape, but for a doctor to perform it without risking criminal charges, he or she would need to report the rape to law enforcement. Similarly, in Wyoming (a state with just one abortion clinic that has two providers), the new exception in cases of rape does not specify how a client should prove that rape occurred, again leaving it up to doctors to decide how to treat patients and protect their own lives from devastating consequences.

The assaulting of civilian women by soldiers is not a widely studied subject, but accounts by activists and journalists suggest that it is a significant problem. Whats more, about 80 percent of rapes committed by soldiers are never officially reported because victims fear retaliation either from their rapist or others in their communities, including their own or their spouses commands. If the rapist happens to be their spouse, reporting the rape in order to obtain an abortion could mean that the family loses its sole source of income, since a convicted rapist would assumedly be discharged from duty. In addition, its widely known that people who report sexual assaults often face uninformed responses from law enforcement officers who doubt their stories or blame them for being attacked, only increasing the trauma of the situation.

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The pro-life activists and policies behind those cowardly laws belie the fact that much of what far-right Americans and their elected representatives support undermines human life. Look at the violence and poverty some of the same leaders who advocate abortion bans allow in a country whose politicians generally choose to sanction war and investments in weapons development over better social services. Look at the way a significant minority of the citizenry support elected officials who encourage violence against other Americans of differing political beliefs. Look at the way some of us would support the separating of parents and children at the end of life-saving journeys away from drug wars and poverty in their home countries.

Given such political headwinds, its worth remembering that a pregnant person is not a passive receptacle but a worker, whether for nine months or the rest of her life. If anyone should have the power to choose death, she should, because there is always a damn good, heart-wrenching reason for doing so.

I dont know how many people realize this, but if Roe had not become the law of the land in 1973 to protect abortion rights, a different case might have taken its place. In the early 1970s, the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, then a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, took up the case of an Air Force nurse in Vietnam named Susan Struck who was told (as was the militarys policy at that time) that she would be discharged if she were to carry her pregnancy to term.

Captain Struck was a devout Catholic who wanted to keep her job and have that baby. Ginsburg argued that all government attempts to regulate reproduction constituted sex discrimination, whether it involved restricting pregnancies or abortions. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in 1972, but before that could happen, the military changed its policy, rendering the case moot. Had Ginsburg won that case before the Supreme Court, our legal system might have prioritized parents, not the state, as the ultimate decision-makersheroes no longer navigating a landscape of red tape and indignities.

Last June, right after Roe was overturned, I contacted a fellow military spouse visibly pregnant with her first child. She told me how complicated her feelings were about showing up in Washington, D.C., to advocate for abortion rights just after the draft decision to overturn Roe was leaked this past May. Would people misunderstand her presence at that demonstration? About a year ago, shed sought emergency care for a miscarriage, which she might not have been able to get had abortion rights already been taken away. Perhaps, in the absence of adequate care, she might have suffered complications that prevented her from becoming pregnant this time around. She did, however, attend that demonstration, convinced that advocacy was as important to self-care as any other act in this country.

Hers is a true pro-life position. Its the position of someone who has for years moved from one military base to another. Loving both yourself and your baby is a struggle, not a campaign slogan. As a parent myself, I think that parenting is a journey many more pregnant people would happily embrace if the conditions in this country were significantly more humane. Right now, if you truly care about the lives of us all, its up to you (and me) to join women like my friend in her post-Roe advocacy.

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The Pentagon's Abortion Policy Is an Empty Gesture - The Nation

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